Seawatching Ngor – October & November 2019

We’re entering the final stretch of this year’s seawatch season, but before we wrap things up in a few weeks, it’s time for a quick overview of October and November. As for August and September, below is a comparison of the 2019 counts with those from the previous two years. Even if observer effort and coverage were quite different in those three years, it’s clear that there are important variations from year to year, both in terms of phenology and in terms of abundance of many of the seabirds that migrate past the Dakar peninsula. Prevailing weather conditions, and in particular dominant wind direction (and wind force), of course have a strong influence on the intensity of visible seabird migration, though other factors are also at play for certain species. Annual variations in breeding success of skuas are well documented and probably explain some of the annual differences that we see here in Dakar.

Essential seawatch equipment!

 

This year’s coverage was again pretty good for October (28 sessions on 24 days, similar to Oct. 2017) but less so for November (15 sessions on 12 days), though we did manage to do longer counts during both months, especially in November. But let’s start with October:

Species	2019	2018	2017
Cory’s/Scopoli’s Shearwater	86	0	232
Sooty Shearwater	631	1,035	2,534
Manx Shearwater	20	8	29
Shearwater sp.	24	4	22
Wilson’s Storm-Petrel	0	0	96
Northern Gannet	3	2	1
Brown Booby	0	1	0
Oystercatcher	24	20	18
Common Ringed Plover	2	0	5
Whimbrel	32	4	8
Bar-tailed Godwit	8	0	10
Turnstone	6	0	0
Ruff	0	0	12
Dunlin	0	0	2
Sanderling	16	6	0
Little Stint	6	0	0
Common Sandpiper	4	0	0
Greenshank	0	0	1
Common Redshank	3	5	0
Grey (Red) Phalarope	12	0	78
Audouin’s Gull	77	21	55
Lesser Black-backed Gull	3	18	2
Yellow-legged Gull	1	0	0
Large gull sp.	8	0	7
Slender-billed Gull	6	1	4
Grey-headed Gull	2	0	0
Sabine’s Gull	1,081	178	2,970
Arctic/Common Tern	3,768	1,094	4,296
Roseate Tern	6	14	54
Little Tern	65	7	78
Sandwich Tern	2,479	905	1,313
Lesser Crested Tern	299	113	150
African Royal Tern	457	198	57
Caspian Tern	22	20	9
Black Tern	1,059	333	2,735
Whiskered Tern	1	0	1
Bridled Tern	1	0	0
Bridled/Sooty Tern	1	0	0
Great/South Polar Skua	60	11	66
Pomarine Skua	763	85	1436
Arctic Skua	486	198	339
Long-tailed Skua	47	21	32
Skua sp.	476	182	1138
Total birds	12,045	4,484	17,880
Number of days	24	10	26
Number of hours	37h30′	19h00′	28h20′

 

October was relatively quiet compared to previous years, mostly because conditions were not so favourable during the last 10 days of the month, hitting an absolute low on Oct. 31^st when only 68 birds were counted in one hour… With hardly any wind, far fewer Sooty Shearwaters and Pomarine Skuas than usual were noted (Puffin fuligineux, Labbe pomarin). Most terns however were more numerous, possibly due to a later passage than in previous years, particularly for African Royal, Lesser Crested and Sandwich Terns (Sternes royales, voyageuses, caugeks). With just over 1,000 birds, the passage of Sabine’s Gull was fairly average though still very enjoyable on two days: 220 in 2h45’ on Oct. 12, and 315 in 3h20’ on Oct. 17 (Mouette de Sabine). Among the rarer species, an ad. Bridled Tern was seen on Oct. 12 (+ a distant Bridled or Sooty on Oct. 8; Sterne bridée).

Pomarine & Long-tailed Skuas, off Ngor, Oct. 2018 (Bruce Mast)

 

November was a different story: with a fairly similar number of hours spent counting birds from the Calao terrace, almost double the number of birds were counted than in 2017. A much stronger passage was noted for many species: Cory’s/Scopoli’s Shearwaters (56,438 birds counted: almost twice the 2017 number and triple that of 2018!), Great Shearwaters, Sooty Shearwaters, Northern Gannets, and Pomarine & Arctic Skuas (Puffin cendré / de Scopoli, Puffin majeur, fuligineux, Fou de Bassan, Labbes pomarins et arctiques). Because we were present on less days but spent more time per session, it’s hard to compare with previous years, though it’s clear that at least some of these species were more numerous, such as the Gannets that passed through en masse from the 10th onward (max. 1,223 birds in 90’ on Nov. 20!), which is far earlier than in previous years when peaks were noted from the end of the month and in December. The higher number of skuas and Sooty Shearwaters are also at least in part explained by the later passage, properly starting only around November 10^th rather than in the last week of October. Only one Long-tailed Skua was identified during this period, at the very start of the month, bringing this season’s total to 489 birds.

