MarkS
18-06-2010, 23:11
Participants Simon Lloyd, Steve James, Derrick Wilby, Andrew Ward and I assembled at Fujairah Port Beach for an hour's warm-up - literally, in the sweltering heat. The omens weren't brilliant - a choppy sea and no birds. We eventually managed a couple of nice Pom Skuas fairly close in, to go with an Arctic Skua I had had earlier.
Once on the sea, things didn't dramatically improve. The sea was much choppier than last week and the boat slammed into the first couple of troughs just outside the breakwaters. We sailed for almost an hour, seeing nothing more than a few fly-by shearwaters and terns. Where were all the birds?
We soon found out - there was a large flock just visible well out on the horizon and we headed for it. Wow! A huge frenzy of Bridled Terns and Persian Shearwaters - probably 800-1000 of each - far bigger than any flock we saw last week - and we were only feet from it all. We could even smell them!
We had several mega-flocks during the next hour and a half,but in the middle of one of them, Simon spotted an all-dark tern dash through the melee - Brown Noddy! We chased after it and found it perched on a float and enjoyed good views of an immature bird. It was to be the first of at least 5 different birds, some immature, but at least a couple of smart adult birds - so close we could see the white half eye-ring below the eye.
No megas today, but several Noddies and the sight, sound and smell of a mass of shearwaters up close meant that this second pelagic was equally as memorable as the first. Final tally:
Persian shearwater 1500-2000
Bridled Tern 2000 - 2500
Common Tern ca 100
Brown noddy 5
Saunders's/Little Tern 2
Swift Tern 2
Once on the sea, things didn't dramatically improve. The sea was much choppier than last week and the boat slammed into the first couple of troughs just outside the breakwaters. We sailed for almost an hour, seeing nothing more than a few fly-by shearwaters and terns. Where were all the birds?
We soon found out - there was a large flock just visible well out on the horizon and we headed for it. Wow! A huge frenzy of Bridled Terns and Persian Shearwaters - probably 800-1000 of each - far bigger than any flock we saw last week - and we were only feet from it all. We could even smell them!
We had several mega-flocks during the next hour and a half,but in the middle of one of them, Simon spotted an all-dark tern dash through the melee - Brown Noddy! We chased after it and found it perched on a float and enjoyed good views of an immature bird. It was to be the first of at least 5 different birds, some immature, but at least a couple of smart adult birds - so close we could see the white half eye-ring below the eye.
No megas today, but several Noddies and the sight, sound and smell of a mass of shearwaters up close meant that this second pelagic was equally as memorable as the first. Final tally:
Persian shearwater 1500-2000
Bridled Tern 2000 - 2500
Common Tern ca 100
Brown noddy 5
Saunders's/Little Tern 2
Swift Tern 2