Seatrack: mid-October update

The second last Seatrack survey weekend of the season takes place this Sat 18th/Sun 19th October with a start time of 09:00am.

Whilst the current weather predictions for the coming weekend are constantly changing, it would appear that the south coast will be the place to be with strong south to southwest winds and rain coming off the back of post-tropical storm Fay and likely to produce a few late autumn goodies. 

This past week has seen some excellent tallies of Balearic Shearwaters in Co. Cork with 30 passing the Old Head of Kinsale plus a separate 15 seen passing Galley Head on 8th October. Seabird rarities typically associated with late August continue to feature with a Barolo Shearwater seen eight miles off Quilty, Co. Clare on 7th Oct and both a Fea's-type Petrel and a Wilson's Storm-petrel seen several miles to the southeast of Galley Head on 10th Oct, all noted from the R.V. Celtic Explorer which is currently running transect lines through the Celtic Sea as part of the annual Celtic Sea Herring Acoustic Survey. In addition, several Great Shearwaters and Pomarine Skuas plus good numbers of European Storm-petrels along with Sabine's Gull, Grey Phalarope etc. have also been seen from the ship in the waters south of Cork/Waterford in recent days. The seabirds are certainly still out there!

If you would like to take part in this weekends Seatrack survey or wish to send on any additional seawatching records you've collated so far this season then please get in touch with Niall Keogh (Seatrack project co-ordinator) at seatrack@birdwatchireland.ie

Balearic Shearwaters West of Cape Clear, taken from the R.V. Celtic Explorer © Niall T. Keogh

Bridges of Ross 30th August 2014

Time: 0630-1810

Weather: F5 NW, dry, mild & good visibility.

Observers: Niall T. Keogh, Neal Warnock, Victor Caschera, Jimmy Dowdall, Eamonn MacLochlainn, John Power, Lee Gregory, Tom Buckley, Ger Murray, Des Higgins, Brian Porter, Tom Shevlin, Hugh Delaney, Aidan Moore, Dave Branagh, Bernie Sheridan, Dave Fox, John N. Murphy, Jarlath Coyle et al.

Common Scoter: 14

Red-throated Diver: 1 breeding plumage

Great Shearwater: 1

Sooty Shearwater: 50+

Manx Shearwater: 3,500 in first hour then 2000+ decreasing to 500+ per hour thereafter
Balearic Shearwater: 1
Wilson's Storm-petrel: 1 @ 09:22 (Lee Gregory et al.)

European Storm-petrel: 2

Leach's Storm-petrel: 15

Great Skua (Bonxie): 20

Arctic Skua: 5

Puffin: 2

Sandwich Tern: 51

Arctic Tern: c.75

Sabine's Gull: 5 (1 adult-type & 4 juveniles)

Little Gull: 2 juveniles/1st-winters

Peregrine: 1 juvenile

Common Dolphin: 8-10

Ocean Sunfish: 1

A busy start first thing, similar to yesterday but without the same level or rhythm of species diversity as yesterday. Saying that, an enjoyable few hours all the same. Whilst scanning through the seemingly relentless & uniform passage of Manxies, Lee happened upon a Wilson's Storm-petrel which caught us on the hop and showed up well to the left, only viewable for a brief period before disappearing over the ridge but thankfully at close range. The bird was in active moult with old outer primaries and new/growing inner primaries/secondaries and a short (half length) carpal bar. Great to see that bouncing flight style again! Fairly quiet for the rest of the afternoon & evening save for a trickle of Bonxies and a few showy Leach's every now & then.

Leach's Storm-petrel © Niall Keogh

Arctic Skua © Niall Keogh

Great Skua © Niall Keogh

Seatrack: mid-August update

The second Seatrack survey weekend of the season takes place this Sat 16th/Sun 17th August with a start time of 07:10am. Current weather forecasts give the best conditions along the Atlantic seaboard with moderate West to Northwest winds hopefully producing some decent seawatching between Mayo & Donegal, particularly on Saturday morning.

