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

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!

Seatrack Update: August 2013 survey sightings

The second & third Seatrack surveys of the year took place across two weekends in August & produced an excellent haul of seabird sightings thanks to conducive weather patterns coinciding with the peak migration season for shearwaters.

Volunteer surveyors out on headlands from Donegal to Dublin were treated to Fea's-type Petrels, Great, Cory's Balearic & Sooty Shearwaters, Pomarine Skuas, Sabine's Gulls, Roseate Terns & Grey Phalaropes.

The next survey weekend takes place on Sat 7th/Sun 8th September, with priority given to the Saturday so as to compliment other seawatching surveys being undertaken by FAME partners from headlands along the West coast of Europe also on that date.

If you would like to take part in upcoming Seatrack surveys then please get in touch with Niall Keogh at seatrack@birdwatchireland.ie

Some early August Seatrack sightings reported so far as follows: (E = East, W = West, N = North, S = South & M = Milling)

Friday 2nd August

Galley Head, Co. Cork (Colin Barton)

2 W Balearic Shearwater, 1 W Great Shearwater, 4 W + 1 E Sooty Shearwater, 195 W + 411 E Manx Shearwater, 4 W Common Scoter, 2 W Great Skua (Bonxie), 2 W Sandwich Tern & 8 W Puffin.

Saturday 3rd August 

Bloody Foreland, Co. Donegal (Ralph Sheppard & Chris Ingram)

4 S Sooty Shearwater, 698 S Manx Shearwater, 19 S Storm Petrel, 3 S Common Scoter, 1 S Great Skua (Bonxie), 18 S Sandwich Tern, 14 S Arctic Tern, 3 S 'Commic' Tern, 234 S Fulmar, & 654 S Gannet.

Annagh Head, Co. Mayo (Dave Suddaby)

2 Balearic Shearwater, 86 Sooty Shearwater & 3,500 Manx Shearwater. 

Black Head, Co. Clare (Paul Troake)

53 W + 20 E Manx Shearwater, 5 M Great Northern Diver, 2 M Arctic Skua, 11 W Sandwich Tern, 1 W + 1 E Black Guillemot & 1 W Puffin.

Ram Head, Co. Waterford (Andrew Malcolm)

1 W Balearic Shearwater, 61 W + 3 E Manx Shearwater, 57 W Common Scoter & 1 W Great Skua (Bonxie).

Brownstown Head. Co. Waterford (Darragh Sinnott, Paul M. Walsh & Mary A. Duggan)

35 W + 14 E Manx Shearwater, 35 W + 1 E Common Scoter, 1 W Great Skua (Bonxie), 25 W + 2 E Sandwich Tern, 1 E Black Guillemot & 1 Harbour Porpoise.

Kilcoole, Co. Wicklow (Niall T. Keogh)
204 N + 2 S + 1 M Manx Shearwater, 4 N Common Scoter, 1 S Red-throated Diver, 7 S Sandwich Tern, 7 N Roseate Tern & 1 S Tufted Duck.

Wicklow Head, Co. Wicklow (Steve Newton)
129 N + 6 S Manx Shearwater, 19 N + 23 S Common Scoter & 9 N + 2 S Sandwich Tern.

Coliemore Harbour, Co. Dublin (Stephen McAvoy)
21 N + 13 S Manx Shearwater, 19 N Common Scoter, 5 N Mediterranean Gull & 5 N + 1 S Black Guillemot.
 
Sunday 4th August

Carnsore Point, Co. Wexford (Noel Keogh, Brian Porter, Kieran Grace & Simon Collins)
1 E Balearic Shearwater, 1 W Sooty Shearwater, 102 W + 195 E + 145 M Manx Shearwater, 15 W + 23 E Common Scoter, 2 W Arctic Skua, 1 E small Skua sp. & 1 W + 6 E Puffin.

Some late August Seatrack sightings reported so far as follows: (E = East, W = West, N = North, S = South & M = Milling)

Saturday 17th August

Annagh Head, Co. Mayo (Dave Suddaby)

119 Great Shearwater, 2 Balearic Shearwater, 415 Sooty Shearwater, 15,000 Manx Shearwater, 1 Grey Phalarope, 16 Great Skua (Bonxie), 1 Pomarine Skua & 12 Arctic Skua.

