2,330 Manx Shearwatersin just 2,30 hs this morning. Also 56 Great Skuas, 62 Sooties, 56 Arctic Skuas, 62 British Storm Petrels, 3 Wilson's Storm Petrels, 167 Sandwich Terns...

Observers: Antonio Sandoval, Toño Salazar, Mark Hollingworth, David Taylor.

Mark Hollingworth, David Taylor at the Observatory (Antonio Sandoval):​

Huge passage of seabirds on Sept 9th:
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C. 60.000 Manx Shearwaters
1 Barolo Shearwater
1 Fea's type Petrel (4th this year)
141 Roseate Terns
2 Wilson's Storm Petrels
6 Sabine's Gulls
264 Pomarine Skuas
227 Arctic Skuas
243 Great Skuas
67 Long Tailed Skuas
1511 "Commic" Terns
712 Sandwich Terns
25 G. Phalaropes
27 Great Shearwaters
751 Sooty Shearwaters
1 Fulmar (9th of the year)
ETC.
Observers: Dani Monteagudo, Carla Soaje, Pablo y Antonio Gutiérrez, David Martínez, Ricardo Hevia, Pablo Pita y Antonio Sandoval, Mark Hollingworth, David Taylor.
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Counting Seabirds from the Observatory (photo by David Martinez):

Great shots of Pomarine Skuas taken from the headland by our team member Antonio Martínez Pernas on Aug 18th, when 146 Poms were counted, most of them in nice close groups flying quite close:

SEPT 3th
SW Wind: 3 Arctic Skuas, 5 Bonxies... Instead, 23 Minke Whales and 2 Fin Whales, and a pod of Pilot Whales. (Obs: Antonio Sandoval)

SEPT 4th:
​118 Sooty Shearwaters in 6 hs. Also 36 Pomarines, 102 Arctic Skuas, 15 Long Tailed Skuas, 110 Bonxies, 13 Sabine's Gulls, 16 Great Shearwaters, 3 Roseate Terns... (Obs: Antonio Martínez Pernas, Ricardo Hevia, Javier Cantil)

SEPT 5th:
389 Sooty Shearwaters in 4 hs. Also 17 Pomarines, 59 Arctic Skuas, 9 Long Tailed Skuas, 66 Bonxies... (Obs: Antonio Martínez Pernas, Ricardo Hevia)

SEPT 6th:
NE Winds mean poor numbers: 3 Pomarines, 16 Arctic Skuas, 30 Bonxies... (Obs: Ricardo Hevia)

SEPT 7th: 
1 Fea's Type Petrel. Also 12 Pomarines, 32 Arctic Skuas, 6 Long Tailed Skuas, 12 Bonxies... (Obs: Ricardo Hevia)

SEPT 8th:
2,339 Manx Shearwaters in 6 hs. Also 32 Arctic Skuas... (Obs: Antonio Martínez Pernas, Ricardo Hevia, Antonio Sandoval)

Estaca de Bares Lighthouse from the road (Antonio Sandoval):

Great days at Estaca de Bares with some excellent sightings.

July 27th: 1st Grey Phalarope of the year, and more Great Shearwaters (15 in 2 hs). Also a few Bar Tailed Godwits.
Birder at the Observatory: Ricardo Hevia.

July 28th: 1st Fea's Type Petrel at 21:00 hs. A bird feeding wih Great Shearwaters and Cory's. Some other birds watched in 2,45 hs in the evening: 6 Pomarine Skuas, 2 Long Tailed Skuas, 5 Bonxies.
Birder at the Observatory: Antonio Sandoval Rey.

July 29Th: Another Fea's Type Petrel late in the evening. Also first day with nice groups of Commic Terns: a total of 206 in 6,15 hs. Other birds: 71 Common Scoters, 7 Pomarine Skuas, 16 Long Tailed Skuas, 33 Bonxies, 2 Arctic Skuas, 2 Sooty Shearwaters, 27 Great Shearwaters, 1 Grey Phalarope, 7 Black Terns, 7 Little Terns, etc.
Birders at the Observatory: Antonio Sandoval Rey, Alfonso Valderas.

