[cliffben]

Discussion thread for Yellow-nosed Albatross. If you would like to add a comment, click the Post Reply button.

[cliffben]

Hi guys, stumbling about and not really competent in in this interweb thingy.

I made my first posting on the 14th of September in an attempt to let people know about the fact that there have been two sightings of an Albatross Sp. in the Irish Sea between the 4th and 12th of September, from The "Stena Europe" car ferry on the Fishguard to Rosslare route. The first sighting was mine, the second was by Gillian Grey and Len Murrow, both competent naturalists, and both with experience of seeing Albatrosses whilst working deep sea off south africa and other locations.

I did the trip again yesterday and although there were literally thousands of birds out there, conditions were difficult with a choppy sea and head on glare. None the less I did manage to talk to Gillian about her sighting. Gillian was officer on watch at the time, Len helmsman. Apparently she saw the bird dead ahead and like myself mistook it for an immature Gannet at first. It then began to try and take off but could not, which then concentrated Gillians attention as it had mine on the previous occasion. as with me she was shocked to see the bird was an albatross. The difference in the two sightings was that the bird was much closer in Gillians encounter; I told her it was possibly the yellow nose but she said there was no yellow on its beak ...She described it as having a big dark hooked beak. Apparently it gave up trying to take off in the virtually windless conditions and the ship passed it by at a distance of about twenty yards and both Gillian and Len got excellent views.

Having had a couple of hours to do a bit more research it seems that there were Albatross sightings in Norway and it would seem there is a possibility that several birds made it across the doldrums. It may be our bird is the Somerset Bird or not. In fact I could not say for sure the bird we both saw was in fact the same bird, but I reckon there's a fair chance given the fact where we saw ours was no more than a hundred miles (as the gooney bird flies) from where it was released. Whatever, I hope this helps, keep looking! allthingsgood,cliffBen

[NSH]

Why does it have to be a Yellow-nose? Have you completely ruled out Black-browed?

Neil

[Andrew Clarke]

Great find Cliff! Let's hope someone else in the Irish Sea connects in the near future and nails the identification.

Good Birding

Andrew

[cliffben]

Hmmm, thanks Andrew, no Neil l I have clearly stated it was an Albatross Sp. though it clearly was not an adult Black Browed. The four Sooty Shearwaters, (strangely no Great's), fifty odd Skuas of four species, twenty odd Balearics, dozen or so Sabines (Ad&JV), single 2nd winter Little Gull and thousands of Manx, scores of terns etc we had yesterday were all very nice though! allthingsgood, cliffben

[Yves]

Just discovered this posting.
I was crossing the Irish Sea earlier, on the 3th of August, on the Jonathan Swift from Holyhead to Dublin. The sea was very rough and the conditions were bad (I had to watch for my kids who went completely ill), but 2 times I discovered a bird flying nearby a Gannet. That bird was huge comparing with the Gannet. I immediately thought on an Albatross-spp. but the situation made it impossible to make more of it. Only days later, talking with Eric Dempsey, he told me there were some observations of Yellow-nosed in the North-Atlantic.
I will never be able to put a species-name on this bird, but maybe it is worth posting it here.

[cliffben]

Hi Yves, yes thanks for this, sounds good -larger than a Gannet. It shows the value of such a forum. Looks like it (they?) may well have made its way down the Irish Sea and got becalmed for a few days. Still nofurther sightings from Ferry or Strumble sadly , still, we live in hope, allthingsgood,cliff