This past week saw lots of media attention focusing on the arrival of the weather system affectionately known as 'ex-Bertha'. This post-tropical cyclone was followed up by a Northwesterly low pressure system, producing some nice seawatching at headlands along the West coast from Galley Head to Malin. Flavour of the month so far has been Cory's Shearwater which has graced the notebooks of many a seawatcher, albeit in small numbers. Along with these have been the first Sabine's Gulls & Grey Phalaropes of the season, small numbers of skuas and Balearic, Sooty & Great Shearwaters.

At the rarer end of the scale, singles of Wilson's Petrel were noted from The Bridges of Ross, Co. Clare on 8th & 12th August. Furthermore, there's been a superb early run of Fea's-type Petrel records as follows:

• 30th July: one from a pelagic 8 miles off Galley Head, Co. Cork (Paul Connaughton)
• 3rd August: one past Malin Head, Co. Donegal (Rónán McLaughlin)
• 10th August: one past Kilcummin Head, Co. Mayo (Brad Robson) with what was presumably the same bird seen passing Annagh Head, Co. Mayo (Dave Suddaby) no less than 3 hours & 9 minutes later!
• 13th August: one past Kilcummin Head, Co. Mayo (Derek Charles & M. Ullman)

If you would like to take part in this weekends Seatrack survey or wish to send on any additional seawatching records you've collated so far this month then please get in touch with Niall Keogh (Seatrack project co-ordinator) at seatrack@birdwatchireland.ie

Arctic Skua © Gerry O'Neill

A special mention must go out to Liam Lysaght of the National Biodiversity Data Centre who is currently in the midst of his 'Wild Ireland Tour', an epic cycle around the coast of Ireland visiting some top wildlife destinations and meeting with folk involved in research & conservation along the way. Liam popped into The Bridges of Ross on Monday for a spot of seawatching & I have to say, he was the hardiest man there by the look of his get up! 

Liam seawatching in style!

Bridges of Ross 23rd August 2013

Time: 06:30-18:40

Weather: F3 W (am) & F3-4 W-NW (pm), dry & warm.

Observers: Niall T. Keogh, Dan Pointon, Alan Clewes, Geoff Clewes, Alan Lewis, Ger Murray, Dave Cooper, John Cooper, Peter Gluth, Peter Colston, Brian Porter, Paul Troake, Eanna O'Flynn, Jim Sheehan, Jim Bowman, Denis Carty, Swedish House Mafia (Jacob Rudhe, Raul Vicente, Jon Jörpeland, Rasmus Elleby & Hans Elleby), et al.

Cory's Shearwater: 5

Great Shearwater: 49

Sooty Shearwater: 310+

Manx Shearwater: 3,000+

Wilson's Petrel: 1 @ 11:05am (Niall T. Keogh et al.)

Leach's Petrel: 1

Storm Petrel: 18

Common Scoter: 9

Great Skua (Bonxie): 24

Pomarine Skua: 3

Arctic Skua: 54

Sabine's Gull: 19 adults

Sandwich Tern: 6

Arctic Tern: c.120

Common Tern: 1

Black Tern: 1 juvenile

Whimbrel: 18

Bar-tailed Godwit: 1

Chough: 2

Peregrine: 1

Wheatear: 2

Common Dolphin: 20+

Bottlenose Dolphin: 8

Grey Seal: 1

A fine set of tallies for the day, most of which were logged in the morning, fizzling out in the afternoon when a handful of large shearwaters, Sab's & skuas were the highlights. No complaints all the same as Cory's aren't the easiest species to see at The Bridges. In fact, they were my first here since 2009! Birds today were very distant however, with most of the large shears mooching about amongst feeding rafts of Manxies & Sooties, often revealing themselves when a skua would burst into them! A side by side Cory's & Great was particularly nice & the day total of Arctic Skuas was pretty good for August (nice to see a few juveniles in there too). The Wilson's was rather distant unfortunately, pushing the boundaries for fine scale plumage ID. Thankfully it bounced about when initially picked up, showing off it's distinctive jizz & flight style. The Leach's was the first of the season from The Bridges & a good self find lifer for the Swedish lads who also sported some suspect umbrellas!...

