Hi all,
as some of you will know we have been trying to run our third annual marathon Dolphin watch (the Stena Sea Trust Dolphin-othon) off the Stena Europe between Fishguard and Rosslare, over the past seven days.
Three of the seven days had to be cancelled due to rough weather but we still managed to see and film Risso's and Common Dolphins as well as Harbour Porpoises.
Birds are also seen , often in spectacular numbers and with occasional less common species. Adrian Shephard managed to snap this fast flying Jv/subadult Arctic Skua. An adult Long Tailed Skua which flipped past us on the bridge at eye level gave scrumptious close up views of its in-tact, long tail streamers. We had good views of all four species of Skua but perhaps the most exciting birding experience of the Dolphin-othon is that it tends to coencide with the southerly movements of thousands of Terns, Kittiwakes, Auks and Manxies. The Ships arrival at the Irish Coast with tens of thousands of feeding sea birds can be overwheming. There has to be rarities in amongst them but as our first responsibility is recording cetaceans we probably miss most of them!
Our Sea Trust-Stena cetacean surveys are year round. We try to pick the weather so are often called at short notice. Any birders who fancy joining us and have the neccessary spare time are welcome, its free except for the Guinness! allthingsgood,cliff
(photo's Risso's Group & Skua, courtesy: Adrian Shephard)
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