July 30th: SKUA FESTIVAL! Amazing passage of LongTailed Skuas in july - 149 birds, all of them but 6 from 16:15 to 21:00. One of the groups was of 22 individuals! Other totals in 8,30 hs: 70 Pomarines (very good number for July too), 20 Arctic Skuas, 34 Bonxies, 4 Sabine´s Gulls. 155 Manx Shearwaters, 36 European Strom Petrels, 1 Grey Phalarope, 54 Great Shearwaters, 29 Black Tailed Godwits, 276 Commic Terns and more.
Birders at the Observatory: Antonio Sandoval Rey, Alfonso Valderas, Ricard Hevia, Antonio Martínez Pernas, Antonio Gutiérrez, Pablo Gutiérrez, Carla Soaje, Dani Monteagudo.

Video of the Long Tailed Skua passage on 30th:

Birders at the Observatory: Antonio Sandoval Rey, Ricardo Hevia Barcón, Pablo Lado, Javier Cantil, Fran Tornero.

Friday 21th, W winds. 38 Great Shearwaters in 3,30 hs provided again a nice evening count. Also 276 Cory’s and the first tiny groups of terns: 18 commics and 10 Sandwhich.  

Saturday 22th – NW winds. A South Polar Skua landed at sea close o the headland at 9,15 am. It stayed there for a few minutes and continued westwards. There were quite a lot of Common Dolphins in the area, and over them huge concentrations of Gannets, Cory’s and a few Great Shearwaters. The total count for Great Shearwaters on passage in 7,45 hs was 204 birds. Other seabirds watched moving westwards were 24 Manx Shearwaters, 22 Balearic Shearwaters, 905 Cory’s, 8 Pomarine Skuas, 1 Arctic Skua, 8 Great Skuas, 26 commic Terns, 11 Sandwhich Terns, 2 Med gulls and 6 Whimbrels.

Sunday 23 – WSW Winds. The first Long tailed Skua of the season was watched at 8,05 am. The second, at 18,20. Both adult birds. Good numbers once more of Great Shearwaters: 33 in 4,30 hs. Also 18 Manx Shearwaters, 16 Balearic Shearwaters, 354 Cory’s, 1 Pomarine Skua, 3 Arctic Skuas, 6 Bonxies…

Monday 24th – NW Winds. First day of good passage of Common Scoters: 220 in 7,15 hs. Very nice numbers of European Strom Petrels too: 23; all of them in the evening. And a Scopoli’s Sherawater at 17,05 pm. Also 40 Great Shearwaters , 17 Great Skuas, 6 Manx Shearwaters, 7 Balearic Shearwaters, 573 Cory’s, 13 commic Terns, 33 Sandwhich Terns, 11 Oystercatchers, 1 Long tailed skua, 4 Little Terns (a group of 13 was seen the day before at Ortigueira, not far from the headland), lots of Common Dolphins again and a pod of Bottlenose Dolphins.

 Tuesday 25th – Calm Winds. Nice numbers of Common Scoters again, with 81 in 3 hs. But very tiny numbers for all of the other species. Another Long Tailed skua at 08,25 am.

Here are some video images taken from the observatory during these days, including some nice (and long!) flights of Great Shearwaters:

Not bad for July: 23 Great Shearwater this afternoon in 3 hs. Also 323 Cory's, 2 Sooties, 9 Manxies and 2 Balearics. Other birds watched were 2 Pomarine Skuas, 3 Arctic Skuas and 3 Bonxies, 266 Gannets, 2 Sandwhich Terns, 41 Whimbrels and 1 Common Greenshank. Them all moving westwards. 

The wind kept blowing from the NW.

​Birder at the observatory: Ricardo Hevia Barcón

The strong NE winds during these days were not the best for seawatching at Estaca de Bares in this time of the year. Anyway, they made it possible to obtain nice numbers of Balearic Shearwaters moving eastwards. On 15th and 16th more than 148 birds were counted in 9 hs, c. 35% of them juveniles.

On 14th 2 Great Shearwaters moved westwards.

​On 15th the first juvenile of Sandwhich Tern was also watched flying westwards, while the same and the following day several groups of up to 17 individuals of the same species kept moving eastwards.

​On 16th a Sooty Shearwater moulting primaries was detected during the afternoon. Several groups of Mediterranean Gulls and Common Scoters were also on the move (westwards) these three days.

​Birder at the observatory: Antonio Sandoval Rey