Cape Verde shearwaters

Some years ago (I'm too polite to say exactly how many) a group of intrepid birding greats including the likes of Tony Marr, Dick Newell, Richard Porter and Robin Jolliffe undertook a series of pioneering trips to Dakar, Senegal. These very capable birders embarked on a series of pelagic trips and recorded thousands of the fabled Cape Verde shearwater (Calonectris edwardsii) in the waters off Senegal. Additional, impressive passage counts of more familiar species such as Sabine's gulls and Pomarine skuas were also recorded. Years later, the immense potential for superb sea watching off Senegal continues to steadily gather momentum. 

Over the past few years I have spent a number of occasions with Tony, sea watching at the Butt of Lewis. During our many birding conversations we often discussed the possibility of me finding the  elusive Cape Verde shearwater, whilst undertaking my numerous surveys off the West coast of Africa. Despite much time scrutinising sea birds off the likes of Morocco, Mauritania and further south Gabon and Ivory Coast I have never managed to find one of these birds. Over the last week I have been working off Senegal and have enjoyed watching Cory's shearwaters on a daily basis- a few birds may have been candidates for Scopoli's shearwater  and I have also seen two great shearwaters and a solitary Manx shearwater. A few days ago whilst studying the Cory's I noticed some 'large shears' that although superficially resembling Cory's, appeared a tad smaller and slimmer (by about 10%?). These birds appeared slightly stiffer-winged, and possibly had slightly faster wingbeats- I'm trying not to string anything here! With better views the birds appeared to have more chocolate brown tones to the head as opposed to the generally diffuse greys of the Cory's. These birds also have more brown on the underwing. In certain light conditions the birds appeared rather 'capped'- something the Cory's never showed. Upon closer scrutiny it was apparent that the birds had thinner, grey bills although this has proven difficult to utilise as a useful field characteristic except when the birds ventured very close in and under very good light conditions. Generally though, the lack of a typical Cory's massive, yellowish bill can be a useful indicator under the right circumstances and with birds that 'cooperate'! With increased practice I have managed to pick up a few birds at greater distances, based on the faster flight action and generally slimmer/darker jizz, although readily admit it is not easy! Having managed a few photographs I was delighted to see that they were indeed Cape Verde shearwaters- a seabird 'lifer' for me. 

Identification is fairly straightforward at these distances! 

Skua passage

Skua passage has been building slowly over the last week with 20-30 birds seen most days- usually single birds but occasional flocks of 3-4. Yesterday morning the pace increased and I counted 250+ birds passing the ship  in the first two hours of daylight. Most of the individuals concerned appeared to be pomarine skuas, although a few arctic skuas were also noted. The highlight however was the presence of several long-tailed skuas. Interestingly I saw a flock of 30 or so skuas that appeared to be migrating low over the water in the company of Cory's shearwaters- all the birds working their way WNW using lazy, languid wingbeats in the almost still air. At one stage the birds rested momentarily on the sea before resuming their passage. It was also interesting to see 3 poms. scrapping over an eel that had been caught by one of the birds. The bright tropical sunlight is very flat and I am struggling to find a suitable camera setting but have managed a few shots.

a great spectacle!

long-tailed skua

Arctic skua

long-tailed skua

Poms at play!

long-tailed skuas

pomarine skua

Corys' on the move?

We have moved North to within 20 nautical miles of the coast of Ghana and inside the 200 metre depth contour. The change in the numbers of seabirds is very noticeable with a steady, albeit light passage of pomarine and arctic skuas, a handful of grey phalaropes, single 'comic' tern and hundreds of Corys' shearwaters. The shearwaters are becoming increasingly restless, forming into rafts of several hundred birds- this possibly being the precursor to their north-western migration back to higher latitudes- I have seen similar behaviour with regard to great shearwaters before they head south from Greenland for their autumnal migration. Both Cory's (C.borealis) and Scopoli's (C. diomedea) are found here and as Paul Stancliff of the BTO pointed out the bird immediately below shows the white primary 'fingers' extending into the black 'hand' - a good feature for Scopoli's. 

part of a 'raft' of several hundred Cory's/Scopoli's shearwaters

pom skua

Cetacean central

After 8 days at sea, pelagic birding has been very low key and I have only recorded a handful of distant 'Calonectris' shearwaters- presumed to be Cory's but all rather distant (not sure if Cape Verde shearwater disperses this far south?). I also saw a very distant 'probable' tropic bird sp. and a single skua- a long-tailed I think- cold grey tones, long, slender wings, buoyant, tern-like flight…..

