Wednesday 24 August 2011

Bridges of Ross 24th August 2011


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. 


Views from the watchpoint (Niall Keogh)
Bottlenose Dolphins (Niall Keogh)

2 comments:

  1. Hi Niall,

    Good 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.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Hi Terry,

    Wilson'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

    ReplyDelete