First Wilson's: Bridges of Ross 17th August 2012

Time: 06:40-10:40 & 15:20-19:20

Weather: F1 S, dry, bright & warm (am). F 2-3 S-SE, bright, warm, some showers & sea mist at times but generally good vis & dry (pm).

Observer(s): Niall T. Keogh, Keith Langdon, Mikey Hoit, Dave Farrow, Reg Land, Simon Woodhouse & Dave Andrews.

Balearic Shearwater: 1

Sooty Shearwater: 24

Manx Shearwater: 3,250+

Fulmar: 710+

Wilson’s Petrel: 1 feeding & heading West, from 06:55-07:05 (Niall T. Keogh)

Storm Petrel: 60+

Common Scoter: 1 male

Great Skua (Bonxie): 8

Pomarine Skua: 5 subadults (2^nd-summer types)

Arctic Skua: 14

Black Tern: 1 juv.

Arctic Tern: 3

Sandwich Tern: 10

Razorbill: 25+

Guillemot: 1

Puffin: 5

Whimbrel: 6

Dunlin: 22

Sanderling: 1

Black-tailed Godwit: 5

Chough: 2

Swift: 2

Wheatear: 1

Minke Whale: 1 with feeding Common Dolphins in the evening.

Bottlenose Dolphin: 3 passing east in the morning.

Common Dolphin: up to 100 feeding actively with Gannets am & pm.

Ocean Sunfish: 1

An early morning Wilson’s Petrel proved tricky at first due to less than ideal lighting conditions. Distinctive flight style, feeding behaviour & an obvious lack of white on the underwing initially suggested Wilson’s but it wasn’t until it moved a little further West & got the light on its ‘good’ side that the salient plumage features could be seen to confirm ID. The first sighting of this rare sub-Antarctic breeding species from The Bridges of Ross this season. With any luck there’ll be more to come!

Overall an excellent tally for somewhat ‘poor’ seawatching conditions. Nice species variety, a constant light passage of Manxies & Fulmars and a surprising number of skuas. I’ve certainly had worse seawatches from here before in more promising weather conditions.

A large feeding aggregation of cetaceans & seabirds was also present off Loop Head in the afternoon, consisting of 4+ Minke Whales, 100’s Common Dolphins, c.10 Bottlenose Dolphins, 150-200 Storm Petrels, 500+ Manx Shearwaters, several Sooty Shearwaters, 1 Arctic Skua & 2 Great Skuas (Bonxies).

Soggy seawatchers © Niall Keogh

Bridges of Ross 18th Sept 2011

Time: 0700-1940

Weather: F5 N-NW clear & bright but with heavy sea spray. F4-5 NW in the evening, clear & bright again with some lovely light conditions.

Observer(s): Niall T. Keogh, Noel Keogh, Brian Porter, Killian Mullarney, Eanna O'Flynn, Owen Foley, Conor Foley, Donal Foley, Shane Farrell, Mark Stewart, Geoff Oliver, Niall Hatch, Stephen McAvoy, Denis O'Sullivan, Richard Bonser, Tom Tarpey, Tony Mee et al.

Sooty Shearwater: 5

Wilson's Petrel: 2 [1 @ 09:05 (EO'Flynn, MStewart & CFoley) & 1 @ 11:20 (TTarpey)]

Leach's Petrel: 1

Storm Petrel: 8

Grey Phalarope: 19

Great Skua (Bonxie): 54

Pomarine Skua: 2

Arctic Skua: 37

Long-tailed Skua: 16 (3 adults & 13 juvs)

Sabine's Gull: c.170 (c.75% juvs)

Little Gull: 2 juv/1st-w

Sandwich Tern: 12

Arctic Tern: c.500

Puffin: 11

Common Scoter: 2

Red-throated Diver: 7

Great Northern Diver: 1

Bottlenose Dolphin: c.6

Sunfish: 1

A relatively quiet day by recent standards! Sea spray was horrendous early on this morning but some excellent views of really close juvenile Long-tailed Skuas more than made up for it. There was a notable increase in the number of juvenile Sabine's Gulls vs. the number of adult birds seen today. Both Wilson's Petrels were seen whilst I was off swanning around the gardens looking for migrants, which turned out to be a worthwhile exercise as I found a nice 1st-winter Common Rosefinch in Kilbaha village (nice to see some passerines for a change!).

