Silhouettes

Got onto a huge raptor today! Well actually as we all know a dark bird against a light background looks far bigger than it is, and similarly a light coloured bird against a dark background does too- correctly sizing birds with little visual reference to other objects is often the bane of my sea watching experience. Anyway, at 500 metres range, despite looking the size of a large eagle, the jizz of this bird screamed 'marsh harrier' although thoughts of booted eagle and even black kite initially floated through my head. It stayed on the wrong side of 300 metres and was against the sun as it flew past our port side, so I couldn't get much on it but I think it was a marshy?

This afternoon we had changed our heading by 180 degrees so that the sun was then on the starboard side- and of course this great skua decided to also keep pretty much in the sun by flying down that side!










Finished the day with half a dozen common dolphins too, but again they didn't want to be photographed!

Mortal migrants.

A pleasant morning with much improved sea state (3) and good visibility to the horizon so I decided a couple of hours counting the still sparsely distributed seabirds would be a good option, as I would probably pick up any cetacean activity during the survey as well. The first hour turned up small numbers of Cory's shearwater,  3 Med. gulls, a distant Great skua, and a smattering of the ubiquitous lesser black-backed and yellow legged gulls. As we headed north about 20 nm offshore I noticed a relatively sizeable group of distant larus spp. gulls ahead- about 20 birds in total. They were engaged in typical gull behaviour- some resting on the sea, other small groups of 3-4 birds were squabbling and chasing birds with full beaks, which I presumed was fish or squid. Closer scrutiny however revealed that the birds were engaged in scavenging dead passerines from the sea. I stood at the starboard rail and counted 11 corpses within about 20 metres of the ship over the course of about 10 minutes. As the gulls were busy eating and plucking birds from the sea over a distance out to approx. 400 metres I can only presume that the dead birds were fairly evenly spread over a sizeable area. As some of the gulls were sat contentedly on the sea I had the distinct impression that they were full! It was not possible to quantify how many dead birds were in the wreck - it could have been scores or even hundreds! 

Although this is undoubtedly a natural occurrence it is one that I have never witnessed before on such a scale. I have previously seen the likes of quail crash into the sea and have also seen the occasional meadow pipit and skylark fall into the sea in a strong, persistent head wind. I presume that the long, hard storm over the weekend, coupled with the dense sand and dust caused these migrants difficulties somewhere over the sea. They could have been much further north at one stage and blown back south by the storm. On a brighter note a trickle of northward bound migrants have continued past the ship this afternoon, including a swallow, a blackcap, a black redstart, a couple of alba/yarrellii wagtails and another feral type pigeon.

Lifer!

I had not intended to write anything today, although the morning was spent pleasantly enough counting at least 45 Cory's shearwaters, 5 Med. gulls and 3 yellow-legged gulls. There was also an unidentified passerine that overflew the vessel at great speed in the (still) force 6 nor-westerly. Not sure if it really wanted to go off in a south-easterly direction at this time of year but I suppose you can only battle a head wind for so long when you probably weigh less than 25 grams! It would probably have settled on deck if it had not been so busy with crew using jet-washers to get rid of the last remnants of the sand and dust left all over the ship by the recent blow.

Anyway the afternoon was particularly dull until just after 17:00 local time when a small falcon caught my eye as it approached the ship from the south. I initially thought 'kestrel'. The bird continued approaching, banked in the weakening sun, showing a rusty mantle, black-tipped wings and greyish head so I lowered the camera as I already had reasonable shots of kestrel. The bird disappeared behind the heli-deck, reappeared and perched near the spare paravane on the port side. Getting the bird in my bins showed a uniform pale grey head with plain grey cheek, sparse speckling on the breast and flanks and noticeably long wings- it was a Lesser Kestrel!- and a cracking adult male at that! Being a life tick generated a bit of a rush (casual understatement). Fortunately I don't think anyone saw me as I became a 'transformer' and got myself into an outrageous tangle of arms, head, binocular strap, camera strap and vhf radio as I tried to get the camera operational.  To my complete horror the bird flicked its' wings and tail and looked as if it was about to flit, fortunately it settled again allowing me to take a couple of shots in the less than ideal light. I managed half a dozen shots from 40 metres or so before it flew up, over and around the ship and was lost to view somewhere over the waves. Quite an interesting encounter and all in 4-5 metre swell, 15 degree rolls to port and starboard and under 90 seconds! Phew- I need a lie down! ;)

Lesser kestrel

Lesser kestrel

Gale force Kestrel

This beauty got blown in this morning and the better light allowed for decent photos. Upon touching down it was really struggling to balance due to the buffeting of the wind and the movement of the ship. This afternoon we passed through a small area of increased marine productivity it seems as there was a flock of 6 Corys' and 1 Balearic shearwater, accompanied by 5 Common dolphins that came in to briefly bow ride our vessel.

