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.

Bridges of Ross 4th Sept 2011

Time: 0730-1940
Weather: F4-5 W-SW in the morning with heavy rain, wind turning F4-5 W-NW by 17:00 with rain easing off.
Observer(s): Niall T. Keogh, Brian Porter, Mike Blaver, John Dempsey, Neill Hunt, Barry McCarthy & Mike Stocker.


Great Shearwater: 3
Balearic Shearwater: 1
Sooty Shearwater: 550+
Manx Shearwater: c.6,000
Leach's Petrel: 3
Storm Petrel: 10
Grey Phalarope: 1
Great Skua (Bonxie): 5
Arctic Skua: 4
Sabine's Gull: 3 (2 adults & a 2nd cal-year)
Little Gull: 1 juv/1st winter
Arctic Tern: 22
Common Scoter: 8
Red-throated Diver: 1 adult summer 
Puffin: 3
Whimbrel: 4
Bar-tailed Godwit: 12


Extremely quiet in the morning/early afternoon with the heavy rain meaning not much at all was moving at sea & making viewing conditions quite difficult. Once the wind switched to W-NW in the late afternoon the sea came alive with birds & pretty much all seabirds noted in the totals above moved through from 16:30 onwards!

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! 

Annagh Head 2nd Sept 2011

Time: 07:10-15:30

Weather: F5 SW until 1pm, then F6-7 SW dropping to F5 later on.

Observer(s): Alan Lauder, KDShaw, JMAOsborne, SDHousden, Dave Suddaby, Chris Jones, Rob Innes et al. 

Great Shearwater: 218

Cory's Shearwater: 4

Balearic Shearwater: 4

Sooty Shearwater: 190

Manx Shearwater: 2,500

Fulmar: 1,900

Storm Petrel: 15

Great Skua (Bonxie): 15

Pomarine Skua: 3

Arctic Skua: 3

Black Tern: 1

Sunfish: 1

Whether both Alan & Dave (both fellow BirdWatch Ireland staff) realise it or not, there's a Bridges vs. Annagh competition underway. Here at The Bridges were shocked at the paltry totals of skuas from Annagh today & we suspect that confusion with Sooty Shearwater hasn't been ruled out for several of the dark phase Arctic Skuas that most likely passed by them. In reality, at least 215 of those 218 Great Shears were actually Gannets but hey, what ya gonna do? 

Bring on tomorrow!

Bridges of Ross 2nd Sept 2011

Time: 06:45-19:00

Weather: F3-4 SW throughout the day, dry & bright in the morning turning dull with persistent rain late afternoon/evening.

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

Great Shearwater: 3

'Large' Shearwater: 8 

Balearic Shearwater: 3

Sooty Shearwater: 384

Manx Shearwater: 2,000+

Fulmar: c.350

Storm Petrel: c.23

Great Skua (Bonxie): 11

Pomarine Skua: 5

Arctic Skua: 27

Long-tailed Skua: 1 adult @ 10:40 (Niall T. Keogh)

Sabine's Gull: 2 adults & 1 juvenile

Black Tern: 1 juvenile

Sandwich Tern: 1

Arctic Tern: 33

Razorbill: 85-90

Red-throated Diver: 1 adult summer

Common Scoter: 16

Pintail: 3 

Whimbrel: 4

Bottlenose Dolphin: c.6

Common Dolphin: c.8

Sunfish: 2

That's more like it!!! A nice run of Manxies early in the morning (e.g. 1810+ from 7am-11am) but dropping off rapidly as the afternoon progressed with Sooties taking over as the 'dominant' shearwater thereafter. Quite a few frustrating, hyper-distant large shearwaters (most likely Greats) were seen heading East in the late morning/afternoon also. The 3 Great Shears & the adult Long-tailed Skua were all seen at their typical mid-far range, doing their best to sneak past, keeping low & only being picked up off to the left before soon disappearing from view. 

Bird of the day goes to a cracking dark phase adult Pomarine Skua complete with full spoons!

Bridges of Ross 1st Sept 2011

Time: 15:15-19:15
Weather: F2-3 S, dull, dry, moderate visibility (a bit hazy in the distance).
Observer(s): Niall T. Keogh


Manx Shearwater: 37 West & 17 East
Storm Petrel: 1 West
Great Skua (Bonxie): 1 East


Bottlenose Dolphin: c.10 heading west close inshore at 18:45
Sunfish: 3


Tomorrow WILL be better!


While I'm here I may as well throw in a plug for the new-look Clare Branch of BirdWatch Ireland website - www.clarebirdwatching.com


And since you'll be checking that out you may as well have a look at the new Loop Head Bird Observatory blog too! - www.loopheadbo.blogspot.com