Seawatching 2010 (1 Viewer)

[Helsinki Birder]

Interesting. I wouldn't have figured that at all, especially considering the number and quality of birds I saw there in a NW. I would guess so that any form of westerly wind could produce some birds there.

Certainly a place I would like to put a bit more time into...but feck it tis a long way from anywhere!

Owen

 

[Colin]

I've kicked off the new seawatching locations sub forum with some information about Strumble Head where I do most of my watching from. Maybe Owen would like to add his extremely detailed account to this sub forum and add his panache!!

 

[Andy Bright]

I've kicked off the new seawatching locations sub forum with some information about Strumble Head where I do most of my watching from. Maybe Owen would like to add his extremely detailed account to this sub forum and add his panache!!

Top stuff, Colin and Owen :t: Thanks... and I'm sure many others will thank you, albeit silently, for the info over the years to come.
cheers,
Andy

 

[DEREK CHARLES]

Some decent seawatching in NI on Sunday and Monday

Sunday
2 Arctic Skua Whitehead Co.Antrim
1000 Manx Shearwater passing Portmuck Co.Antrim in 2 hours
100 Manx Shearwater Newcastle Co.Down

Monday
600 Manx Shearwater Newcastle Co.Down

Remember to keep an eye out for colour marked Manx Shearwaters

derek
http://nibirds.blogspot.com/

 

[bitterntwisted]

All I can vouch in addition to Owen’s comments re the seawatching at Annagh Head is that a perfectly still day is not the best, but that even in perfect calm in late August last year I saw plenty of sooty shearwaters, manxies, bonxies, arctic skuas, black guillemots etc., as well as good wader passage. On the second day of light easterlies I went and watched the Snowy Owl instead, which was fair consolation for the lack of Fea’s and Wilson’s Petrels.

I hope Owen’s comments on the tightness of accommodation for Annagh excuse me a little plug for my close friends’ new holiday home at Sraigh, which is convenient for both the Mullet peninsula (5 miles from Belmullet) and for Kilcummin Head (39 miles) depending on the winds as discussed. It’s a stunning house with amazing views in a beautiful part of the world.... http://holidayinerris.com/ (Sign up as a friend on Facebook for possible discounts etc... http://www.facebook.com/pages/Belmullet-Ireland/Island-View-House/117076571661522) And it’s still free from Saturday on the August Bank Holiday weekend.

I’m planning to head over in very late August or early September, so if anyone else wants to get together and make a group to fill the house please PM me ASAP. If we’ve got five or more I can sort us out an all-inclusive package with all local transport, all meals, my (amateur) guiding etc. for about £350 per head, plus about £100 for return train/ferry/flights. Basically you’d only need to worry about getting to your nearest UK station with your scope, bins and waterproofs.

Graham

PS – As posted previously, take an old cushion taped in a thick carrier bag to Annagh Head – those rocks are painful for an all-dayer.

 

[Helsinki Birder]

Nice one Graham.
Seems like a good option for a place to stay!

Owen

 

[Sudds]

Annagh Head

Hi folks

Having seawatched for the past 8 autumns off Annagh the 'ideal' winds i.e. those that produce the largest numbers/variety of seabirds, I've found to be WSW and anything from force 5. During these conditions the passage of birds can come within close range (approx 500 m) as they travel in a 'southerly' direction and can be on view for some time e.g. in recent autumns watched a wilson's for 15 mins, bb albatross for 4 mins and 'fea's type' for 3 mins. Also in these conditions the observer can get out of the wind and seawatch in relative comfort - although a 'padded seat' is recommended for anything over 15 minutes! During NW winds I find Annagh to be very exposed and the passage of birds further out therefore I cop out and go for the 'comfort' of Kilcummin!

Incidently anybody over this way for seawatching and find the conditions too calm for land-based seawatches I can arrange pelagics to the 200m shelf edge (approx 2 hours off the Mullet) for a day - cost 100 euro per head (includes food) - but need 6 ideally 10 people for it to be a runner

Sudds

 

[Helsinki Birder]

Thanks For that Dave.

Would you consider writing an profile for Annagh for the Seawatch review sub forum?

