What do you give your husband on his 75th birthday weekend? The answer for me was an opportunity for us to spend a day surveying on the Dover to Calais route. Some of the schools had already broken up for the summer holidays and the traffic would be very busy in Dover. To avoid the chance of being stuck in operation stack or in gridlock in Dover, we drove down to the port on Friday and stayed within 5 miles of it to ensure we could meet our prearranged vessel departure time. We obtained our port passes and joined the queue for the Cote des Dunes.

Once onboard the vessel, we were escorted to the bridge and prepared for the survey ahead. There was light cloud cover in the Channel, but not enough to impact the survey. The survey transect is undertaken from the exit of the Dover outer breakwater to the entrance of the Calais breakwater. This is done to discount the birds frequenting the port area as it is not strictly a pelagic environment. There were several hundred Herring Gull within this protected area in Dover, many of whom took advantage of feeding opportunities created by the wash of the vessels docking and leaving the harbour.

Bird sightings in the Channel were sporadic comprising of Herring Gull, Great and Lesser Black-backed Gull, Mediterranean Gull, Black-headed Gull, Kittiwake, Gannet and a single Sandwich Tern. Despite calm seas, no marine mammals were seen on the transect.

On entering Calais harbour, again off transect, we were rewarded by seeing four Harbour Seal that had hauled out in the protected harbour environment. Again, birds were taking advantage of the port area, many Cormorant, Herring Gull and Black-headed Gull were resting awaiting the ships to dredge up food scraps in their wake.

Whilst in port, the clouds started to burn away, visibility improved and the wind increased slightly.

Bird sightings were sporadic once again with sightings of Kittiwake, Herring Gull, Great and Lesser Black-backed Gull, Black-headed Gull and the occasional Gannet. As we neared Dover, a thin black line of birds was seen, which, as we neared them, were confirmed as eighteen Common Scoter

As the vessel entered Dover outer breakwater, we collected our belongings and returned to the passenger area to disembark. Despite not recording any sea mammals on transect, we were delighted to see the Harbour Seal hauled out in Calais harbour.

We wish to thank the DFDS Captains Thily and Traccan, and the officers and crew of the Cote des Dunes for enabling us to survey on this route.

Carol Farmer-Wright and Andy Farmer-Wright, Research Surveyors for MARINElife (Registered Charity No. 1110884; Registered Company No. 5057367)

Weather

Outbound – wind N force 3, visibility moderate with low cloud

Return – wind N force 5-6, visibility good