there was an amazing seabirds migration from the 15th to the 17th september :
+1000 sooty, 200 manx, 140 balearic and 1 GREAT shearwater
20 leach's storm-petrel
2900 gannets
300 arctic, 25 pomarines, 30 long-tailed and 360 great skua
6 sabine's gull
3200 sandwich, 3600 common, 80 black and 1 ROSEATE tern
were seen passing the "Strait of Dover" from the North Sea to the Channel
Like I couldn't go to the best spot, The Clipon in France near Belgian border, I went to Oostende Wednesday and Thursday afternoon but I was at school on Friday. There is far less birds in Oostende but at least I managed to add a bird to my Belgian list (and is also self-found tick!) : a balearic shearwater on Wednesday evening. It's a rare bird here but it's commoner at the French spot.
the seawatching spot in my area are (a map) :
Westkapelle, NL (Westkap) : http://trektellen.nl/trektelling.asp?telpost=3&land=1&site=0&datum=20100917&taal=2
Oostende, Be
De Panne, Be
The Clipon, Fr : http://www.leclipon.com/ & http://trektellen.nl/trektelling.asp?telpost=7&land=3&site=0&datum=20100917&taal=2
Cape Gris-Nez, Fr (CGN) : http://seawatchcgn.free.fr/ & http://trektellen.nl/trektelling.asp?telpost=148&land=3&site=0&datum=20100917&taal=2
on the 14th september, Western wind pushed the birds from the atlantic into the north sea :
on the 15th september, the first pelagic birds arrived in the Strait of Dover but the South-West wind was better for the Cape Griz-Nez (CGN) than the other spot. There is again good wind north of Scotland pushing new birds into the North Sea.
Here is the sighings at each spots :
Westkap | Ostende | Panne | Clipon | CGN | |
hours of seawatching | 12:30 | 4:40 | ? | 4:45 | 12:20 |
Red-throated diver | 1 | ||||
Black-throated diver | 1 | ||||
Black-neck/slov grebe | 1 | ||||
fulmar | 1 | 3 | |||
Sooty shearwater | 64 | 32 | 35 | 174 | 372 |
Manx shearwater | 37 | 15 | 33 | 22 | 36 |
Balearic shearwater | 1 | 2 | 3 | 98 | |
Leach’s storm-petrel | 1 | 1 | |||
gannet | 87 | 53 | ? | 233 | 262 |
eider | 1 | ||||
Common scoter | 25 | ? | 44 | 56 | |
Other duck (all species) | 2 | 3 | ? | 4 | |
kestrel | 1 | ||||
Peregrine falcon | 1 | ||||
hobby | 2 | ||||
Curlew sandpiper | 4 | ||||
Waders (all species) | 61 | 11 | ? | 53 | |
Arctic skua | 12 | 1 | 2 | 28 | 25 |
Pomarine skua | 3 | 1 | |||
Great skua | 22 | 1 | 4 | 8 | |
Skua sp. | 4 | 4 | 2 | 1 | |
Little gull | 50 | ? | |||
kittiwake | 1 | ||||
Sandwich tern | 88 | Xx | ? | 408 | 332 |
Common tern | 218 | Xxx | ? | 176 | 702 |
Arctic tern | 4 | 4 | ? | 1 | 3 |
Black tern | 17 | 15 | ? | 20 | |
Razorbill / guillemot | 1 | 4 | |||
kingfisher | 1 |
On the 16th, the wind was awesome in the North Sea with the NW (force 8) coming from Norway to the Netherland but here the wind was still from the west and thus there was again more birds at the CGN but the Clipon was very good with leach's storm-petrel, sabine's gull not seen at the CGN and more long-tailed skua. In Belgium, there was a ROSEATE TERN and again a Balearic shearwater at De Panne