I have been much busier with cetaceans though and have recorded 7 confirmed species:- sperm whale, clymene dolphin, short-finned pilot whale, an impressive pod of circa 500 melon-headed whales. Frasers' dolphin, rough-toothed dolphin and spinner dolphin- not a bad haul and I should not complain but the days are very long without a constant stream of seabirds to ID and record!

spinner dolphin

spinners

spinners

Frasers' dolphin with calf (foreground), melon-heads behind

melon-headed whales- note the white lips

long-tailed skua-probably?

Black country blues

Thanks to a 3 hour Aer Lingus flight delay in Cork I missed my connecting flight home so have to spend a night in a rather seedy Birmingham airport hotel......won't mention the name in case they take legal action but the initials are H.I. - can't believe I had to wait in my room for 4 hours while they sorted out a problem with the electronic door key- eventually I demanded a different room! Anyway, a chance to post some final snapshots from my Porcupine sea bight survey ( and have a beer or three!). Hopefully I will make it home tomorrow and get back to some much needed local patch birding.

long-finned pilot whales 

one of my last recorded Cory's- simply stunning!

a delicately dancing great shearwater

a nice comparison- fulmar & great shear

common dolphin- underwater shot!

Shear delight

After a few days of fog and light, variable winds, the forecast of a reasonable blow with a significant westerly element raised my pulse rate and guaranteed that I was on watch early the following morning. I was not disappointed, as two great shearwaters flew 100 metres or so off the port bow as I gathered my waterproofs, hat, notebook and binoculars from the bridge! From then on and over the last three days I have enjoyed three figure counts of great shearwaters, intermingled with scores of Cory's! Some birders would say that when you have seen one large shear you have seen them all, but I disagree, find them totally captivating and have no problem watching them shear and glide over the swell and waves for hours on end. Surprisingly, and contrary to the large numbers of sooty shearwaters reported from Irish sea-watching sites, I have only seen one in the last 3 days- maybe they hug the Irish coast more as they drift SE? I also had the bonus of seeing flocks of Sabines' gulls- a group of 3 and a group of five. Unfortunately being on a 92 metre vessel, with a GRT of over 9000 tonnes means that many birds are rather ship-shy, occasionally however, a large shear made a relatively close pass, allowing me to try for a couple of shots. Good numbers of Arctic and 'comic' terns have also been seen flying south and an additional grey phalarope and a turnstone have been the only other obvious passage birds. I suppose we should see some significant skua passage before too long, but with the exception of a solo, spoon-laden pom and a few locally foraging bonxies they have yet to make an appearance. Happy days!

great shearwater- close pass at last!

Add caption

Cory's - unusually close in!

brilliant birds!

The Porcupine Seabight

The Porcupine Seabight is an interesting oceanographic feature located a hundred or so nautical miles  WSW off the southern coast of Ireland. It is a large depression where the water rapidly deepens and leads out to the abyssal depths of the North Atlantic. The strong ocean currents form nice areas of nutrient-rich upwelling so there is often an abundance of marine life- plankton, shoals of pelagic fish including albacore and yellow-fin tuna, cetaceans and seabirds- at least that is what it said in the tourist brochure! In all honesty there have been good numbers of fin whales- sometimes 5 or 6 in a day, the fishing fleets of Ireland and Spain are actively fishing for tuna, but seabirds have been rather scarce. Admittedly I see gannets and fulmars every day but numbers are low. A few lesser black-backed gulls have followed the survey vessel on occasion and I have had good days where I have seen four species of shearwater- Great, Corys, Sooty and Manx- but again numbers have been disappointing. I have also see a few bonxies, 2 Sabines gulls- both magnificent adults in summer plumage a few storm petrels and 1 wilson's petrel- I can't complain but I hope that numbers increase over the coming weeks! Unfortunately I have struggled with poor light and distant birds so taking photographs has been challenging, although this morning a great shearwater came within 40 metres of the bow, allowing me to rattle off a few snaps. Hopefully the sunshine and a nice Fea's or Bulwer's petrel are not too far away! 

great shearwater

great shearwater

nice flock of manx shearwaters

manx shearwaters- incredible how the light affects the plumage tones!