Bridges of Ross (Keith Langdon, Dave Andrews, Simon Woodhouse, Aidan G. Kelly et al.)

Full days totals (all West unless stated otherwise): 2 Fea's-type Petrel, 6 Cory's Shearwater, 614 Great Shearwater, 84 Sooty Shearwater, 2 Balearic Shearwater, est. 25,000 W + c200 E Manx Shearwater, 63 Storm Petrel, 1 Common Scoter, 4 Pomarine Skua, 14 Great Skua (Bonxie), 2 Arctic Skua, 9 Sabine's Gull, 10 Arctic Tern, 159 Whimbrel, 5 Ocean Sunfish & 40 Common Dolphin.

Galley Head, Co. Cork (Colin Barton et al.)

3 W Great Shearwater, 5 W Sooty Shearwater, 486 W Manx Shearwater, 10 W Storm Petrel, 11 W Common Scoter, 6 W Great Skua (Bonxie) & 3 W Arctic Tern.

Brownstown Head, Co. Waterford (Darragh Sinnott)

1 W Great Shearwater, 526 W + 2 E Manx Shearwater, 1 W Storm Petrel, 2 W Great Skua (Bonxie), 18 W Sandwich Tern & 1 W Arctic Tern.

Carnsore Point, Co. Wexford (Kieran Grace)

161 W + 98 E Manx Shearwater, 1 W Cory's Shearwater, 8 E Common Scoter.

Coliemore Harbour, Dalkey, Co. Dublin (Brian Porter)

168 N + 3 M Manx Shearwater, 8 N + 5 S + 6 M Sandwich Tern & 2 M Harbour Porpoise.

Sunday 18th August

Bloody Foreland, Co. Donegal (Ralph Sheppard & Chris Ingram)
2 S Cory's Shearwater, 269 S Sooty Shearwater, 744 S Manx Shearwater, 4 S Common Scoter, 5 S Great Skua (Bonxie), 4 S Pomarine Skua, 2 S Arctic Skua & 93 S Whimbrel.

Annagh Head, Co. Mayo (Dave Suddaby)

1 Cory's Shearwater, 132 Great Shearwater, 383 Sooty Shearwater, 12,000 Manx Shearwater, 13 Great Skua (Bonxie) & 9 Arctic Skua.

Black Head, Co. Clare (Paul Troake)
330 W + 77 E + 2 M Manx Shearwater, 1 W Storm Petrel, 1 W + 2 M Arctic Skua, 1 W Little Gull & 67 W Sandwich Tern. 

Bridges of Ross, Co. Clare (Keith Langdon, Dave Andrews, Simon Woodhouse, Aidan G. Kelly et al.)

Full days totals (all West unless stated otherwise): 19 Cory's Shearwater, 85 Great Shearwater, 93 Sooty Shearwater, 4 Balearic Shearwater, 2446 W + c500 M Manx Shearwater, 1 'Blue' Fulmar, 7 Storm Petrel, 1 Common Scoter, 2 Grey Phalarope, 20 Great Skua (Bonxie), 2 Pomarine Skua, 30 Arctic Skua, 11 Sabine's Gull, 20 Arctic Tern, 1 Puffin, 50 Whimbrel, 1 Basking Shark & 10 Ocean Sunfish.

Carnsore Point, Co. Wexford (Noel Keogh & Kieran Grace)
1 W Great Shearwater, 1 W Balearic Shearwater, 261 W Manx Shearwater, 3 W Storm Petrel & 1 W Black Guillemot.

Great Shearwater, at sea off Cape Clear, Co. Cork, 22nd August 2013 © Andrew Malcolm

Cory's Shearwater, at sea off Cape Clear, Co. Cork, 22nd August 2013 © Andrew Malcolm

Sooty Shearwater, West Waterford Pelagic, 9th August 2013 © Andrew Malcolm

Storm Petrel, West Waterford Pelagic, 9th August 2013 © Andrew Malcolm

Seatrack Update: 1st Sept Survey

This coming weekend sees the fourth Seatrack survey of the season taking place, with a start time of 07:35am. Please note that Saturday 1st Sept 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.