sightings :
Westkap | Ostende | Panne | Clipon | CGN | |
Hours of seawatching | 13:00 | 12:15 | ? | 13:00 | 12:15 |
Red-throated diver | 2 | 2 | |||
Black-throated diver | 1 | 2 | |||
Sooty shearwater | 188 | 53 | 11 | 158 | 537 |
Manx shearwater | 20 | 36 | 29 | 98 | 129 |
Balearic shearwater | 1 | 10 | 42 | ||
Leach’s storm-petrel | 2 | 2 | 5 | ||
gannet | 500 | 109 | 163 | 857 | 1858 |
Little egret | 3 | ||||
Pink-footed goose | 5 | ||||
eider | 3 | ||||
Common scoter | 75 | 28 | 13 | 46 | 52 |
Other duck (all species) | 43 | 1 | ? | 4 | 3 |
Osprey | 1 | ||||
Marsh harrier | 1 | 1 | |||
kestrel | 1 | ||||
Peregrine falcon | 1 | ||||
Merlin | 1 | ||||
Curlew sandpiper | 1 | ||||
Bar-tailed godwit | 713 | ||||
Waders (all species) | 942 | 80 | 13 | 183 | 82 |
Arctic skua | 34 | 1 | 28 | 102 | 123 |
Pomarine skua | 7 | 4 | 2 | 9 | 12 |
Long-tailed skua | 6 | 1 | 4 | 1 | |
Great skua | 70 | 12 | 11 | 31 | 132 |
Skua sp. | 9 | 32 | 9 | 14 | |
Mediterranean gull | 1 | ||||
Little gull | 3 | 20 | 2 | 1 | 3 |
kittiwake | 1 | 16 | 4 | ||
Sabine’s gull | 1 | 1 | |||
Sandwich tern | 229 | 86 | 171 | 781 | 1733 |
Common tern | 228 | xxx | 134 | 609 | 1086 |
Arctic tern | 3 | 1 | 14 | 6 | |
Roseate tern | 1 | ||||
Little tern | 2 | 1 | |||
Black tern | 5 | 22 | 2 | 17 | 32 |
Razorbill / guillemot | 1 | 1 | 2 | 2 | 5 |
On the 17th, the wind was finally NW here too and the best spot was by far The Clipon where a GREAT SHEARWATER was seen, the 6th for the spot and first since 2002!! :
sightings :
Westkap | Ostende | Panne | Clipon | CGN | |
Hours of observations | 12:30 | 9:50 | ? | 12:00 | 5:20 |
Red-throated diver | 2 | 1 | |||
Diver sp. | 1 | ||||
fulmar | 1 | 1 | 13 | ||
GREAT SHEARWATER | 1 | ||||
Sooty shearwater | 23 | 4 | 8 | 171 | 243 |
Manx shearwater | 8 | 3 | 1 | 56 | 14 |
Balearic shearwater | 1 | 3 | |||
Shearwater sp. | 2 | ||||
Leach’s storm-petrel | 16 | 12 | 2 | 17 | 1 |
gannet | 73 | 22 | 335 | 789 | 680 |
eider | 1 | ||||
Common scoter | 49 | 30 | 27 | 116 | 117 |
Other duck (all species) | 40 | 3 | 4 | ||
Merlin | 3 | ||||
Dotterel | 1 | ||||
Curlew sandpiper | 6 | ||||
Little stint | 1 | ||||
Bar-tailed godwit | 210 | ||||
Waders (all species) | 324 | 168 | 17 | 25 | 52 |
Arctic skua | 34 | 19 | 20 | 166 | 53 |
Pomarine skua | 2 | 13 | 6 | 11 | 6 |
Long-tailed skua | 1 | 1 | 1 | 26 | |
Great skua | 33 | 18 | 6 | 239 | 219 |
Skua sp. | 5 | 16 | 17 | ||
Mediterranean gull | 2 | ||||
Little gull | 2 | 38 | |||
kittiwake | 1 | 15 | 16 | ||
Sabine’s gull | 2 | 1 | 5 | ||
Sandwich tern | 414 | 41 | 108 | 1136 | 295 |
Common tern | 644 | 360 | 369 | 1849 | 1100 |
Arctic tern | 6 | 2 | 14 | 4 | |
Little tern | 4 | 9 | 1 | 2 | |
Black tern | 6 | 3 | 5 | 36 | 28 |
Razorbill / guillemot | 1 | 1 | 4 | 3 | |
Spotted flycatcher | 1 |
Now I wait for the next NW storm and I hope it'll be during the we and that I'll have the possibility to go to the Clipon
FD
