Advice please

[Shrike]

With these westerlies picking up nicely over the weekend i'll be visiting the n/w coast over the next couple of days.My seawatching experience is nil so wondering if anyone had any tips please.I'm gonna be swatting up tonight over petrels,skuas,divers,sea ducks etc but looking at pics in guide probably wont be much help.Any advice appreciated.

[faz]

take bins and a camara note book then give us details WAB will tell you what you have seen its like every thing else we have to learn when you see a sea duck say a smew you will remember it next time and so on best way to learn

[Goatboy]

Best advice I can give for sea watching is get wrapped up warm. Even on what you think is a mild day, prevailing winds will sap the heat out of you.

[aeshna5]

Originally Posted by faz

take bins and a camara note book then give us details WAB will tell you what you have seen its like every thing else we have to learn when you see a sea duck say a smew you will remember it next time and so on best way to learn

Smew aren't seaduck!

Probably best to go with some more experienced seawatchers- it is a specialist skill, with experience paying off.

[faz]

Originally Posted by aeshna5

Smew aren't seaduck!

Probably best to go with some more experienced seawatchers- it is a specialist skill, with experience paying off.

you are rught its a diving duck to many largers last night

[Dogghound]

Originally Posted by Shrike

With these westerlies picking up nicely over the weekend i'll be visiting the n/w coast over the next couple of days.My seawatching experience is nil so wondering if anyone had any tips please.I'm gonna be swatting up tonight over petrels,skuas,divers,sea ducks etc but looking at pics in guide probably wont be much help.Any advice appreciated.

It takes experience, but you soon start to pick it up. My advice would normally be go with someone how has experience of it, or go regularly and get familiar with the different groups. However since this is your first time I would take notes. When seawatching you really need to look at features like wing panels, underwing colour, flocking behaviour and such like. The smart drawings in bird books are of little value to be fair. You need a scope, I use a 30x or 40x eyepiece anything closer and you will struggle to keep up with the birds. Take sunlight into consideration and shading it can make birds look completely different. Take a pillow or similar to sit on and find an area to shelter in from the wind and scope from there. The early morning is by far the best time to go (like most birding).

And dont despair if you can't ID everything, there are always birds which even the experienced cant always ID.

[Shrike]

Thanks to all for the advice , only ended up spending about an hour scanning the sea with bins and didn't see much apart from cormorants , gulls , oyks and shelduck.Mike(Tigertom) i.d'd a fulmar but i'd need more practise to even of got that on my own.I did i.d ok some goldeneye flying out towards the sea before we started , i'll keep doing a bit here and there and slowly hope to get a bit better.

[Jonathan]

Originally Posted by Shrike

Thanks to all for the advice , only ended up spending about an hour scanning the sea with bins and didn't see much apart from cormorants , gulls , oyks and shelduck.Mike(Tigertom) i.d'd a fulmar but i'd need more practise to even of got that on my own.I did i.d ok some goldeneye flying out towards the sea before we started , i'll keep doing a bit here and there and slowly hope to get a bit better.

The autumn passage for seabirds has just about finished in the NW unfortunately Shrike (although there were several Bonxies off Hilbre the other day), so you might be better off concentrating on sea duck, grebes and divers during the winter - at least around the NW coast. Personally I prefer entirely different weather conditions when seawatching for divers, etc. than when looking for true seabirds such as skuas and petrels - for the latter conditions like today are ideal, for the former I prefer flat calm seas, preferably with clear conditions and little sun. I tend to travel further afield (North Wales, Walney, etc.) but Formby Point, Leasowe and even Ainsdale Beach can provide surprisingly good seawatching at times - Formby Point has been good for Black-throated divers recently, for instance. The ideal time is probably an early morning high tide. At Ainsdale, for instance, it should be possible to see Common scoter, Red-throated diver, RB Mergansers, Goldeneye and GC Grebes, along with more unusual stuff such as Velvet scoter, GN Diver, Scaup and auks a real possibility. Plus, there's always going to be passing waders, geese and ducks, sometimes the odd peregrine or merlin.

If you only have binocs you really are going to struggle however, and I'd ask for this book for Christmas!

Flight Identification of European Seabirds

Cheers
Jonathan

[Shrike]

Cheers mate Formby point/Ainsdale sounds good i'll give there a go soon , i,ve got a scope (cheapo crappy one ) but haven't got tripod yet Aye its mainly the birds you mention i'm after atm my thinking is if i get used to these i might find passage sewatching a bit easier next year.Theres no rush i like learning slowly .