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 10th Sept 2011

Time: 07:00-10:30 & 15:20-19:20

Weather: F4 S in the morning, overcast with light rain but with sunny spells also. F6-7 SW this afternoon, overcast with persistent showers at times.

Observer(s): Niall T. Keogh, Noel Keogh, John N. Murphy, Joe Adamson & Finbarr MacGabhann.

Sooty Shearwater: 33

Storm Petrel: 24

Great Skua (Bonxie): 5

Pomarine Skua: 1 pale phase

Arctic Skua: 22

Sabine's Gull: 15 (6 adults, 8 2nd cal-years & 1 juv.)

Sandwich Tern: 2

Arctic Tern: 214

Puffin: 5

Common Scoter: 10

Red-breasted Merganser: 3

Whimbrel: 3

Common Dolphin: c.10

Sunfish: 1

A nice evenings seawatch in the strong South-westerlies, bringing in good numbers of Stormies, terns, Sab's & skuas. Very few shearwaters however. Looks like the tail end of Hurricane Katia will bring the best of the seawatching conditions to the NW over the next few days, although we shouldn't do too bad down here at BoR. My money is on something black-browed or black-capped at Annagh Head!

A View From The Umbrella! (Niall Keogh)

Bridges of Ross 9th Sept 2011

Time: 06:45-08:30 & 17:30-18:30

Weather: F4 SW, dry, dull but with good visibility. Turning F2-3 S later on. 

Observer(s): Niall T. Keogh, Keith Langdon, Dave Farrow, Reg Land & Noel Keogh.

Sooty Shearwater: 35

Storm Petrel: 3

Great Skua (Bonxie): 8

Arctic Skua: 7

Sabine's Gull: 3 adults

Sandwich Tern: 6

Arctic Tern: 54

Puffin: 1

Common Scoter: 27

Light-bellied Brent Goose: 26

Buff-breasted Sandpiper: 1 juvenile at the seawatch point 08:30-08:45 before flying off East!!! (Keith Langdon)

Bottlenose Dolphin: c.18

Leatherback Turtle: 1 west @ 07:45

The juvenile Buff-breasted Sandpiper found by Keith at BoR, on the area of short grass & pools behind 'The Hollow' was a real surprise! Good numbers have arrived across the west & south coast in recent days but we weren't expecting one so close. Spurred on by this sighting we then checked an area of heather/short grass on Loop Head known as 'The Fodry', which is good for plovers, pipits, larks etc. and sure enough we found another 5 juvenile Buff-breasted Sandpipers & up to 14 Lapland Buntings there! (NTKeogh, KLangdon, DFarrow & RLand)

One of five juv. Buff-B's at The Fodry, Loop Head (Niall Keogh)

For better shots of the juv. Buff-B's at The Fodry, check out John Murphy's pics on the Loop Head Bird Observatory blog. He managed to take a few once he found them....

Check out the bottom right hand corner... (Niall Keogh)

Bridges of Ross 8th Sept 2011

Time: 07:15-10:30 & 14:15-18:15

Observer(s): Dave Farrow & Reg Land.

Sooty Shearwater: 400+

Leach's Petrel: 1

Storm Petrel: 25

Great Skua (Bonxie): 25+

Pomarine Skua: 3+

Arctic Skua: 40+

Long-tailed Skua: 1 adult

Sabine's Gull: 23

Little Gull: 1 juvenile

Common Scoter: 30+

Light-bellied Brent Goose: 12

Red-throated Diver: 3

Whimbrel: 20+

Bottlenose Dolphin: 12

Common Dolphin: 20

Risso's Dolphin: 4

Harbour Porpoise: 1

Basking Shark: 1

Sunfish: 2

Nice skua & Sab's passage despite the calm conditions. Again, most of the Sooties were milling around, feeding. An amazing tally of cetaceans & mega fish too! Risso's & porpoises are pretty rare from BoR at this time of year.

Bridges of Ross 7th Sept 2011

Time: 0645-1820

Weather: F5 W, dry & dull in the morning turning, F6 W in the afternoon/early evening with persistant rain & poor visibility.

Observer(s): Niall T. Keogh, Mike Blaver, Keith Langdon, Reg Land, Dave Farrow & Dave McNamara.

Great Shearwater: 1

Balearic Shearwater: 1

Sooty Shearwater: 430+ (morning passage)

Blue Fulmar: 1

Leach's Petrel: 5

Storm Petrel: c.80

Great Skua (Bonxie): 37

Pomarine Skua: 6 

Arctic Skua: 20

Long-tailed Skua: 1 adult @ 10:25 (NTKeogh & DFarrow)

Sabine's Gull: 30

Little Gull: 1 juv/1st-w

Sandwich Tern: 10

Common Tern: 1

Arctic Tern: 75

Puffin: 13

Black Guillemot: 1
Common Scoter: 25

Red-throated Diver: 2 adults

Light-bellied Brent Geese: 29

Whimbrel: 20

Bottlenose Dolphin: 3+

Sunfish: 3 (including one breaching three times in succession this afternoon!)

Passage this morning seemed to be 'left-overs' from yesterday, fizzling out after 11am. This was highlighted by the fact that after most of the Sooties & Manxies had passed through, mixed feeding rafts of shears containing a few lingering Bonxies drifted past at a distance throughout the day, most likely made up of the same birds we saw go West that morning. Many of the Sab's Gulls were feeding close inshore suggesting they had roosted in a bay somewhere nearby after arriving yesterday evening. If the poor weather wasn't enough, then the double figure count of Common Scoter & the first Brent Geese of the season served as a reminder that it is most certainly Autumn!


John Murphy was kind enough to send on some shots of a Pom & some Sooties that he took from land at BoR over the past few days. Make sure to check out his blog for more - www.murfswildlife.blogspot.com