Where are all the seawatchers? (1 Viewer)

burhinus · Aug 12, 2002

There must be alot of seabirds passing our coastline now. Is'nt anyone doing any seawatching.

Please post your sightings.

Where is your favourite site?

Where do you watch from? A car, back against a rock, a senior citizens shelter on the promenade or the luxury of a hide?

burhinus

paj · Aug 12, 2002

Now there's something I keep promising myself to do more of, especially as I am surrounded by water here on the Wirral.

burhinus · Aug 12, 2002

Re Seawatching

Remember to take plenty of tissue with you. It is difficult to be optimistic with a mistyoptic!

burhinus

HH75 · Aug 16, 2002

Well,I'm doing a fair bit of seawatching from the Old Head at the moment.On Wed 14th final totals were 345 Great Shearwaters,1 Cory's,21 large shearwaters,86 Sooties,2 Balearics,77 Bonxies,3 Arctics,1 Common Scoter,29 Stormies and about 30 Puffins(others added 6 more Greats later in the evening)Also 19 Greats and another Balearic the previous evening(and a few Sooties)
Prospects look good for the weekend,so I'll be there early tomorrow.Wish me luck,hoping beyond hope for a "Soft-plumaged"!;-)

paj · Aug 16, 2002

Harry Hussey

What a list! Have you died and gone to Heaven!!
Sounds like your having a great time, keep us informed.

Regards

pajarero

HH75 · Aug 16, 2002

Hi Pajarero,
No,it's just that conditions have been favourable lately.To put this into context,today I was at the Old Head between 9 and 11 or so,and only had 1 Bonxie and a scattering of Manx.Winds were very light,and the sun was shining!Rain and southerly gales tomorrow.....
Besides,seeing as how you get lots of stuff in the UK that we don't(both in terms of breeding birds like Nuthatch,LS pecker etc. and rarities(many of the regular Fair Isle birds have yet to be recorded or have been recorded once or twice;we still haven't had a Booted Warbler here either!)),so we need SOMETHING to show off about over here!;-)
(prob.lots more Yank passerines over here too,but not found due to low observer numbers)

paj · Aug 16, 2002

How true, each of us has something of what the other would like.
A local speciality on Wirral after high north west winds is Leach's.
They get blown into Liverpool bay close to shore.
Tern passage is going well, with Common, Little & Sandwich although Sandwich is tailing off now.
Let us know how you get on tomorrow.

Paj

HH75 · Aug 16, 2002

Leach's is very rare on the south coast here,more of a west coast bird(the only one that I have yet seen was from the Bridges of Ross,Co.Clare)
Know they are regular in Merseyside.
Will send a summary of the weekend's seawatching on Monday or Tuesday.

HH75 · Aug 21, 2002

Seawatching was actually quite poor over the weekend

n Saturday the winds may have been too strong?20 Greats,20+ Sooties,15 Bonxies in the morning(9-11:30),with only 2 Bonxies there in the evening,but a close Basking Shark was nice.
Sunday was rubbish for seawatching,so I didn't realy do any,except for a 1/2 hour off of Galley Head:1 Stormie!!
Hope to do more soon:now in the peak period for "Soft-plumaged"!;-))

Motmot · Aug 23, 2002

Migration

Hello everyone. Here in Costa Rica I also love watching seabirds (not many here) and specially shorebirds. My British buddy Robert and I try every month to visit a place called Chomes on the pacific coast of C. Rica, an amazing spot to watch waders, terns, herons, ibis, spoonbills etc.
We have found there lots of good stuff including a few rarities here in CR, like Long-billed Curlew, Dunlin, Surfbirds in July in breeding plumage, Wilson's Phalarope, Elegant Terns,and a few more, all of them very difficult to find here in southern Central America.
Saludos

paj · Aug 23, 2002

Motmot

Hola, que tal?
What you lack in seabirds over there in Costa Rica you certainly make up for in other areas.
Here are some figures I found:
850 bird species, 3000 species of butterflies, 200 mammal species and 350 species of reptiles and amphibians.
Some list!!
Enough to make any nature lover green with envy!

Is it true that 5% of the world's wildlife is in Costa Rica?

paj

Motmot · Aug 24, 2002

Hi pajarero
Yes it is true. This tiny country is full of life. Around 2.000 species of trees compared with around 80 in Europe, it is said there are more butterfly species here than in all the african continent (amazing), and if we talk about moths... they don't know how many there are here, more than 10.000 species.
Birding here is GREAT. We have an impresive list with more different birds than the whole USA and Canada together! I have lived here for three years now and seen during that time almost 700 species!, only around my home in Monteverde I 've found more than 320 species, 174 of them in my garden. As you can imagine, many of the birds here are very difficult to find and watch (and identify!), it requires lots of time and effort to find every bird from 600 on, but it is worth the effort.
Saludos

paj · Aug 24, 2002

Most of us in the UK could only dream of a garden list 174 species long!
You could run birding holidays in your garden alone!!!

paj

Motmot · Aug 29, 2002

Waders,Terns,Gulls

Today Aug 28th I went to Chomes to birdwatch. This place is a group of shrimp ponds,old salinas, coastal lagoons and extensive mudflats in the pacific coast of Costa Rica. Here is the list of the Waders, Terns and Gulls that I saw
Least Tern 50
Caspian Tern 4
Common Tern 9
Royal Tern +100
Elegant Tern 17
Sandwich Tern 50
Gull-billed tern 6
Laughing Gull 20
Franklin's Gull 1
Black Skimmer 30
Grey Plover + 200
Short-billed Dowitcher +1000
Long-billed Dowitcher 2
Willet +300
Marbled Godwit 20
American Oystercatcher 3
Black-necked Stilt 50
Whimbrel +100
Wilson's Plover 20
Collared Plover 3
Semipalmated Plover +500
Ruddy Turnstone 40
Surfbird 4
Wilson's Phalarope 1
Greater Yellowlegs 8
Lesser Yellowlegs 10
Spotted Sandpiper 10
Sanderling 20
Western Sandpiper ++1000
Semipalmated Sanpiper +100
Least Sandpiper 40
Red Knot 4

As you can read, Costa Rica is good for Waders and Terns and very poor for Gulls.
Saludos

paj · Aug 31, 2002

Looks like you had a good day Motmot.
Virtually the whole list would be sought after species over here in Britain!

paj

MikePearson · Dec 20, 2002

I have never done any serious sea watching but when I finally get moved up to N.Norfolk I would like to do some, any tips welcome

Camberley red · Dec 20, 2002

Sherringham is the place, up on the left as you look out to sea, the shelters are where the die hards hang out, can be very good, spring and late summer probably best I think.

Paul

MikePearson · Dec 27, 2002

Thanks Paul, Sheringham will be added to my list of must tries come the season.

cjay · Dec 27, 2002

On the East Coast today whilst sea watching I noticed a lot of Cormorants moving South. Whilst watching we had a Little Gull go south & a few Common Scoters too. The Southerly wind was not conducive to sea watching but we enjoyed it nonetheless.

burhinus · Dec 27, 2002

Hi JacobC
Where were you on the East Coast? What part of East Anglia do you come from? I live in Norfolk in the northern breckland region.

burhinus

Where are all the seawatchers? (1 Viewer)

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