How to Seawatch

Step 5 What to do.

Look at this, we're all the way to step five before we even look at any birds!

The actual act of seawatching is very simple; to stand or sit and watch the sea and sky for birds.

There are three areas to watch - the open sky, the band of sea and sky forming the horizon and the surface of the sea itself.

Some, very intense people choose to sit and focus on a small "slice" of sea and sky, waiting for something to cross their vision.

I prefer the three-stage method; eyes, bins, scope:

1. Scan the sky, horizon and sea with bare eyes, looking for flashes of movement.
2. If you spot something, follow up with the binoculars for a closer look. When switching from eyes to bins, stay focussed on the object of interest, and bring your binoculars to your eyes. Do not look down to meet your binoculars coming up, or you will lose sight of the bird and have to waste time hunting for it again.
3. If it is distant, hard to identify, or simply quite interesting, switch to the scope for a closer view.

Scanning the sea should take longer than scanning the sky, as things will be bobbing in and out of view in the swell.

I often merge stages one and two, scanning with my binoculars.

If you are a note-taker, take your notes as soon as you see the birds, otherwise the details of one can merge with the next.

One of the most important aids to bird identification is size, as many seabirds have similar outlines and silhouettes.

Unfortunately, one of the hardest things to judge when looking at a bird in open sea or sky is size. If possible, compare the bird to objects of known size at a similar distance, such as lobster-pot buoys, people in boats, or people walking along the beach.