more large shears

After last night's haul, it was back out again this morning for first light. Once again, the first bird through the scope was a cory's, and the morning watch continued where I'd left off last night. There were more great shearwaters in the mix this morning though, which was nice! A couple of other birders joined me, and we made the best of the bad light, while the shearwaters went by at varying range. It was great practice trying to ID them all in the tough conditions, however after 4 hours my eyes were almost falling out due to the glare & hazy conditions. Time to leave, but not before a tightly packed flock of c.45 cory's flew past, with one sooty shearwater in amongst them - an amazing sight - like being in the mediterranean!

Today's numbers as follows - 6.45 - 10.45 am - all west

1,107 Cory's shearwaters

290 Great shearwaters

44 sooty shearwaters

19 Bonxies

2 Pomarine skuas

1 Arctic skua

17 Puffins

2 Storm petrels

surprise seawatch

Headed out for a seawatch this evening, mainly to escape the kids, but also as the wind was looking like it might possibly be ok-ish. So it was a bit of surprise to get 5 cory's shearwaters go past in the first 30 seconds. But they kept on coming, sometimes really close in, and sometimes pretty distant but a steady procession. At times, they even outnumbered the manxies! Every so often there'd be a smattering of great shearwaters go through, although these were mostly more distant than the cory's. A juv long-tailed skua was another surprise, with reasonable numbers of  bonxies & sooties too. Final scores as follows:

800 cory's shearwaters

57 great shearwaters

1 long-tailed skua

13 sooties

10 bonxies

1 arctic skua

10 stormies

19 puffins

3 arctic terns

a new wader for the patch

Sunny calm mornings have been fairly scarce here of late, so it's been a few days since I checked the lake. However it was worth a look as I noticed a wee wader running about on the mud. A wee zap of zoom and hey presto - a wood sandpiper! Patch gold and a full fat patch tick! Galley doesn't have much in the way of wader habitat, so such things are pretty scarce around here. Delighted to get one at last! A common sandpiper was also skulking around, for comparison purposes (123 for year).

Bulwer's past Galley

Unfortunately I can't really write a post on this spectacular event, as I was at home sheltering from the rain, whilst still glowing in the er after-glow of multiple fea's action. Still, I reckon I can kind of claim some sort of part in the proceedings as if me & CC hadn't struck fea's gold repeatedly the day before, I doubt the Bulwer's Three would have sat it out so long! Anyway, over to Mr Paul Moore to give a brief rendition of what it feels like to find a Bulwer's Petrel on a seawatch....

"Well, that probably won't happen again any time soon. I'm sure people are wondering how was Swinhoe's eliminated so without going into too many details . . . I was a bit cheesed off at missing Galley yesterday as I thought it might be good, but decided to go down today anyway. Things were quiet (compared to yesterday) and two Dublin lads left about 11 leaving just 3 of us from Cork. Just after 12 while scanning the closest Manxies I glimpsed a large petrel disappearing behind a wave. I alerted the others, (shouting "Oh F***" does that very efficiently), and was rather pleased to see the bird reappear to reveal an all dark rump. I indicated where and what they should look at (though they might say I screamed 'dark rumped Petrel, 'what the f*** is it?') but even after just a few seconds it was clear to me that this was no Leach's type bird.  If I was to compare it to anything it would be a demented melanistic Feas.

It continued on it's merry way just c.300m offshore in view for a little over a minute. Thankfully the views were so good as we might have struggled if it were further out. As it was, we noted the size as a little smaller than a Manx (almost direct comparison), a long tapered tail throughout the time it was on show and faint pale upperwing covert bar. The rest of the plumage was entirely dark including underwings with a brown tinge. It was incredibly rakish and actually did very little flapping. The head protruded a bit and the wings were
angled forward. Flight style is a bit hard to describe due to different interpretations of words, but swinging, angling, veering were all used, Alec summed it up as 'it covered more ground laterally than a Manx. I'll leave the rest for another time as it's been a long day but God knows what else is out there with three Fea's the day before."
Paul Moore

fea's fun

The alarm went off at 6.00 am but a quick check of the wind revealed it was still easterly. Besides it was hosing it down out there! Back to bed so. Unfortunately I crashed out till 9.00 am by which time the wind had gone round to the SW but my possible morning seawatch time had evaporated! It would have to wait till later.

By 13.00, the conditions were looking great - the wind was a good strong south-westerly, but the mist & rain had gone off, leaving a good stretch of viewable sea below the mist-obscured horizon. But I was still stuck in the office! Slowly the clock ticked round until a text came in from Mizen - 1,500 cory's shearwaters this morning! Feck! Amazingly the report I was working on almost finished itself and I was finally off to Galley!

10 minutes later and I was in situ. The mist was really low again, with just a narrow strip of sea visible close-in, while the wind was a healthy south-west force 4-5. Set the scope up and after one manx shearwater, a cory's came through with 3 great shearwaters - all really close! Fantastic! The next half-hour was incredible, with amazing views of cory's and greats coming through really close.

The mist slowly lifted, allowing more sea to be scanned. About 30 minutes into the watch, things suddenly went up a gear, as a fea's-type petrel flew into the scope view! The angle that it came in at meant I didn't really have to think about it, and I only managed one expletive before the adrenalin rush hit - Amayzing! I watched it flap and swoop all the way past, until saying goodbye to it just before it disappeared from view. I did wonder how many years it would be till I'd see another one.

Good birds continued to go by, with big shears every one or two minutes, and occasionally something else.  A distant small skua turned out to be a long-tailed skua, with two pomarine skuas slightly further out.  Only my 2^nd long-tail for Galley.  I was delighted!

But then that fea’s thing happened again! Something with black underwings flew into my scope view, and after a couple of seconds revealed itself to be a second fea's! By this time, I’d been joined by CC, and we both enjoyed the views this time, with the bird even landing on the water briefly - slightly more distant than the first bird, but with a pale "collar" round the neck that the first one hadn’t showed – a different bird!  Two fea’s in one day!

As it disappeared we congratulated each other and tried to calm down and concentrate on what else was moving through. Cory's were still going by every few minutes, with a few great shears in amongst them, while another four long-tailed skuas and three more poms were very welcome.  A bonus fly-by turnstone was also crucial from a Golden Mallard perspective!

But then things just got stupid, as 45 minutes later the day’s third fea's appeared in my scope from the east. At about the same range as the first bird, this bird also gave great views as it whizzed its way west. Amazingly, this bird also showed a distinct plumage difference from the other two, as it had extensive white around the face.  Make that three fea’s!

Unsurprisingly the rest of the seawatch was a blur, and activity began to tail off after about 18.30.  However, the final species tallies were pretty spectacular:

Bonxie – 10

Arctic skua – 3

Pomarine skua – 7

Long-tailed skua – 5

Blue Fulmar - 1

Sooty shearwater – 7

Balearic shearwater – 1

Great Shearwater – 53

Cory’s Shearwater – at least 250

and just the three Fea’s-type Petrels! (122)

Wow!