Common Rosefinch (Richard Bonser)

Sab's-fest Round 2 @ Bridges of Ross 17th Sept 2011

Time: 07:00-19:30

Weather: F5 NW in the morning & F5 W-NW in the afternoon with short squalls at times otherwise clear, bright & sunny for the most part.

Observer(s): Niall T. Keogh, Noel Keogh, Brian Porter, Owen Foley, Shane Farrell, Killian Mullarney, Tom Kilbane, Niall Hatch, Stephen McAvoy et al.

Balearic Shearwater: 3

Sooty Shearwater: 145

Manx Shearwater: max. 10,000

Wilson's Petrel: 1 (NTKeogh)

Leach's Petrel: 38

Storm Petrel: 16

Grey Phalarope: 130

Great Skua (Bonxie): 47

Pomarine Skua: 3

Arctic Skua: 150+

Long-tailed Skua: 76 (64 adults & 12 juvs)

Sabine's Gull: 865+ (c.25% juvs)

Black Tern: 26 juvs

Sandwich Tern: 45

Common Tern: 1 juv

Arctic Tern: c.8,000

Puffin: 62

Common Scoter: 6

Red-throated Diver: 15

Bottlenose Dolphin: 1+

Common Dolphin: c.5

Sunfish: 2-3

MEGA!!!

Bridges of Ross 15th Sept 2011

Time: 07:00-09:00 & 16:45-18:30

Weather: F1-2 SE, clear, dry & bright in the morning. F4 S-SE, overcast, calm with good visibility later on.

Observer(s): Niall T. Keogh, Noel Keogh, Tomas Kjelsson, Rolf Sjöberg & Keith Bennett.

Balearic Shearwater: 1

Sooty Shearwater: 16

Storm Petrel: 6

Great Skua (Bonxie): 5

Pomarine Skua: 1

Arctic Skua: 10

Long-tailed Skua: 1 adult

Sabine's Gull: 48 (13 juvs)

Little Gull: 1 juv/1st-w

Sandwich Tern: 14

Arctic Tern: c.140

Common Scoter: 16

Light-bellied Brent Goose: 10

Red-throated Diver: 4

Black Guillemot: 1

Whimbrel: 5

Golden Plover: 1

Common Dolphin: c.30

Again a day of feeding & milling as opposed to true passage. Most of the Sabine's Gulls & Arctic Terns moved through within the first hour suggesting they had roosted somewhere nearby. As such it appeared that no new birds were present offshore so we decided to hit the headland and look for migrants. Myself & Noel went up to The Fodry where Keith, Tomas & Rolf had seen 7 Buff-breasted Sandpipers yesterday (an increase on the flock of 5 from Friday). We got there to find a couple of Peregrines causing havoc in the area, with 12 Lapland Buntings & 13 Black-tailed Godwits flying around looking worried! After meeting Jeff Copner, who was also looking for the Buff-B's, we strolled over to a cattle field where they had been seen previously. Whilst doing my best to string two Golden Plovers there into something more exciting, a flock of waders flew in over the road & settled in front of us...14 Buff-breasted Sandpipers accompanied by 2 Dunlin...the flock had doubled overnight! We watched the Buff-B's feeding for some time but they were quite flighty & moved around the field a fair bit. After taking to the air once more & settling down again, we soon realised that there was in fact 15 juvenile Buff-breasted Sandpipers in front of us. Where had the newbie come from? Had it just arrived fresh in also? That's Loop Head for you I guess...magic stuff. I've been informed that this total equals the previous record set for the largest flock seen in Europe, that of 15 seen on Scilly in 1974! We'll be up there again tomorrow to see if any more decide to drop in overnight however ;)

Jeff was kind enough to send on a pic of all 15 Buff-B's plus the 2 Dunlin in flight as well as a cracking pic of one on the deck. For more, check out his blog, "A Life At The Shoreline".

