Time: 06:30-19:00
Weather: F2-3 W-SW with some light showers in the morning.
Balearic Shearwater: 3
Great Shearwater: 4
Sooty Shearwater: 80
Storm Petrel: 8
Grey Phalarope: 1 (first of the season)
Great Skua (Bonxie): 10
Arctic Skua: 29
Little Gull: 1 juvenile
Black Tern: 1 juvenile
Sandwich Tern: 7
Arctic Tern: 56
Puffin: 6
Common Scoter: 4
Whimbrel: 20
Bottlenose Dolphin: 10-12
Leatherback Turtle: 1 heading west close inshore @ 18:30
Sunfish: 1
A surprising tally of Arctic Skuas for the day, some of which were hanging about chasing Kittiwakes & gulls feeding close inshore. The effects that a quick squall can have on seawatch were quite apparent today, with the Great Shears & majority of the Sooties appearing just after a few bands of rain. There was a big run of Mackerel in the evening, attracting in the Bottlenose Dolphins which showed very well, breaching actively on occasion.
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| Views from the watchpoint (Niall Keogh) |
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| Bottlenose Dolphins (Niall Keogh) |
Hi Niall,
ReplyDeleteGood work on the seawatch blog. I'll enjoy keeping track of your efforts. Since I moved to New Jersey I have discovered a good seawatch point about two hours away, which becomes very busy from mid-September to November, a bit later than at home.
On a shore watch this past weekend I saw my first Wilson's storm petrel, an antarctic breeder which are common on the east coast of the U.S. The fact that I was watching them from Sandy Hook and able to see the towers of New York city is quite amazing though. Good luck with the work.
Hi Terry,
ReplyDeleteWilson's with a scenic twist, brilliant stuff! Thanks for the kind comments, let's hope we get something interesting for you to read all about ;)
See ya,
Niall