I always enjoy going back to Morecambe, on the way to Heysham for this survey.  Although the town is very quiet on a Monday evening, it’s nice to revisit the TERN Art Project with its many sculptures of birds along the seafront and in nearby streets.  A little taster for the real seabirds to be seen the following day…!

 

The CLdN staff and crew were as welcoming as ever and we were at our station on the starboard side of the bridge by 07:45.  The day had dawned rather overcast and grey but was much better than forecast and improving, so we were soon seeing reasonable numbers of birds though these mostly restricted to gulls, Guillemot, Razorbill, and the occasional Gannet.  The one stand-out bird was a Great Skua, flying low over the water in front of the ship.  As we neared Dublin, we saw more Cormorant and Shag, but no seals or cetaceans.

After an early lunch we spent some time on the deck looking for port-dwelling birds.  Our view was restricted to the container park but also across the river to the old Pigeon House Dock and the outflows from the power station.  Here there was a large flock of mixed gulls sitting on the rails and swirling over the water, while numbers of Cormorant and Feral Pigeon had taken the place of terns on the specially made rafts.  Try as we might, we could not see any Black Guillemot, and the one exciting small brown and yellow bird we did see, intriguingly could not be found in any of our books!

 

The return journey started well for birds, with a few more Kittiwake than on the way out.  Some 20 miles out of Dublin we came across a group of approximately 35 adult and juvenile Kittiwake and some mixed gulls, milling around and perhaps fishing.  A minute or so later we saw three dolphins, probably Common Dolphin, swimming fast past the ship towards where the birds had been seen.  Then, ten minutes after this encounter we had a great sighting of six more Common Dolphin swimming towards and then in front of the ship, the slanting afternoon sun really showing their beautiful yellow and grey flanks.  At the same time a smaller group of two dolphin were seen travelling away from the ship – we only had brief glimpses of their fins against the sun so could not confirm if these too were Common Dolphin.

The afternoon grew quieter for sightings, and although we missed most of the rain seen in the area, we did catch one fairly brief shower.  Eventually dusk drew in and we closed the survey at 18:15.  We are very grateful to the captain and crew of CLdN Pace, who made us feel very much at home on their ship, and look forward to our next survey on board.

 

Jenny Ball and Don Ainsworth, Research Surveyors for MARINElife

Registered Charity No. 1110884; Registered Company No. 5057367)

 

Weather

A dry but overcast morning, wind SE Force 5 with reasonable visibility.  For the return journey the wind had backed to NE Force 5, it was initially bright but then overcast with an isolated shower.