The great surprise of today was a pale morph South Ploar Skua moving west in company of two Great Skuas. Although the bird was flying close enough to watch all the identification details and compare it to the Bonxies, no photographs were taken. Here you can have a look at a paper about the South Polar Skua migration revealed by Data Loggers (Kopp et al., 2011). Here a paper about presumed adult South Polar Skuas watched from Estaca de Bares in 2010 (Sandoval and López Velasco, 2010). And here at one of several photographs taken by Dave McAdams to an individual seen in Sept. 2011.

The passage was nice all through the day with a soft SW wind, but specially towards the evening, specially for Arctic Skuas (40 birds in 30 min. just before having to leave the headland!). These are the main numbers obtained during the 6,45 hs count:

Bonxie 108
Arctic Skua 65
Pomarine 3
Long Tailed Skua 2
Gannet 2,717
Manxie 22
Balearic 203 (and 93 eastwards)
Sootie 127
Cory’s 108
Sandwich Tern 255
“Commic” Tern 172
Little Tern 6
Black Tern 5
Grey Phalarope 5
And also a few Knots, Dunlins, Great Ringed Plovers, Oystercatchers and Great Cormorants.

Observer: Antonio Sandoval

55 species were watched today at and from the headland. At sea Gannet numbers built up, with 321/h, but other numbers were quite low during the 4,5 hs count all through the day: 1 Manxie, 45 Balearics (and 140 eastwards), 12 Cory's, 24 Sooties, 67 Common Scoters, 1 Pom, 4 Arctic skuas, 4 Bonxies, 36 Sandwich Terns, 25 "commics", 64 Oystercatchers and a few Grey Herons, White Egrets, Teals, Shovelers, Pintails, Wigeons, Great Cormorants, Knots and Sanderlings.

At the headland the numbers of migrants were similar to yesterday's, including a few White Wagtails.

Observers: Antonio Sandoval, José Miguel Alnoso and Martín Alonso

The afternoon and evening count had to be stopped several times due to the rain. Anyway, there was not much to watch at sea, just 70 Common Scoters/hour, 164 Gannets/h, 7 Sooties/h and several groups of Balearics, as well as a few teals and only 4 Bonxies.

Instead, as during the previous days, there were quite a lot of migrants around the Observatory, including several Willow Warblers, 1 Turtle Dove, at least 6 Wrynecks, 2 Common Redstarts, 3 Pied Flycatchers, 8 Whinchats, 9 Whitethroats and 2 Wheatears.

Observer: Antonio Sandoval

Nice passage today. During the 3 hs evening count these were some of the species watched:

Manxie: 124
Sootie: 165
Cory's: 5
Balearic: 8
Commic Tern: 230
Sandwich Tern: 215
Great Skua: 41
Arctic Skua: 41
Pomarine: 1
LT Skua: 2 (1 ad)
Common Scoter: 16
Great Cormorant: 11

Meanwhile an Ortolan Bunting, the 2nd this autumn, was found close to the Observatory, and a Hen Harrier was also seen flying over the area.

Observers: Antonio Gutiérrez, Pablo Gutiérrez, Ricardo Hevia

A good day at Estaca. Although the number of shearwaters has fallen so much, especially in the afternoon, the passage of skuas and terns has been very entertaining. The best, without a doubt, was the 5th Pterodroma Petrel of the season that make us spent about ten minutes staring at it, even we could see how it was harassed by an Arctic Skua. It was a special pterodroma to Ricardo Hevia, as the thirty he see from Estaca (congratulations!!!).

Also this afternoon the local hawk has tried to catch a tern but failed in his attempt and, unfortunately for him, he has been chased by an Arctic Skua almost until the shore too... a bad day for him...

Day totals in 7 hrs are:

Manxies: 950 ( 5,15 hs count)
Sootie: 339 ( 5,15 hs count)
Balearic: 18 (3 hs count)
Cory's: 29 (3 hs count)
Sandwich Tern: 547
"Commic" Tern: 370
Black Tern: 1
Common Scoter:201
Gannets: 204 (1 h count)
Grey Phalarope: 2
Bonxie: 74
Arctic Skua: 92
Pomarine: 6
Arctic/Long Tailed : 3
Long Tailed Skua: 13 (1 adult)

Observers: Ricardo Hevia, David Martínez Lago, Mike Buckland, Mark hullingworth & Antonio Martínez Pernas.

