Oct 5: a lot of Sandwich Terns & Arctic Skuas

Although at the start of the day there was one single observer at the cape…

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A few hours later a lot of people were watching the great seabird passage of today:

The Sociedade Galega de Ornitoloxia (Galician Ornithologists Society) together with the Cultural Society "Son do Sor" organized this weekend at the headland a lot of activities including bird ringing sessions coordinated by Pablo Pita:

...a photographic exhibition with images by Antonio Martínez Pernas and Pablo Gutiérrez:

...and a couple of talks, one of them about a birding trip to South Africa by Pablo Gutierrez, and the other about the remote origins and destinies of some of the birds that can be watched from Estaca de Bares, by Antonio Sandoval.

Regarding seabird numbers, it was a great day for Sandwich Terns and Arctic Skuas, and very nice for several other species, although quite poor for Manxies and Cory’s. These arte the results of the 7 hs coun with W to NW winds:

Sandwich Terns (A. Sandoval)

Razorbill: 1 – the first of the autumn
Bonxie: 97
Arctic Skua: 153
Pomarine: 63
Gannet 5,085
Common Scoter: 483
Manxie: 42
Balearic 240
Sootie: 913
Cory’s: 30
Sandwich Tern: 1,742
“Commic” Tern: 343
Little Tern: 2
Black Tern 2
Grey Phalarope: 2
Little Gull: 2
Mediterranean Gull: 2

And also a few Great Cormorants, Black-Tailed Godwits, Wigeons, Pintails… And a Great White Heron, a scarce bird in Galicia.

Observers: quite a lot of friends (we counted all the birds but forgot to count the people!!)