Buff-breasted Sandpipers (Jeff Copner)

John Murphy also sent on some great seabird pics which he took from 'The Slab' at BoR yesterday, including what are probably the best shots of Wilson's Petrel ever taken from land in the West Pal?

Wilson's Petrel x2, adult Sabine's Gull, juvenile Sabine's Gull & a Great Skua (John Murphy)

Bedlam @ Bridges of Ross 14th Sept 2011

Time: 07:00-10:45 & 14:45-19:20

Weather: F5 NW dry, bright & clear in the morning. F2 NW, sunny, dry & warm later on.

Observer(s): Niall T. Keogh, Noel Keogh, John N. Murphy, Tomas Kjelsson, Rolf Sjöberg, Keith Bennett, Kris de Rouck, Wout de Rouck & Joe Shannon.

Fea's-type Petrel: 1 west @ 18:45-18:50 (NKeogh & NTKeogh)

Sooty Shearwater: c.60

Manx Shearwater: c.5,000

Wilson's Petrel: 4 (NTKeogh & NKeogh)

Leach's Petrel: 28

Storm Petrel: c.35

Grey Phalarope: 1

Great Skua (Bonxie): 25+

Pomarine Skua: 4

Arctic Skua: c.55

Long-tailed Skua: 16 (14 adults, a 2nd cal-year & 1 juv.)

Sabine's Gull: c.95 (25% juvs)

Sandwich Tern: 6

Arctic Tern: c.300

Puffin: 5

Red-throated Diver: 5

Common Scoter: 6

Teal: 1

Minke Whale: 1-2

The weather calmed down pretty quickly but there was still tons of seabirds to be seen throughout the day in mixed feeding flocks & rafts, just a couple of hundred meters offshore. Manxies, Sooties, Gannets, Sab's, skuas, terns & petrels were all circling around showing well out from 'The Slab'. Feeding activity died a bit in the afternoon but resting flocks of up to 50 Sab's Gulls & milling skuas made sure there was plenty to look at. The Wilson's Petrels were seen on & off throughout the day, giving fantastic views whilst feeding, displaying their characteristic head-up, wings out straight & legs down hopping posture. A strong Manxie passage started up around 17:30 and at 18:45 Noel Keogh picked up an Arctic Skua chasing another slimmer bird, way off in the distance, over 3/4 of the way out. On revealing it's underside while banking, he soon realised the bird the Arctic was harassing was a Fea's-type Petrel!!! The Fea's continued on, heading west & remained in view for approximately 5 minutes, but it was REALLY far away & in dull evening light. I managed to locate it & got reasonable views I suppose given the distance for quite some time. On 40x zoom the black underwings & grey head with darker eye mask were apparent whilst the upperparts appeared to be uniformly dark which is often the case with these birds when seen in tricky light. Challenging! 

Mega digi-scoped Wilson's Petrel! (Niall Keogh)

Wilson's Bonanza @ Bridges of Ross 13th Sept 2011

Time: 06:45-10:45 & 12:25-19:15
Weather: F6 W-NW, bright, clear & sunny. Some brief showers in the afternoon.
Observer(s): Niall T. Keogh, Noel Keogh, Joe Adamson, John N. Murphy, Stan Nugent, Dave McNamara, Tomas Kjelsson, Rolf Sjöberg, Keith Bennett, Kris de Rouck, Joe Shannon et al.


