Sou'westerlies slow North sea vis-mig.

A couple of weeks ago swifts and common terns could be seen heading south on a daily basis. Along came 'ex-Bertha', followed by nearly two weeks of Beaufort F6-F7 winds from the SW and migration has visibly stalled. With lighter winds swinging around to the North and North-east things are slowly picking up. I'm now witnessing a steady procession of sandwich terns, the occasional Arctic and Pom skua, a few flocks of dunlin, turnstone and probable GP's. A grey heron did a bonus flyby today and on the deck I have seen a few pied wagtails, two garden warblers and a solo reed warbler……I'm eagerly anticipating every day now as the autumnal delights of the birding world start to move south for their winter retreats. 

sandwich tern

garden warbler

garden warbler

reed warbler

reed warbler

a very tasty sandwich

Not much to report on the migration front with stiff NW winds currently halting the passage of passerines, with the exception of a solo swallow. A few pom skuas and several arctic skuas have been noted pushing north but unfortunately they have all been rather ship-shy and not been close enough for photo. attempts. Sandwich tern passage remains fairly steady with a dozen or so recorded most days. One individual did a wonderful close pass and allowed me to get some decent flight shots- a very nice bird! The real highlight however was a raft of grey phalaropes- I watched them resting and apparently feeding on a surface slick for 5 minutes or so before they resumed their northward flight- cracking birds! Aside from that I have been treated to a good number of common dolphins swimming around the vessel.

distant raft of grey (red) phalaropes

Tern and run....

Started the day with a couple of swallows flashing past the ship. This was followed by a meeting where it was decided to start pulling in the survey equipment- all of it! This will take approximately 48 hours and this is because of a forecast blow that is due to deliver 8-10 metre seas that as well as possibly wrecking the equipment could also be a tad dangerous for a ship this size. We need to be able to manoeuvre freely in such seas, without the drag of the cables behind the vessel. If the waves do become that significant I could be trying to sleep wedged in a corner somewhere as bunks are next to useless in such conditions. Anyway, forecasts have been wrong before, but we have to prepare for the worse case scenario. On a lighter note I saw another very nice loggerhead turtle late morning, and this afternoons' highlight was a flock of nine sandwich terns heading north. Strangely, as is often the case before a significant blow the gulls have literally vanished into thin air- I think they know what is coming!!

Moroccan delights

Not much to report on the sea bird survey although the species list is steadily climbing with the addition of kittiwake, great skua and sandwich tern.  Although I have also had repeated distant views of shearwater sp. and storm petrel sp. they remain very elusive and as yet I have been unable to get a positive ID on any of them. We are surveying in an approximate west-east orientation and during the east-end work we are only about 5 miles offshore. This has provided some lovely views of the Moroccan coast and the beautiful snow-capped Atlas mountains- the first time I have seen snow on the African continent.

Agadir with snow-capped Atlas mountains beyond.

close pass to the shore south of Agadir- where desert meets sea!

Being so close to shore has allowed a number of uninvited guests to jump aboard, including a collection of bugs, beetles, grasshoppers and moths. 

hawk moth sp.

grasshopper or locust?

We also had a very nice view of a loggerhead turtle as it swam past the vessel.

Loggerhead turtle

kittiwake