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hellos

25th

Somebody turned the wind fan up a notch overnight, we got to the bridge to see a very angry looking sea state seven, it looked like another tough day surveying. We picked up where we left off yesterday and headed south, then we’ll run a transect SE towards the French coast before heading east to pick up the last French transect (photo 1).

Transects run on the 25th

The mid-Channel waters have been very quiet this year, we recorded 19 birds in two hours. In most years the solitary Great Shearwater we recorded would have been a star bird but being the 917th this year it was more a case of wondering if it would be the last we’ll see this year (photo 2 – from earlier this survey).

Great Shearwater

We turned on to the next transect and prepared for a long four hours, the cloud had cleared and there was a lovely highway of glare directly ahead of us, just to add to the rough sea conditions. Several hours of 25-30knot winds had pushed up some pretty steep seas.

Things started slow but after an hour we had a flock of around 50 Balearic Shearwaters – that’s more like it – and sightings continued regularly until the end of the transect. We ended with 106 logged, a healthy boost to what had been a dismal year for them so far. For a better view than afforded by photos from the Endeavour here’s a rather closer photo of one taken in Lyme Bay a few years ago (photo 3).

Balearic Shearwater (Library photo: Peter Howlett)

The other star bird of this transect turned out to be Little Gull (photo 4). It had been good for them last year with 66 seen and this year, despite the conditions, was even better with 86 recorded. Other birds seen included 74 Manx Shearwaters and two Arctic Skuas.

Little Gull

We narrowly avoided a cetacean blank, although I’m not sure a solitary unidentified dolphin really counts. A single dark dolphin broke the surface a couple of times close to the ship and disappeared, behaviour and shape suggested something other than a Common Dolphin – very annoying.

It was two hours to the next transect and I was hoping to have a chance to photograph Little Gulls and Balearics as we had seen so many. Light conditions were fantastic, and the wind and seas had calmed down, but there was barely a bird to be seen.

As we turned on to the next transect there were a few, very distant, Little Gulls to be seen, easy to pick out against the dark blue sea. We recorded 45 in the two hours we surveyed but virtually all were a long way from the ship, searching for food in small flocks.

We passed the Roches Douvres lighthouse (photo 5) shortly before the end of the survey as the sun set (photo 6).

We’ll finish this transect tomorrow then head back over to UK waters and Lyme Bay, where we’ll spend the remaining days of the survey.

26th

We started the day off with a trawl shortly after sunrise, so it was a relaxed start, time for our second Firecrest to be found (photo 7), looking a little perkier than the first. There were one or two Balearic Shearwaters gliding around so we were hoping they weren’t the only ones we’d see all day.

Firecrest

When we finally got going on the transect it was a glorious day for surveying, light winds and the sun behind us and a lovely sharp horizon. There weren’t a huge number of birds to be seen at first, but we did manage 16 Balearic Shearwaters and 21 Manx Shearwaters (photo 8).

Manx Shearwater

Nearing the end of the transect Officer of the Watch Simon asked if we could see anything a couple of miles ahead as he had a target on the radar moving at 26 knots, which would pass within a mile of us. As the horizon was clear it was obvious there was nothing ahead. As the target passed by Simon looked to see if he could see anything and called over to us that there was a flock of birds passing, a quick look confirmed they were Wood Pigeons – a flock of about 1500 (photo 9).

Flock of Wood Pigeons

The flocks kept coming for at least a couple of hours, we looked at a few but they were high and distracting from what we were there to do so I have no idea how many went over but likely 10-20000. Photo 10 is of the radar screen about midway through the period they were passing, every yellow target on the screen is a flock and the blue trail shows the direct of travel.

Wood Pigeons on radar

Large movements of Wood Pigeons happen across the UK every autumn, I’ve seen them over Cardiff myself, but had never considered that they might cross the Channel. We’ve certainly never encountered them on the Peltic surveys before and I can only think of two other occasions where an officer commented on a target that turned out to be birds and, on both occasions, it was a large feeding flock of Gannets.

This transect proved to be a cetacean-free zone, the fifth this year, and of course two minutes after we turn off, what happens but a large pod of Common Dolphins appears ahead! It would have been good to have seen them on transect but it was still interesting to see a melanistic individual amongst them (photo 11). We see one or two most years but don’t always manage to get a photo.

Melanistic Common Dolphin

The next transect started a little quietly too, with a trickle of Gannets and Kittiwake and the odd Manx Shearwater. The first Common Dolphin sighting came after about an hour followed shortly after by another sighting, this time of four larger dolphins that largely kept out of sight. We think they were Risso’s but can’t be 100% sure – frustrating.

Three hours in and we started seeing more tuna splashes, often only one or two animals, occasionally a few more. Along with them came an increase in Kittiwake and Gannet sightings as the birds searched for fish around where the tuna were feeding. Common Dolphin sightings also increased too with numerous small pods, some came into the bow but several just ignored us and carried on with whatever they were doing (photo 12).

Common Dolphins

Mid-afternoon Bryony, one of the JNCC observers on board, spotted a distant floating object, I managed to get a shot (photo 13) which appeared to show an upturned boat. On seeing the photo Officer of Watch Alex called the Captain and we came off transect to investigate. It turned out to be a 2m long tender (photo 14), we recovered the boat and, fortunately, there were no signs that it had been occupied, writing on the side suggested it may have been a tender to a French fishing boat.

Just before we resumed the transect Bryony spotted two dolphins, again they were frustratingly illusive, but a distant photo showed they were a mother and calf Risso’s – another sighting off-transect.

The rest of the afternoon continued with occasional tuna feeding splashes and small pods of Common Dolphins being recorded along with small numbers of Gannets and Kittiwakes. However, not even the largest of the feeding frenzies – perhaps 20-30 tuna – had more than a dozen or so birds associated with it, birds definitely seemed in short supply.

We gave up surveying about 10 minutes before sunset as the sea got too dark to be able to pick up birds with the naked eye. It gave us a chance to watch the sunset on a clear horizon and see the ‘green flash’, really just a spot of green just after the sun has disappeared (photo 15).

Green flash

The weather appears to be set fair for the rest of the week, which will be a luxury of it happens.