We boarded the King Seaways at 16.00 on Monday afternoon and set sail at just after 17.30.  The weather was fully overcast, and the visibility was closing in with drifting fog banks, carried on the 19-29 knots of wind.  Once we were out from the Tyne, we surveyed from the starboard bridge position with a light intermittent rain present.

There were good numbers of terns feeding in the mouth waters of the Tyne as we sailed out towards the North Sea, including some possible Roseate Tern flying down from their colony on Coquet Island, and there were several small groups of Cormorant as we exited the Tyne’s breakwaters.

The first sightings were mostly of Gannet, Kittiwake, Herring Gull, Common Gull, Fulmar, and mixed flocks of auks, mostly Guillemot, while a couple of Puffin stole the show with their breeding colours!

With the sunlight in the west, our easterly heading highlighted a couple of Manx Shearwater scooting through the groups of other birds, tracking between some Fulmar along the wavetops.

There was a good amount of cetacean activity as well, with a small number of Common Dolphin and Bottlenose Dolphin recorded in the space of the hour after the ship cleared the Tyne breakwater.  The last sighting of the evening was a Grey Seal, spy-hopping to check out the King Seaways as she passed by, but with the light receding and the chances of recording any further wildlife becoming difficult, we stopped our survey at 20.48.

The following morning, we took up position at 05.00 surveying from the inside observation deck at the front of the ship.  As the weather outside was quite challenging, this was the only place on the vessel offering substantial protection from the rain and wind!

Although the number of birds were less than the previous evening, we did record smaller numbers of Kittiwake, Guillemot, Herring Gull, Fulmar, and Lesser Black-Backed Gulls.  There were less Gannet seen than on the previous evening, but the highlight of the crossing were the numbers of Sandwich Tern, Common Tern, and Arctic Tern, dancing over the waves as they fed.

During the stay at Ijmuiden a strong offshore breeze provided excellent wave-skimming conditions for numbers of Kittiwake and Fulmar, visible from the beach to the south of the port’s breakwater.  The breeze continued to build all day and had reached a force 6 by the time of the return crossing of the King Seaways, and as a result there were not many birds visible from the harbour or shore.

Back on the ship for the return passage to Newcastle we surveyed from an outside position on deck 10, behind the frontal superstructures that gave us some shelter from the 40 knot winds and 3 metre waves!  The main seabird activity was from the many Lesser Black Back Gull that nest around Ijmuiden, continually orbiting the ship in its slipstream from the oncoming westerly winds, while a few Commic Tern whizzed past with the wind at their tails along with a few Kittiwake.  Blown to pieces by the wind, we ceased survey after 18.30!

The next morning dawned bright with a partial overcast and a much calmer westerly breeze, with the swell height continuing to fall as we neared Newcastle.  We were again surveying from the bridge, where visibility from the bridge wing was good, with only a little sea mist on the horizon.  In the better conditions Gannet were out in force, included a good proportion of juvenile and second-year birds which hopefully indicates a successful breeding season.  Most of the young birds were closely tracking the adult birds.

We recorded a few more Kittiwake and Manx Shearwater, but there were good numbers of Fulmar including many of the dark morphs from the northern Atlantic waters.  As we approached the Newcastle breakwater there were about 50 terns feeding where the fresh waters of the Tyne mixed with the salt waters, and underneath these was a small pod of Harbour Porpoise busily feeding on the small fish which seemed to be jumping the surface in an effort to escape!

We were very well looked after by the captain and crew of the King Seaways, and everyone was very accommodating and helpful.  The ship as ever was in immaculate trim and runs like a well-oiled machine, making these valuable marine surveys possible and a pleasure to do.  A big thankyou to DFDS for this continued support.

Jon Steele and Rhys Jones, Research Surveyor for MARINElife (Registered Charity No. 1110884; Registered Company No. 5057367)

 

Weather

Outbound: Sea state: 3;  Visibility: 1-2;  Cloud: 2-6;  Swell: 1-2m;  Wind: 18-36 knots S-SW

Return: Sea state: 2-6;  Visibility: 4-5;  Cloud: 2-4;  Swell: 1-3m;  Wind: 10-37 knots S-SW