Great Shearwater: 1
Balearic Shearwater: 4
Sooty Shearwater: 111
Manx Shearwater: c.500 (evening passage)
Wilson's Petrel: 6!!! (NTKeogh, NKeogh & JNMurphy)
Leach's Petrel: 80
Storm Petrel: 115
Grey Phalarope: 7
Great Skua (Bonxie): 95
Pomarine Skua: 2
Arctic Skua: 27
Long-tailed Skua: 20 [14 adults, 2 2nd cal-years & 4 juvs] (NTKeogh, NKeogh, KdeRouck, JNMurphy & SNugent)
Sabine's Gull: 130 (42 juvs)
Little Gull: 1 juv/1st-w
Sandwich Tern: 60
Arctic Tern: 145
Puffin: 12
Common Scoter: 7
Red-throated Diver: 6
Great Northern Diver: 2
Whimbrel: 2


Buff-breasted Sandpiper: 1 flushed from the short grass behind the seawatching point at 10:50, flew west (NTKeogh)
Ruff: 1 juvenile flew west over the seawatch point also


Minke Whale: 1
Leatherback Turtle: 3 sightings
Sunfish: 3+

Insanity @ Bridges of Ross 12th Sept 2011

Time: 07:00-19:10

Weather: F7 Westerly & dry throughout the day, good sunny spells & some spray.

Observer(s): Niall T. Keogh, Noel Keogh, Joe Adamson, Paul Troake, Dave McNamara, Tomas Kjelsson, Rolf Sjöberg, Keith Bennett, Kris de Rouck, Jim Bowman, Patrick Veale et al.

Fea's-type Petrel: 1 west @ 17:10 (NTKeogh)

Great Shearwater: 4

Balearic Shearwater: 4

Sooty Shearwater: c.1,000

Manx Shearwater: 2,000+

Wilson's Petrel: 4 (NKeogh & NTKeogh)

Leach's Petrel: 45+

Storm Petrel: c.250

Grey Phalarope: 4

Great Skua (Bonxie): 110

Pomarine Skua: 15 (incl. 3 juvs)

Arctic Skua: 58

Long-tailed Skua: 22 [10 adults, 1 subadult, 3 2nd cal-years & 8 juvs] (NTKeogh, NKeogh, JAdamson, PTroake & DMcNamara)

Sabine's Gull: 200+ (c.25% juvs.)

Sandwich Tern: 4

Arctic Tern: c.600

Puffin: 4

Common Scoter: 3

I'll do a write-up of the days events when I get my life back in order!

In the meantime, here's more of John Murphy's shots from recent days...

Quite a few partially leucistic dark phase Arctic Skuas going by these days (John Murphy)

Juv. Sabine's Gull (John Murphy)

Bridges of Ross 11th Sept 2011

Time: 07:00-11:30 & 12:50-18:45
Weather: F7 SW, overcast, dull, dry with moderate visibility. F5 SW, overcast with moderate visibility turning F5 S with persistent rain in the evening.
Observer(s): Niall T. Keogh, Noel Keogh & Joe Adamson.


Great Shearwater: 1
Balearic Shearwater: 1
Sooty Shearwater: 494
Manx Shearwater: c.300
Wilson's Petrel: 1 offshore from 08:40-09:30! (NTKeogh, NKeogh & JAdamson)
Storm Petrel: 63
Great Skua (Bonxie): 28
Pomarine Skua: 3 pale phase
Arctic Skua: 20
Long-tailed Skua: 1 adult @16:30 (NTKeogh & NKeogh)
Sabine's Gull: 33 (incl. 5 juvs.)
Sandwich Tern: 32
Arctic Tern: 126
Common Scoter: 17
Puffin: 1
Whimbrel: 7
Bar-tailed Godwit: 1


Sunfish: 3

After being picked up at quite a long range, the Wilson's eventually made its way inshore, giving prolonged views at close range for up to 13 minutes before being lost, heading West. It reappeared several minutes later, straight out from the headland & veered off strongly back East on a single glide, returning to the spot where it was first picked up. It remained in the general area, in view on & off, before being lost heading back West at 09:30! Joe even managed to get up out of bed, get dressed & make his way out to the headland just in time to twitch it before it disappeared!!! It was a real treat to watch the bird make a short run along a wave & then propel itself, gliding effortlessly for quite a distance with a minimum amount of flapping.

Apart from the terns, Sab's & Skuas, passage was very slow today. Most of the shearwaters came through in a single burst this morning. Unusual to get more Sooties than Manx in this half of September too!