Today's 6 h count included 10 Pomarine, 56 Bonxies , 107 Arctic Skuas and 21 Long-Tailed (them all 1sr year birds). Also 972 Sandwich Terns, 194 "commic" 5 Little terns, 143 Common Scoters, 1 Kittiwake, 1 Teal and 2 Shovelers. regarding Shearwaters, 2 Great and a passage of 370 Manxies/h, 206 Sooties/h, 15 Cory's/h and 3 Balearics/h.


Observers: Ricardo Hevia, David Martínez Lago, Antonio Martínez Pernas, Mike Buckland, Mark Hullingworth, Daniel Nañas, Miquel Casas and Ferrán Vaquero.

The 4 hs count during the afternoon and evening confirmed that the passage of Sooties (1,033) and Manxies (3,420) goes on. Not many other shearwaters were seen, only a handful of Cory's and Balearics, and 1 Great. Regarding Skuas, just 34 Arctic, 11 Poms and 27 Bonxies. Tern nmbers were quite low too: 57 Sandwich, 15 "commic" and 1 Black.

Observers: Ricardo Hevia, David Martínez Lago, Antonio Martínez Pernas, Mike Buckland & Friends, Daniel Nañas, Miquel Casas and Ferrán Vaquero.

Today a Lapland bunting was found close to the bird observatory. It¨s a very scarce species here.

At sea, during the first hours of the day there was a huge passage of Manxies and Sooties. In the afternoon and evening numbers were not as high, but anywhere quite good. Day totals in 7,5 hs are:

Manxies: 9,523 (5 hs count)
Sootie: 3,145 (5 hs count)
Balearic: 27 (5 hs count)
Cory's: 38 (5 hs count)
Sandwich Tern: 230
"Commic" Tern: 132
Black Tern: 7
Common Scoter: 16
Whimbrel: 10
Grey Phalarope: 1
Bonxie: 174
Arctic Skua: 89
Pomarine: 13
Arctic/Pom: 2
Long Tailed Skua: 3

Observers: Ricardo Hevia, David Martínez Lago, Antonio Martínez Pernas, Mike Buckland & Friends, Daniel Nañas, Miquel Casas and Ferrán Vaquero.

Very good day today at Estaca, with not much passage during the morning, but instead a lot of birds during the afternoon and evening with the N wind. Most remarkable, the 4th Pterodroma Petrel (Fea’s type), found by Antonio Martínez Pernas in his Birthday, a very nice present indeed. The totals for 6 hs count were:

606 Gannets
8,119 Manxies (1,350 birds/hour, which means that all through the day close to 15.000 Manxies moved west)
1,221 Sooties
141 Cory’s
44 Balearics
1 Great Shearwater
26 Pomarine Skuas (+ 5 out of count)
61 Arctic Skuas (+ 12 out of count)
2 LT Skuas (+ 3 out of count)
40 Bonxies (+ 8 out of count)
97 Sandwich Terns
80 “comic” Terns
2 Black terns
13 Black-Tailed Godwit
8 Whimbrel

One of the local Peregrines captured a Whimbrel.

Observers: Antonio Martínez Pernas (Happy Birthday!), Ricardo Hevia, David Martínez Lago, Mike Buckland & Friends, Daniel Nañas, Miquel Casas, Ferrán Vaquero and 2 Dutch birders.

Today’s 9 hs count was finally quite productive for Bonxies, with a total of 172. We also watched 2 LT Skuas, 72 Arctic and 5 Poms. Sandwich Tern numbers were also fine: 494. “Commics” were 489, Little 5 and Black Terns 15. A Juv. Sabine’s Gull was in company of a group of “Commics”. Regarding Shearwaters, we only counted 101 Cory’s, but instead there was a nice passage of Sooties (1,033) and Balearics (74), and several groups of manxies totalling 1,026. Other species watched were Common Scoter (113), Oystercatcher (24), Gannet (1,233), Dunlin, Bar-Tailed Godwit, Grey Heron, Whimbrel, Curlew, Teal… One of the local Peregrines captured a “Commic” Tern over the sea and brought it to the cliffs.

Observers: Ricardo Hevia, Antonio Martínez Pernas, Antonio Gutiérrez, Lucas Gutiérrez, Pablo Gutiérrez, Antonio Sandoval, Gustavo Ferreiro and Encarna González with birders of SEO-Pontevedra,  and in the evening Mike Buckland & Friends.