The 2019 Seawatching season started on July 6th evening with only a few birds on the move, including Common Scoters, Balearic, Manx and Cory's Shearwaters, 1 Pomarine Skua, 1 Arctic Skua, 1 Great Skua and 4 Sandwich Terns. At night, 1 British Storm Petrel was trapped for ringing.

The following day was much better, with c. 200 Northern Gannets/h, more than one hunndred Balearics, 2 Sooty Shearwaters, 8 Great Skuas, a group of 20 Black-tailed Godwits, several Mediterranean Gulls (1 juvenile) and quite a lot of Common Dolphins. 

July 8th was not as good, due to the NE winds... The best sighting was the first juvenile of Balearic Shearwater of the year in Galicia. Also 9 Great Skuas.

Observers: Antonio Sandoval Rey, Pablo Pita Criado

-

La temporada 2019 de seguimiento del paso de aves marinas en Estaca de Bares comenzó el 6 de julio con unas cuantas aves, que incluyeron grupos de negrón común, pardelas baleares, cenicientas y pichoneta, 1 págalo pomarino, 1 parásito y 1 grande, y 4 charranes patinegros. Por la noche se anilló un paíño común.

El día siguiente estuvo mucho mejor, con cerca de 200 alcatraces/hora, más de 100 pardelas baleares, 2 pardelas sombrías, 8 págalos grandes, un grupo de 20 agujas colinegras y, además de otras cosas, varias gaviotas cabecinegras, entre ellas 1 juvenil. También muchos delfines comunes.

El 8 de julio, con el cambio de viento al NE, fue ya peor. La mejor observación fue un juvenil de pardela balear, primera del año en Galicia. También se contaron 9 págalos grandes.

Observadores: Antonio Sandoval Rey, Pablo Pita Criado

July 27th - W winds brought an Arctic Skua, a few Whimbrels and Black Tailed Godwits. Not much more.

July 28th - Passaged started to improve with NWN winds. In 6,15 hs: 54 Great Shearwaters, 43 Manx Shearwaters, 44 Balearic Shearwaters, 504 Cory's Shearwaters, 11 Pomarine Skuas, the FIRST Long Tailed Skua of the season, 1 Arctic Skua, 13 Great Skuas, but just 2 Sandwich Terns and 2 "comic" Terns.

July 29th - A few Great Shearwaters and Manx Shearwaters in the morning, as well as 10 Sandwich Terns, 1 Pomarine and 1 Arctic Skuas. Strong SW wind.

July 30Th - WNW winds for a very nice afternoon and evening count:
    1  Long Tailed Skua
    25 Pomarine Skuas
    8 Arctic Skuas
    5 Great Skuas
    57 Great Shearwaters
    276 Cory's Shearwaters
    44 Manx Shearwaters
    43 Balearic Shearwaters
    1 Sooty Shearwater
    1 Sandwich Tern
    5  Black Tailed Godwits

Observers: Antonio Sandoval Rey, Ricardo Hevia Barcón, Antonio Martínez Pernas, David Martínez Lago, Isabel García-Rodeja, Pau Lucio.

6 seawatching days in this period, with only a few nice observations:

- Most interesting, huge numers of Balearic Shearwater on 20th & 21th, with rafts of up to 184 birds, and local movements of up to 120/h in the mornings.
- First Arctic Skua on 19th.
- First Pomarine Skua, a 2cy, on 20th.
- First Flock of Arctic Terns on 21th.
- Great Shearwaters on 20th and 21th.
- First flocks of Whimbrel and Black Tailed Godwit.
- Harbour Porpoises, Common Dolphins and Bottleneck Dolphins.

Observers: Antonio Sandoval Rey, Ricardo Hevia Barcón

Waterspout watched july 21th from the Bird Observatory (Antonio Sandoval):

First Balearic Shearwater juveniles, nice passage of Northern Gannets (most of them of 2nd-3rd calendar year), a few groups of Mediterranean Gulls and Common Scoters, and a strong NE wind were the main features of the first seawatching weekend of the season at Estaca de Bares. Up to 45 Cory's Shearwaters standed together at sea in the evenings. Only 7 Great Skuas were watched.

Sept 30th: It seems Sooty Shearwaters finally decided to fly south from the Gulf of Biscay. These are some numbers of today:

1,247 Sooty Shearwaters
10,522 Northern Gannets
1,247 Manx Shearwaters
34 Pomarine Skuas
18 Arctic Skuas
42 Great Skuas
​Etc

​The day before Antonio Martinez Pernas found this  Greater short-toed Lark  (first sighting in the area) at the headland:

Greater short-toed Lark Oct 1st started raining but was not so bad, with a nice morning pasage, including:
​
1,060 Sooty Shearwaters
5,518 Northern Gannets
486 Manx Shearwaters
8 Pomarine Skuas
11 Arctic Skuas
11 Great Skuas
Etc

Birders at the Headland: Antonio Sandoval Rey, Ricardo Hevia Barcón

Here's a tiny video of the seabird passage, and Greater short-toed Lark:
​

One of the groups of Pomarine Skuas of sept 25th, photographed by Antonio Martínez Pernas:

Another great day of Skuas at Estaca de Bares, with 216 Pomarines, most of them during the last 2 hours before sunset. Also 5 Long Tailed, 66 Arctic and 126 Great Skuas. Tern numbers were also good, with 463 Sandwich, 157 "commic" and 5 Roseate. Other interesting birds watched were 1 Sabine's Gull in company of 2 Kittiwakes and 1 Little Tern.

Sept 26th was not as good at sea, but very nice in the headland, due to a great fall of migrants, mostly in the hights of the area, were more than 100 Whinchats were counted in a short walk.

Birders at the Observatory: Ricardo Hevia and Antonio Martínez Pernas

Sept 17th was a bit quiet, with just 24 Arctic Skuas, 5 Frey Phalaropes and 114 Sandwich Terns as the main sightings. 

Sept 18th was much better in terms of Terns: 840 Sandwich. And for Great Skuas: 130. Yesterday and today Manx Shearwater numbers were low, with just a few hundreds. 

Sept 19th 409 Common Scoters were also counted, as well as 51 Arctic Skuas and 6 Sabine's Gulls.

Sept 20th produced quite a lot of different species, including 2 Leach's, 4 Long Tailes Skuas, 827 Common Scoters, 61 Arctic Skuas and 117 Great Skuas. 67 Little terns was also a very good number. And 2 Garganeys, a duck with very few sightings in Galicia in autumn.

Sept 21th was not as good due to the rain. Anyway 16 Arctic Skuas kept moving west.

Sept 22th the evening count was again not good. But the morning was not bad! We are still waiting for the numbers of the birder at the headland during those hours, but a Fulmar was seen, as well as a few Great Shearwaters. A Long Eared Owl was seen at night over the headland road.

Sept 23th was nice for passerines, with all the common transaharian migrants seen, as well as 2 Purple Herons. At sea there was not much movement. 16 Pomarines, 14 Arctic Skuas, 1 Sabine's, 3 Great Shearwaters or 100 Balearic Shearwaters were the most interesting numbers.

Sept 24th was again goof for Balearics, as well as not bad for Skuas: 10 Pomarines, 18 Arctic, 27 Great, 1 Long tailed. All of them in the morning, before the rain.

Birders at the headland during the week: Antonio Sandoval Rey, Jesús Menéndez, Toño Lastra, Mark Hollingworth, Chris Phillpot, Jan Södersved, Marku Mikkola-Ross and Pekka Nikander, Petro Pynnonen & 6 more Finnish birders, Jorge Campos, Juan Hermida.