Regards

Owen

 

[Helsinki Birder]

Bridges of Ross Today

11 Sooty Shearwaters
1 Balearic Shearwater
2 bonxie
10+ Storm Petrel
100+ puffin
6 Sandwich tern
2 common tern
1 Sunfish
1 common swift (weirdest seawatch species of the day...no...it was not a swinhoes

Owen

 

[Helsinki Birder]

A poor enough weekend at the Bridges.

Saturday

12 Sooty Shearwaters
4 Balearic Shearwaters
2 blue Fulmar
3 Bonxies
10 Storm petrels

Sunday (morning)

1 Sooty Shear
1 Bonxie
4 Storm petrel.

The weather on Friday and Saturday was good....there just were no birds to be had.

Owen

 

[DEREK CHARLES]

2000 Manx Shearwaters off Killough Co.Down yesterday evening, must have been quite a sight!!

derek
http://nibirds.blogspot.com/

 

[Captain_of_Crunch]

AS part of the Seatrack Project, did 4hrs from Coliemore Harbour in south County Dublin. The highlights were:
-1 Balearic Shearwater (south at 06:45)
-1 Arctic Skua (dark phase, north)
-1 Storm Petrel
-1 Little Egret
-c10 Common Scoters

 

[dantheman]

Was signed up for the pelagic out of St Ives on friday 6th, but it was cancelled due to a forecast of heavy swell. Did Porthgwarra instead - ominous in the fog/low cloud, but turned out to be a pretty good day by the end ...

Instead of the forecast SW force 5 we had more of a light westerly breeze after a night of stronger south westerlies, and moving between the cove (able to see below the main bank of the cloud, but with only a narrow field of view, so difficult to get on all birds seen) and the headland (in the afternoon once the cloud had lifted early afternoon) our group were able to record the following highlights;

229 Balearic Shearwaters
73 Sooty Shearwaters
130 European Storm Petrel (presumed - most too distant to exclude Wilson's!)
29 Great Skua
13 Common Tern
2 Puffin
1 Sabine's Gull
1 Yelkouan Shearwater (type), plus an additional possible.

Sooty, Balearic and Manx in the same field of view at once was nice. The seawatch sw team had an additional possible Yelkouan, and another group reported a single Great Shearwater.

A couple of hours this morning (Sat 7th 9.00 - 11.45) off Lizard Point produced a smattering of Sooty's, Balearics and Petrel sps., an additional Yelkouan type, 3 Bonxies, 4 Common Scoter and a Common Tern.

 

[Twite]

Wow Dan, thats a great count of Balearics. Is this normal or is it related to the 4000+ gathering off nw France recently? Hopefully we'll get a few extra birds as a result of this. Three in a day is my best.

Twite.

 

[dantheman]

Wow Dan, thats a great count of Balearics. Is this normal or is it related to the 4000+ gathering off nw France recently? Hopefully we'll get a few extra birds as a result of this. Three in a day is my best.

I was probably a little blase above (!) - it certainly was a most excellent days seawatching (12 hours from 8 - 8pm), although was 'of course' hoping for larger shears and Wilsons ... but instead a most memorable day for other reasons - the initial fog (actually a good thing) and distant range of almost all the petrels was tempered by the numbers and close views of many of the shearwaters. (Basking Sharks and Sunfish always very nice too, with Risso's Dolphins earlier in the week.)

Admittedly I'm a relative novice seawatcher and only moved down to Cornwall recently, but from what I gather yes, much higher numbers than normal and almost certainly related (would be interesting to know if that flock had dispersed yet ...) If you haven't seen it, here's Seawatch Sw's take on recent events;

http://www.birdguides.com/webzine/article.asp?a=2226

 

[mountain man]

Hi Dan,

Were you in the cove on Friday? I was at Gwennap with John Swann - the proper Gwennap, not Hella Point which is the traditional seawatching point. When I went down to the cove for a quick pasty (and obviously missed the Great Shear at 12:30!), I was surprised to see about 15 people there - I've hardly ever seen anyone seawatching from there before.