Great, Cory's and Wilson's- when lifers don't count! :(

Joined my survey vessel yesterday in a nice little port in the SW of Ireland. We steamed down the river Shannon, then overnight on the open sea. This morning I awoke over the Porcupine sea bight WSW of Mizen head in about 1600 metres of water. I spent the morning working and getting organised and then spent 3 hours on watch this afternoon. It was very quiet aside from a few gannets and fulmars and a solitary great skua and a fly-by turnstone. The sea was choppy but not unduly so, however the watch was made difficult by intermittent heavy rain and rolling damp fog banks that left water droplets on everything. The light was dull and everything had a soggy feel to it and as there was not much about I didn't bother taking the camera out onto the deck- then things changed for the good with 4 great shearwaters, a Cory's shearwater and a Wilson's petrel flying past the bow of the vessel in quick succession! Although I have seen thousands of both of these shearwater species and scores of Wilson's I have not seen any of these 3 species in British waters and so all 3 are needed for my 'British list'! Of course having checked my position on the nautical charts I confirmed my worst fears in that I am working in the Irish sector- by a significant margin! The moral of the tale is always, always have the camera ready and also too consider starting a British and Irish life list! The camera (in a plastic bag) will be on deck for the rest of the voyage!

Pelagic visitors

Not much happening on the seabird front- the usual smattering of Cory's shearwaters, two great shearwaters in 2 days and a probable Royal tern did a fairly distant fly past. We have had a couple of rays (probably mantas) and a turtle swim past as well, so at least I have had a few photo. opportunities. Three days to go then I am heading back to the NW highlands of Scotland to get up to speed with some terrestrial birding.



Surf's up!

Quite a nice encounter with a pod of pilot whales recently. These benign whales often appear inquisitive and readily approach vessels, especially when they hear noise generated by winches and survey gear! At times they can be a bit of a menace as they do sometimes get in the way of survey work. Fortunately this encounter occurred during a near- four hour line turn so there was no conflict of interest and they were free to enjoy their surf time without any concerns! It was also good to get a relatively close pass from another Wilson's storm-petrel and also good to see a Cory's shearwater living up to its' name and shearing through the water with its' wingtip!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Brilliant Bulwer's!

Some avian encounters are typified by beautiful plumage or melodious song, but others- particularly concerning seabirds- are often imprinted in my brain by the sheer exuberence of their flight action as they move over the restless ocean. I was enjoying watching the Cory's and Wilson's a couple of days ago when a dark, long-winged, long-tailed petrel passed over the swell into my line of sight. It was a brief image- just a flashing blade really- a dark, dashing petrel scything it's way over the ocean, occasionally stalling and picking at the surface and once I saw it briefly (and distantly) sat on the ocean- I knew it was something special and after a slightly closer view I realised that I was onto a Bulwer's petrel! Again, my distant photographs are not prize winners but it was a fantastic encounter non the less.

 

I'm really pleased with my copy of the 'multimedia identification guide to North Atlantic seabirds- Storm-petrels & Bulwer's Petrel by Bob Flood & Ashley Fisher- this has really helped me in identifying some tricky species over the last year and I would recommend it to anyone with an interest in seabirds. (I have already pre-ordered the next volume concerning pterodromas- can't wait!)

 

 

wonderful Wilson's

Had a fairly uneventful passage down from Las Palmas, with very few birds seen- just a handful of distant Cory's, a single tern sp. and what looked like a very distant immature gannet. Had a couple of Wilson's storm- petrels following the ship this afternoon though, which really brightened my mood. They hung around and put on a show for about 5 minutes before drifting off over the waves and out of view. I rattled off a few record shots before realising that I had completely forgotten how difficult it is to get shots of storm petrels with their unpredictable dancing flight- quickly changing angles and depth of field- no matter really as it is just great to see these lovely birds.