Wednesday 31 October 2012

Seatrack Update: Early November Survey


This coming weekend (Sat 3rd/Sun 4th Nov) sees the final Seatrack survey of the season taking place, with a start time of 08:30amPlease note that Saturday 3rd Nov will be the priority day so as to complement other FAME surveys being conducted by our partners along the Western European seaboard, also on that date. If you would like to take part in this international seabird census then get in touch with Niall Keogh at seatrack@birdwatchireland.ie for details.

We are now into
Little Auk season so be sure to keep an eye out for these charming plankton feeders this weekend. They have become surprisingly rare in Ireland in recent years but are still likely to be found on late autumn/early winter seawatches along the West coast when favourable weather conditions prevail. A large Northward movement in The North Sea took place on Monday when some 4,903 passed The Farne Islands alone!

The forecast for the next few days looks good along the West coast with moderate-strong West & Northwest winds coming from a low pressure off the Atlantic coast of Scotland with some draw further to the North. Winds will be strongest on Thursday & Saturday but weakening into Sunday. Could be the last good seawatch of the season?!

Best of luck to all this weekend,

Niall Keogh
Seatrack co-ordinator

Little Auk © John Murphy
Some mid October Seatrack sightings as follows: (E = East, W = West, S = South, N = North & M = Milling)

Saturday 20th October


Bloody Foreland, Co. Donegal (Chris Ingram)
15 S & 1 N Eider, 78 S & 141 N Barnacle Goose, 8 S & 2 N Red-throated Diver, 3 S & 4 N Great Northern Diver, 1 S Great Skua (Bonxie) & 6 S Bottlenose Dolphin.

Dursey Island, Co. Cork (Derek A. Scott, Kieran Finch, Paul Rowe, David Cooke & Connor Finch)
1 S Sooty Shearwater, 1 S Storm Petrel, 1 N Common Scoter, 413 S Kittiwake, 899 S Guillemot/Razorbill, 1 N Great Skua (Bonxie), 1 N Pomarine Skua, 2 N Puffin, 2 S & 7 M Harbour Porpoise.

Galley Head, Co. Cork (Colin Barton)
19 W Sooty Shearwater, 3 W Manx Shearwater, 7 W Common Scoter, 3 W Great Skua (Bonxie), 1 W Mediterranean Gull & 274 W Kittiwake.

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