It was a pretty special day. Personally I saw 160 Balearics with my own two eyes (one reasonable eye and one poor eye, thankfully the reasonable eye was putting in an above average performance that day), so I was expecting more seen by groups of birders elsewhere. We were also focused on that front Manx line, and it finally payed/paid (never know which one to use!) off at 16:28 when a Yelkouan-type came through at about 400m distance, ditched on the water for a few seconds then carried on, followed by another Yelk-type at 17:05. The 16:28 bird was also picked up independently from us by birders at Hella Point.

Yesterday was much quieter, and only one Balearic came past after the morning. But the afternoon lull was alleviated when Chris Kehoe picked up a Minke Whale breaching just past Runnelstone distance - full vertical exit and monster splash downs for 10 minutes. Breathtaking stuff and thankfully picked up by everyone there - which hasn't been the case with other cetaceans this week.

Manx passage has also been good this week (14,963 - exactly!), and there's been an interesting continual trickle of juv Med Gulls moving west close inshore that hasn't been noticed in previous years. Also good views of Risso's and Common Dolphins and 7 Basking Sharks.

There's hardly been anybody down all week, yet we've had decent Balearic numbers every day - it just seems as though people won't touch Porthgwarra unless there's a SW-erly and a sniff of big shearwaters in the air. Yet good things happen there even when the wind is 'wrong'. For example on Friday during the big Balearic rush, I was taking compass bearings every hour and the wind was nearly always at NW or NNW.

Full details at http://www.seawatch-sw.org

 

[dantheman]

Hi Dan,

Were you in the cove on Friday? I was at Gwennap with John Swann - the proper Gwennap, not Hella Point which is the traditional seawatching point. When I went down to the cove for a quick pasty (and obviously missed the Great Shear at 12:30!), I was surprised to see about 15 people there - I've hardly ever seen anyone seawatching from there before.

Hi Tom, yes, a most excellent day.

To clarify our movements on the day ... ... Of our group of 4, three of us started at Hella Point about 8am, with the fourth starting at the cove shortly after. Two gave up on the fog after half an hour or so and went in search of Melody's etc in 60 foot cover (why not?), I remained up on the top with about 3 others, seeing a few distant Stormies, with slightly more closer Balearics etc. Half an hour or more later they returned to say viewing was a lot better down at the cove, so I joined them down below; it was still a bit awkward (eg only half of us managed to get on the Sabs in the fog, sadly myself not included) but yes, numbers were significantly up on those viewable from above (maybe 50 Stormies to the half dozen we'd had above, and maybe 60 Balearics to the dozen we'd had ... something of that ilk) And they kept coming ... we all went up to Hella Point when the fog cleared early afternoon, and yes it was still pretty good ... they just kept coming! Between us we were scanning near and far, and we were the other group to get the 'probable' Yelkouan ... John visited us and I believe confirmed it was the same one which dived (initially with 5 Balearics?). (It was also myself and Henry who had the colour-dyed Manxie off Pendeen a few days earlier).

Minke Whale breaching - not bad at all!!!!! I was lucky to see one of the Risso's breaching a few days earlier, but that was fairly distant. Had a young Med on the day too I believe.

Have their been many foggy/cloudy days like this recently? - I presume it was the combination of winds in the 24 hour period, close cloud/fog, and general presence of birds in the area already which led to the events of the day? ...

During the week we did Pendeen and St Ives a couple of times too, the others have gone back up country, but I'm sure I'll be back before the seasons out ...

 

[Twite]

Thanks for the link Dan. A good number c40 reported off the south-east coast of Ireland today, don't know if it's a record, but it's the most I've heard of. I wonder why they're so far north in such large numbers. Could it be a response to a food shortage in traditional feeding area or an abundance of food in a new area (maybe less likely). Will be interesting to read the Seawatch SW take on it.

Twite.

 

[DEREK CHARLES]

Two hours at Malin Head Co.Donegal on Saturday morning produced 15 Sooty Shearwaters and 2 Bonxies. One of the most scenic seawatching locations in Ireland surely!

derek

http://nibirds.blogspot.com/

 

[Julian Bell]

Seawatching season continues (never really stops does it?) here in SW Norway. First Sooty seen and a flock of 5 Red-necked Phalarope flew in and landed on the sea in front of us on 07 August. Rare coastal sighting in these parts....