Thursday 30 October 2014

Seatrack: final survey of 2014

The final Seatrack survey weekend of the season takes place this Sat 1st/Sun 2nd November with a start time of 08:25am (preference given to Sat 1st if possible so as to link in with other coastal seabird surveys being conducted by BirdLife Europe partners in France, Spain and Portugal).

Yet another Atlantic low pressure system will produce winds veering from Southwest to West over the weekend, hopefully conjuring up some good seawatching for observers on the Celtic Sea coast as well as along the Atlantic seaboard.

Some rather excellent late autumn seawatching continued over the past week or so with four species of shearwater seen from coastal headlands and islands in Co. Cork where small numbers of Balearic, Great and Manx Shearwaters were found among triple figure counts of Sooty Shearwaters. Strong Westerly winds coupled with an aggregation of Sprat saw a hive of feeding seabird activity in Galway Bay where impressive numbers of Kittiwakes, Gannets and skuas (particularly Arctic and Pomarine) were noted along with sightings of Leach's Storm-petrel and Little Gull. For an excellent series of pics from Galway Bay see the following blog posts by Dermot Breen and Cathal Forkan.

With the forecast for decent seawatching conditions this weekend, perhaps some Little Auks may be on the cards, particularly for those in the West and Northwest? Seawatchers should also keep an eye out for migrating divers and wildfowl with counts of Great Northern Diver, Barnacle Goose, Greenland White-fronted Goose and Whooper Swan making it into recent sightings reports.

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 Shearwater from the R.V. Celtic Explorer, south of Roche's Point Co. Cork, 23rd October 2014 © Niall T. Keogh

Tuesday 14 October 2014

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

Thursday 2 October 2014

Seatrack: early October update

The fifth Seatrack survey weekend of the season takes place this Sat 4th/Sun 5th October with a start time of 08:30am (preference given to Sat 4th if possible so as to link in with other coastal seabird surveys being conducted by BirdLife Europe partners in France, Spain and Portugal). 

The current forecast for the weekend looks quite promising with a low pressure system originating off the southern end Greenland and stretching across the mid-Atlantic set to create moderate Westerly winds along the Atlantic seaboard on Saturday with increasing Southwest winds benefiting Southern watchpoints on Sunday.

Pomarine Skuas will hopefully be the order of the day for many Seatrackers on this next survey. When favourable seawatching conditions coincide with their late Autumn migration period it can be a real treat! An increase in the number of migrating Gannets, Kittiwakes and auks should also be apparent.

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


Pomarine Skua © Jason McGuirk