Bridges of Ross 6th Sept 2011

Time: 0645-1930

Weather: F6-7(8) W, with light showers at times but dry for the most part with variable lighting conditions. Turning F6 W-NW in early evening with misty spray.

Observer(s): Niall T. Keogh, Brian Porter, Mike Blaver, Paul Troake, John N. Murphy, Brian Finnegan, Dermot O'Mahony, Keith Langdon, Reg Land, Dave Farrow, Paul Moore, Denis O'Sullivan & John Power.

Great Shearwater: 4

Balearic Shearwater: 4

Sooty Shearwater: 4,500+

Manx Shearwater: 10,000+

Blue Fulmar: 2

Wilson's Petrel: 1 (JNMurphy)

Leach's Petrel: 21

Storm Petrel: c.80

Great Skua (Bonxie): 83 (including several juveniles)

Pomarine Skua: 12 (all pale phase)

Arctic Skua: 44

Long-tailed Skua: 2 adults (NTKeogh)

Sabine's Gull: 73 (63 adults/adult-types, 7 2nd cal-years & 3 juveniles)

Black Tern: 1 adult & 1 juvenile

Sandwich Tern: 4

Common Tern: 2 juveniles

Arctic Tern: 261

Common Scoter: 1 male

Great Northern Diver: 1 juvenile

Puffin: 43

Whimbrel: 14 

A fantastic day to say the least, with an Arctic flavour which is to be expected from a September seawatch. Birds were piling through thick & fast throughout the morning, with the typical afternoon lull followed by a nice second rush in the evening. Counts of Sooties, Manxies & Stormies are considered to be an underestimate if anything as it wasn't possible to keep an accurate count of them whilst also trying to get a look in at all the Leach's, Sab's & skuas passing by at close range. Needless to say, the Sabine's Gulls were mind blowing! Most moved through in the afternoon/evening, with some really nice flocks seen close inshore (a mixed flock of 2 adult Sab's, 7 Arctic Terns & the adult Black Tern was particularly tasty). Large numbers of Arctic Terns are always a good indicator for Sab's as well as Long-tailed Skua, of which two adults sailed by late in the evening just before we packed up to leave, capping off the day nicely!

Lovely bit of weather for a seawatch! (Niall Keogh)

Bridges of Ross 5th Sept 2011

Time: 0650-1740

Weather: F3-4 W-NW first thing in the morning, dry with good visibility, turning F5-6 SW by late afternoon with constant misty drizzle & some showers, poor visibility in the distance.

Observer(s): Niall T. Keogh, Brian Porter, Mike Blaver, Paul Troake, John N. Murphy, Brian Finnegan, Dermot O'Mahony, Keith Langdon, Reg Land & Dave Farrow.

Sooty Shearwater: c.210

Balearic Shearwater: 1

Manx Shearwater: c.1,000 (0745-1045)

Blue Fulmar: 1

Wilson's Petrel: 1 @ 13:50 (Keith Langdon, Reg Land & Dave Farrow)

Leach's Petrel: 7

Storm Petrel: 29

Great Skua (Bonxie): 9

Pomarine Skua: 1 pale phase adult

Arctic Skua: 3

Sabine's Gull: 1 juvenile

Arctic Tern: 12

Sandwich Tern: 9

Common Scoter: 7

Red-throated Diver: 5 

Great Northern Diver: 1 'winter' plumage bird

Puffin: 68 (including one summer plumaged bird)

Whimbrel: 16

Not a bad start to the morning but deteriorating pretty quickly throughout the afternoon. The three guys posted down at the bridge picked up the Wilson's in close in the early afternoon just as some of us were getting back from breakfast! Wilson's have been pretty thin on the ground this year with only three other records so far (singles at BoR, Galley Head & Inishbofin in July). The adult Pom & juv. Sabine's Gull were highlights of the day for the rest of us whilst one of the Red-throated Divers was certainly a nice fresh juv. which was interesting to see, tagging along with an adult. Certainly the highest tally of Puffins I've ever head at BoR too which was cool.