The highlight of the previous August Seatrack survey weekend was undoubtedly the finding of not one, but two Fea's-type Petrels which were associating with a milling flock of Manx Shearwaters off Carnsore Point, Co. Wexford on Saturday 18th. Once considered a mythical species in Irish waters, it is now apparent that with a bit of luck, a small number of these enigmatic Gadfly petrels can be found regularly off our coast, almost always in the company of migrating or feeding Manx Shearwaters. Other sightings of note from the survey weekend included several Black Terns & Great Shearwaters as well as some nice cetaceans & Ocean Sunfish.

A series of low pressures are due to hit the Irish coastline this week which will surely produce some interesting results, particularly along the west coast, in SW winds.

Best of luck to all this weekend,
Niall Keogh
Seatrack co-ordinator

Some late August Seatrack sightings as follows: (E = East, W = West, S = South, N = North & M = Milling)

Saturday 18^th August 2012

Bloody Foreland, Co. Donegal (Chris Ingram)
5 W Sooty Shearwater, 7 W & 2 E Manx Shearwater, 401 W & 39 E Fulmar, 5 W Great Skua (Bonxie) & 1 E Skua sp.

Annagh Head, Co. Mayo (Dave Suddaby)
3 Sooty Shearwater, 6 Storm Petrels, 4 Great Skua (Bonxie) & 1 Arctic Skua.

Bridges of Ross, Co. Clare (Niall T. Keogh)
All birds heading W: 1 Balearic Shearwater, 16 Sooty Shearwater, 470+ Manx Shearwater, 590+ Fulmar, 20 Storm Petrel, 5 Common Scoter, 1 Pomarine Skua, 8 Arctic Skua, 6 Puffin, 5-6 Bottlenose Dolphins & 100+ Common Dolphins. Full details here. 

Galley Head, Co. Cork (Colin Barton)
3 Sooty Shearwater & 1 Ocean Sunfish.

Ram Head, Co. Waterford (Andrew Malcolm)

68 W Manx Shearwater, 1 W Storm Petrel, 1 W Great Skua (Bonxie) & 1 Humpback Whale.

Brownstown Head, Co. Waterford (Paul M Walsh)
31 E, 10 W & 50+ M Manx Shearwater, 1 W Great Skua (Bonxie), 1 W Arctic Skua, 2 E Common Scoter, 13 E & 43 W Sandwich Tern & 1 Grey Seal.

Carnsore Point, Co. Wexford (Noel Keogh)
2 W Fea’s-type Petrels, 1 Great Shearwater, 4 Sooty Shearwater, c.1,000 W + M Manx Shearwater, 3 Black Tern, 1 Little Gull, 4 Arctic Skua, 2 Storm Petrel, 1 Puffin, 15 Common Scoter, 5 Little Terns, 4 Mediterranean Gulls, 100’s of ‘Commic’ & Roseate Terns.

Sunday 19^th August 2012

Bridges of Ross, Co. Clare (Niall T. Keogh)

All birds heading W: 2 Balearic Shearwater, 30 Sooty Shearwater, 395+ Manx Shearwater, 190+ Fulmar, 142 Storm Petrel, 7 Common Scoter, 4 Great Skua (Bonxie), 1 Pomarine Skua, 12 Arctic Skua, 1 Black Tern, 2 Puffin, 1 Spotted Redshank, 8-10 Bottlenose Dolphin, 30+ Common Dolphin & 2 Leatherback Turtle. Full details here.

Galley Head, Co. Cork (Colin Barton)

1 Great Shearwater, 6 Sooty Shearwater, 2 Great Skua (Bonxie) & 1 Harbour Porpoise.

Carnsore Point, Co. Wexford (Kieran Grace & Alyn Walsh)

1 Sooty Shearwater, 12 Common Scoter, 1 Great Skua (Bonxie), 4 Arctic Skua, 7 Black Tern & 7 Great-crested Grebe. 

Wicklow Head, Co. Wicklow (Steve Newton)

2,000 N Manx Shearwater.

