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There are many levels of birdwatching, from the dedicated, high-mileage twitcher to the casual glance at the visitors to your bird table.
Seawatchers are somewhere in between.
(Note - many of the links given in this Instructable are commercial in nature. I am not promoting any specific companies, they are merely examples. Two exceptions are the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds and British Trust for Ornithology, two organisations that do huge amounts for the benefit of birds in particular and wildlife in general.)
Seawatchers are somewhere in between.
(Note - many of the links given in this Instructable are commercial in nature. I am not promoting any specific companies, they are merely examples. Two exceptions are the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds and British Trust for Ornithology, two organisations that do huge amounts for the benefit of birds in particular and wildlife in general.)
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Signing UpStep 1Location, location...
Seawatching is all about spotting birds at sea. Not just coastal birds, but pelagics and passing migrants.
You need to be somewhere that concentrates passing birds into a narrower band of sea than usual, or that sticks out close to the routes used by migrants.
- Headlands, peninsulas and piers are all good for birds passing along the coast.
- The inland end of estuaries are good for birds passing over the land, but that try and spend as little time over land as possible.
- Ships. You can take specialist seawatching trips, but commercial ferries are good as well - they combine a bit of height with a position right out at sea. Try and sit near the funnel, on the top deck to get an all-round view, but a stern position can be useful, especially if birds have chosen to follow the wake. If you are on a big ferry, check your routes from port to starboard, and consider spreading groups out to get all possible sightings.
- most of the Devonian and Cornish coasts (especially West or South facing, and as far west as possible),
- the North Norfolk Coast and along the Wash,
- The West Cumbrian Coast, especially near St Bees Head
- The Solway Firth, especially the east end (the birds get funnelled by the geography).
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There are no such birds as sea gulls!
Are they Blackheaded gulls? Herring gulls? Mediterranean gulls? American Herring? Greater black-backed? Lesser black-backed? Glaucus? Glaucus winged?
Or maybe they're actually fulmars? Or a kind of tern?
There are at least 24 species of gull in the Northern Hemisphere, plus hybrids, at least 16 species of tern, or maybe they're albatross!
Wikipedia species list.
And many gulls never even see the sea!
Seagulls? Spit!
"Informally called Seagulls"
Good enough for me.
Oh, and I live on an island... They ALL see the sea.
(Fast work on the avatar, BTW.)
Your pic and where you got it from, has a nice audio there too: he sounds a bit like a sea gull with asthma :-) (callllll, rasssssp, callll, rasssp)
From Dawkins (in our "favourite book"):
;-)
Great day out though. We saw Manx shearwaters, kittiwakes, fulmars and guillemots, choughs and also a raven who landed around 50 feet from us.
We're going again in April this year and hopefully the puffins will have arrived by then.
L
Without wishing to invade your privacy, are you able to post their names? I (or, more likely, my Dad) may have heard of them.
>Giggles at step 6 before the other 9k commenters do...separated by a common tongue...<
giggles :D
My next door neighbour is older than your national anthem!