Dragons n Poms

Heavy weather all night and a confused sea state all day so I'm a tad tired now. Just two birds seen today- an adult and juvenile Pomarine skua did a brief flypast. Apart from that I spent an hour attempting to photograph the numerous dragonflies that have been blown offshore by the storm. We have started our dog-leg NW and then tomorrow morning we will turn SW to head into the next part of this rotating storm system. Hopefully things will settle back down on monday.....

The closer I look at the fine detail of the wing structure the more captivated by it I become! This got me thinking about life, the universe and everything- subjects which alway ruffle my emotional feathers when I think toooooo much! I suddenly found myself in a far too serious mood, so I had to have a word with myself and went for tea and choccy biscuits and this helped me realise (yet again) that in spite of all my pondering the best answer to those big questions is still 42! ;) (as provided in the 'Hitch hikers guide to the galaxy'- for those of you that never read it!)

Desert storm

The twilight zone- desert dust fills the air

Ballistic gannet

The morning started off reasonable with a fresh NE beaufort 5. By 11:00 the wind had freshened to a near gale (force 7) and by 13:00 wind speeds were a sustained 40+ knots, (severe gale Beaufort 9) gusting to 50 knots on occasion. The sea built slowly but surely with wave heights of 6+ metres throwing us about by the late afternoon. Fortunately we got the more sensitive equipment onboard before lunchtime and then commenced our run east at 4 knots to get away (hopefully) from the dangerous storm centre. A strange eery pinkish/orange light filled the afternoon sky as dust and sand from the Sahara desert was lifted and blown our way. By 15:00 we were in a weird and wonderful twilight zone. With forty five knot winds my effort at taking photos was a joke but I did manage to catch a gannet - probably a 2nd calendar year bird, go rocketing down wind! A Cory's did a really close pass too, but I just couldn't get a shot from the rolling ship and buffeting wind. I got a call from the bosun at 16:30 saying that a very nice bird was resting on the starboard paravane door so I grabbed my camera and went for a look. By this time the sand filled sky made for appalling light conditions but I did manage a shot or two of a very wind-swept kestrel. 

The blow has kept up all evening so we will not be getting much sleep tonight. The wind should moderate in the small hours and then get even worse tomorrow afternoon before the real serious blow that is due our way on sunday. Of course the forecast may be wrong! 

I almost forgot that I also took a long-range shot of our tanker/support vessel getting roughed up by the sea this morning- before things got too crazy! It's a poor quality photo. but it gives the overall impression of what the sea conditions were like and what a F8 gale can do to a moderate sized vessel!

Sanco Sky in F7/F8 gale

Bunkers

Deathly quiet on the bird front with a nasty spell of weather on the way and cold northerlies seemingly holding up the migrants along the north African coastline. Just 4 birds noted over the past 48 hours- a white wagtail, a black redstart, a chiffchaff and today a solitary swallow. We took advantage of the 'calm before the storm' today and bunkered at sea. Always a tricky operation with the tanker/support vessel just 150 metres ahead of us. All went smoothly and we loaded just under 700 metric tonnes of fuel which should give us much needed stability over the weekends' anticipated blow. The seabirds have dissipated too, with just a handful of yellow-legged gulls and several Cory's shearwaters recorded. Although I cannot offer any scientific 'proof' I have noticed over the years that seabirds often appear restless and then 'disappear' just prior to a storm! Strange how scanning the ocean for long hours with little seabird and cetacean activity makes me more tired than if I was doing full- on counts!   

Fantastic feathers!

Today has been better. After breakfast I saw a few of the usual Cory's shearwaters ahead of the vessel but as usual they kept their distance. Mid morning saw a flypast of 3 Med gulls- two second winters and an adult, although they too kept their distance and made a mockery of my photographic attempts. Just before lunch I left my elevated viewpoint above the ships' bridge and decided to stroll aft to check the sea behind the ship. As I walked under the heli-deck I caught a flash of black and white and knew I was onto a Hoopoe!! The bird had flown over the side but re-appeared behind me on a railing. Camera out, hands shaking with excitement saw me rattle off a number of dismally ill-focused shots. Fortunately the bird was rather confiding and sat there for 20 seconds or so which allowed me to settle down and get a better shot.  I have only ever seen one of these birds in the UK- Portland bill, April 1981, although I have seen a number on Gran Canaria since then. This bird was visible on the heli-deck this afternoon for a couple of hours- one of the few places that are 'out of bounds' to me so I did not manage any further shots. It eventually came down a deck and although I tried for a number of flight shots I couldn't get the exposure and shutter speed right as the camera seemed confused by the blizzard of black and white and I could not get a decent focus. (Well maybe I was confused by the blizzard of black and white). Eventually I got one blurry image which shows the general plumage layout of this cracking bird. Later a Black redstart on deck seemed rather low-key although a week ago the first one was really exciting too.