Seatrack 2012

The Seatrack project aims to assess the status & distribution of the Critically Endangered Balearic Shearwater as well as other migratory seabird species in Irish waters through a series of coordinated seawatching surveys from headlands right around the coastline over 8 weekends between late July & early November.


If you would like to sign up your local headland as a Seatrack survey site or simply wish to send in some of your opportunistic seawatch records then feel free to get in touch with Niall Keogh (Seatrack project co-ordinator) at seatrack@birdwatchireland.ie for more information on how to get involved.


This coming weekend sees the first Seatrack survey of the season taking place with the current forecast for relatively calm weather on Saturday followed by moderate to strong South-West winds on Sunday.


Single Cory's Shearwaters have been seen from the The Bridges of Ross (Clare) & Galley Head (Cork) in the past day or so. Certainly a species to be on the look out for this weekend.


On the East coast, 5 Balearic Shearwaters off Mornington (Meath) on Friday followed by a juvenile Black Tern off Clogher Head (Louth) on Sunday suggest that there could be some interesting movements in the Irish Sea also.

HOT OFF THE PRESS!!! (From Cork Bird News Twitter feed): 16/7, 15.10: Fea's type petrel at 9.45 this morning going west past Mizen Hd (ADuggan)

Cory's Shearwater © Killian Mullarney

Seatrack 2012 weekend survey dates & times (priority dates in bold):

July: Sat 21st/Sun 22nd (start time 06:25am)

August: Sat 4th/Sun 5th (start time 06:45am)
August: Sat 18th/Sun 19th (start time 07:10am)


September: Sat 1st/Sun 2nd (start time 07:35am)
September: Sat 15th/Sun 16th (start time 08:00am)


October: Sat 6th/Sun 7th (start time 08:35am)
October: Sat 20th/Sun 21st (start time 09:00am)


November: Sat 3rd/Sun 4th (start time 08:30am)

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)

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)

Fea's-type Petrel @ Bridges of Ross 3rd Sept 2011

Time: 07:10-18:25

Weather: F3 W-NW with drizzle in the morning, F4 W-SW, dry, warm & with good visibility in the afternoon.

Observer(s): Niall T. Keogh, John Dempsey, Mike Stocker, Neill Hunt, Barry McCarthy & John N. Murphy.

Fea's-type Petrel: 1 west @ 15:10 (Niall T. Keogh)

Great Shearwater: 18

Balearic Shearwater: 3

Sooty Shearwater: c.1,000

Manx Shearwater: c.7,000

Blue Fulmar: 1 intermediate

Leach's Petrel: 14

Storm Petrel: 11

Great Skua (Bonxie): 7

Pomarine Skua: 1 pale phase 2nd cal-year

Arctic Skua: 20

Sabine's Gull: 7 adults

Black Tern: 1 juvenile

Sandwich Tern: 2

Arctic Tern: 7

Puffin: 17

Common Scoter: 19

Whimbrel: 33

A nice busy mornings passage, with good numbers of Manxies & a constant stream of Sooties going by at mid-far range while a stunning flock of 4 adult Sab's Gulls close in & the first Leach's Petrels of the season provided further interest. Numbers of seabirds passing died a death by lunchtime however, with hardly a bird to be seen for about two hours until 3pm when a small number of Manxies & Sooties started up again. While counting shears passing along the far line of migration (about 3/4 way out) I noticed an odd looking bird in amongst the Manx low down, coming head on with black underwings, white underparts & what appeared to be a dark cap. A pale phase Arctic Skua perhaps? Whacked up the zoom from 20x to 40x, and the bird banked up high, belly first right through my field of view...FEA'S!!! Between the ensuing hand shake, blurred vision & shouting of directions I managed to lose the bird after seeing just 4 times (three views of the underparts & one of the upperparts). It seemed to be steaming along a fairly direct route though, so a well placed yacht out on the horizon line along it's trajectory became the chosen spot to lock on to for those who had yet to see it. Thankfully the bird banked right up in that exact area, which caused a loud cheer & some 'mild' swearing to erupt from all the other observers present as soon as they had seen those two shiny black underwings!

Classic Bridges of Ross!

Post-Fea's celebrations in The Lighthouse Inn, Kilbaha!

Pride & place on the mantelpiece in the pub!