Photograph Copyright © Richard Hill
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Birds and Cetaceans in the Bay of Biscay.
Notes on a trip across the bay, 18th -
21st August 2001.
Tony J Morris
It has become the in thing for birders to do - sometime in August or September - to take a trip across the Bay of Biscay in the hope of seeing Whales and Dolphins, along with some of the more difficult to get-to-grips-with [from dry land] seabirds. This is done quite easily by taking a return ticket trip on board the Portsmouth to Bilbao P&O Ferry [or alternatively a similar crossing from Plymouth to Santander]. The former is more popular, partly because it is used by the Biscay Dolphin Research Project and the tour guide group "The Company of Whales". These groups operate from the bridge and it is advisable to take your trip to coincide with their presence, ensuring expert advice is at hand.
On Saturday 18th August 2001, eight of us set off in two cars to meet the Portsmouth to Bilbao ferry. For half of us this was a repeat trip, following a similar expedition a year [all but a week] earlier. Participating were: Kev Gould [driving], Dave Pickering, Pete Wragg and myself in one car, with Andy Deighton [driving], Richard Hill, Keith Clarkson and Dave Wood in the other car. In fact, the trip doubled as a stag event for Richard, who was about to be formally coupled with his fiancé, Alison. We arranged to set off early[ish] on Saturday morning hoping to take in whatever was available at the time. As it happened, there was an adult Sabine's Gull at Farmoor Reservoir in Oxon, so this became our target for the day. This is a brief summary from my own notes, of the weekend.
18th August 2001
Kept in touch with the other car by mobile phone. Arrived at Farmoor Res in Oxon
at c.1130h [at least some of us did]. Soon got the adult Sabine's Gull plus a
supporting cast of Little Gull, three Black Terns, Hobby, Common Buzzard and
Ringed Plover - what an impressive place. As
it turned out, this adult [or near-adult - see darker than normal bill-tip] Sabine's Gull was the first of several seen during the
weekend.
Photograph
Copyright © Richard Hill
From here to Farlington Marsh, biding time before heading for the ferry terminal. Here, Little Egret, Grey Plovers and Black-tailed Godwits were the pick. Rain had set in by late afternoon.
Set
sail from Portsmouth at approx 2000h. After watching the ship out of the Solent
at dusk, no time [or opportunity] for any sea-watching.
19th
August.
First
day watching - poor weather throughout, raining much of time /
took what shelter available but still a wet job / no cetaceans, but good
re seabirds, although numbers of large shearwaters much lower than last year.
A
group of Irish guys on the outward journey were shit-hot, the way they were
picking stuff out and getting their mates onto the birds was amazing to witness.
Wow - put us to shame. Birds seen included: Cory's and Great Shearwater, all
four European Skuas, a Whimbrel which flew alongside the ship for a good hour,
several groups of Common Terns all of which seemed to have at least one Black
Tern amongst them [and other groups or individuals claimed Arctic as well].
There were several shouts of Sabine's Gull of which I only managed to get on
one. Great to see this species in it's own habitat rather than floating around
on an inland reservoir [Redmires excluded of course].
20th
August, 0800-1200h.
A morning on dry land. After
disembarking, took short walk up through the port town [actually Santuritzi]
along the lane to the foot of the hills behind [as return leg of last years
walk]. Four of us did this [me, Pete, Dave P and Kev]. The others [Andy, Rich,
KC and Dave W] did the taxi to the top thing, then walked back. Going up to the
top does take you to a nice butterfly area and the team that went up there did
see one or two nice ones [as we did last year], Long-tailed Blue for example.
But bird-wise the only
differences were a Wryneck, Nightingale and Sardinian Warbler [which we didn't
get]. The "up-top" group saw fewer Griffon Vultures, we saw 14+ from
the ferry terminal, they saw up to 8 across the hillside. Other species on our brief walk
included; Melodious Warbler, Cetti's Warbler, Fan-tailed Warbler, Red-backed
Shrike, Serin and Gatekeeper butterfly. Also saw at least 2 Booted Eagles, a
dark-phase and a pale-phase just as last year, so presumably a regular
[returning] pair. In addition, I missed an Egyptian Vulture over the moored
ship. Don't know if this was as I was coming back from getting food or if I just
didn't hear the shout. Fortunately I don't need it, so not a problem.
20th
August 2001 [continued], 1230h-2015h.
Return journey, first leg - through Eastern Canyon and into the Abyssal Plain,
southern bay.
This was a very special day, especially for the Cetaceans. Pride of place went
to Sperm Whales, with excellent views of close in animals; blowing, arching and
breaching then tail fluking, filling the scope. Cracking views of at least 3 or
4 animals like this. N.B. this was exceptional as generally not more than one or
two Sperms are seen annually. The ships' Captain went off course to take us in
closer to some of these animals. Immediately after one close encounter another
animal arched and dived close into the rear side of the ship and was reported to
be a Minke Whale, but as I only so the back and dorsal fin I can hardly add
Minke to my list. Also saw about 20 Fin Whales and, with many closer in, much
better views than last year. Views of animals blowing, arching and diving were
much better than 2000.
Fin Whale - Photograph
Copyright © Richard Hill
There was some controversy over a particular small pod of
whales, presumably a family party with at least one adult and at least three
calf sized animals. These went down as Cuvier's Beaked Whale, but those of us
that saw the bulbous fore-head are adamant they were surely Northern Bottlenose
Whales. Otherwise, there was one good sighting of a Cuvier's Beaked Whale, close
in beside the ship and looking just like a brown floating log, exactly as
described in the literature. Also saw; Pilot Whale, Common and Striped Dolphins,
although not so many as last year. It was noticeable how Striped Dolphins often
twist and tern as they breach. Common are less agile. On the bird front: several
more
Sabine's Gulls [of which I got onto 3 or 4 today] and close views of Great Skua; and the last bird of the day was a
Sooty Shearwater.
21st
January, 0930h-1600h.
Return journey, final leg - through extreme northern part of the Bay [Brittany coast]
into SW approaches and the English Channel.
As seems to be the norm, the last watch as the ship enters the English Channel
was less exciting. Had I [we] been up early enough we would have seen a few
Common Dolphins, one or two Strom Petrels and another Sooty Shearwater. But we
didn't [Richard's Stag Night last night]. On board the ship were a Pied
Flycatcher and a Reed Warbler, which first landed less than a meter from my
feet.
The thing with these trips is you don't get [nor can expect] to see everything, but that's birding [and Whaling] isn't it? This time, our estimates proved to be quite similar to those published on the pager, presumably by the group on the bridge [The Company of Whales - Dylan Walker].
Total
counts [presumably from the bridge] as published on the pager:
Birds:
1 Little Shearwater, 10 Cory's Shearwaters,
9 Great Shearwaters, 1 Sooty Shearwater, 3 Balearic Shearwaters, 1 Manx
Shearwater; 1 Long-tailed Skua, 1 Pomarine Skua, 3 Arctic Skuas, 7 Great Skuas;
11 Sabine's Gulls, 12 Storm Petrels,
12
Grey Phalaropes and 16 Black Terns.
The Team Photographs
In the top photograph, from left to right: Pete Wragg, Dave Pickering, Kev
Gould, Dave Wood, Tony Morris, Keith Clarkson and Rich Hill. In the lower shot,
Andy Deighton [second left] replaces DP.
Photograph
Copyright © Andy Deighton
Photograph
Copyright © Andy Deighton
And that's it.
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