Scopoli’s Shearwater, off Ngor, April 2017

 

The peak passage of Cory’s/Scopoli’s Shearwaters took place during Nov. 10-16, with up to 4,020 birds passing through per hour during the morning of the 10^th. While slightly less intense in previous years, the highly concentrated passage took place almost exactly during the same period. It’s really remarkable how this species pair is completely absent up to the very last week of October: the first 45 birds were seen on Oct. 28^th with just a handful in subsequent days, then 638 in 1h15’ on Nov. 4^th and 215 in 1h45’ the following day, then literally exploding just a few days later (unfortunately no observations were made during Nov. 6-9). Our counters nearly overheated, thumbs hurting! In comparison, the migration pattern of Sooty Shearwater for instance is very different, showing a very long and diffuse migration season (end August – mid December) without a clearly defined peak.

Daily average number of Cory’s & Scopoli’s Shearwater per hour (2019). The dotted lines and grey markers indicate extrapolated data; red markers are based on actual counts

 

Besides this really impressive flow of the shearwaters, the highlights in November were our first (ever!) Leach’s Storm Petrels (Océanite cul-blanc), the good number of Great Shearwaters of course – confirming that quite a few pass through Senegalese waters at this time of the year – a fine Balearic Shearwater (Nov. 18; Puffin des Baléares), and an imm. Red-footed Booby seen twice flying past the Calao (Fou à pieds rouges). Another big surprise and clearly one of my highlights was a huge Killer Whale (Orque) swimming past at mid-range, apparently heading SW – not my first here at Ngor, but this one was really impressive, nicely showing its massive dorsal fin.

November summary:

Species	2019	2018	2017
Cory’s/Scopoli’s Shearwater	56,438	18,593	30,836
Great Shearwater	125	32	0
Sooty Shearwater	1,174	573	526
Balearic Shearwater	1	0	0
Manx Shearwater	5	4	1
Shearwater sp.	16	31	2
European Storm-Petrel	0	0	1
Leach’s Storm-Petrel	3	0	0
Storm-Petrel sp.	10	0	0
Northern Gannet	3,896	1,239	60
Brown Booby	0	2	3
Red-footed Booby	1	1	0
Oystercatcher	0	0	2
Common Ringed Plover	0	0	1
Grey Plover	1	0	0
Whimbrel	9	4	0
Bar-tailed Godwit	5	0	0
Grey Phalarope	1	0	26
Audouin’s Gull	255	514	40
Lesser Black-backed Gull	37	2	17
Yellow-legged Gull	3	0	0
Large gull sp.	47	0	5
Slender-billed Gull	10	1	1
Sabine’s Gull	144	13	226
Arctic/Common Tern	1,272	836	764
Little Tern	14	14	1
Sandwich Tern	313	105	178
Lesser Crested Tern	2	7	18
African Royal Tern	19	9	2
Caspian Tern	3	1	2
Black Tern	29	3	321
Catharacta Skua sp.	32	23	5
Pomarine Skua	2,917	2,144	1,819
Arctic Skua	149	66	76
Long-tailed Skua	1	1	9
Skua sp.	149	60	313
Total birds	63,833	21,984	33,033
Total days	12	21	20
Number of hours	33h	30h30′	28h

 

November 11^th clearly was one of our most memorable Seawatch sessions ever: in just 3 hours, we counted an impressive 12,492 birds belonging to 23 species, a remarkable diversity at this time of the year: check out our eBird checklist here!

Once again, needless to say that Dakar clearly ranks as one of the top seawatch spots in the world!

 

 

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Seawatching Ngor – September 2019

I count myself extremely lucky to live just a few minutes away from what must surely be one of the best seawatch sites in the world. What other capital can compete with Dakar on that front? It does make it hard not to go out there every day, especially at this time of the year when so many migrants can be seen from this privileged spot. And I’m fortunate to have a very flexible work schedule that allows me to spend an hour or so counting seabirds before heading to the office! I’m obviously spending too much time at the Calao at the moment… but then again it’s always better being out birding in the field than sitting behind a desk (especially when The Field is a comfortable terrace, sat under a sun umbrella with a cup of decent coffee).

Anyway, time for the September numbers:

• 25 days
• 38 hours
• 20,109 birds belonging to 36 species counted (total so far: 27,303 birds!)

This is a much better coverage than in previous years, and as a result the number of birds counted is higher for most species; Lesser Crested Tern is the main exception due to a later than usual passage, which only started properly at the very end of the month, picking up rapidly during the first few days of October (Sterne voyageuse).

As usual, here some of the highlights: good numbers of Manx Shearwater (also two possible Balearics… unfortunately too distant and poorly seen), and several Macaronesian Shearwaters including at least one that seemed right for Boyd’s (Puffins des Anglais et de Macaronésie). Sooty Shearwater passage was clearly more intense, or at least more visible, than last year, probably because of more favourable winds (Puffin fuligineux).

Numerous terns were counted of course, with the four most common species – Common & Arctic, Sandwich, Black Terns – accounting for nearly 90% of the twenty thousand birds counted this month (Sternes pierregarin et arctique, caugeks, Guifette noire). Roseates continued to pass through almost daily, up to 12 BPH (that’s birds per hour!), and so did Little Tern: with 304 birds in September, far more were seen than in previous years (and the passage continues: on 5.10 a total of 31 birds were seen in one hour, including a flock of 22) (Sternes de Dougall et naine). A Bridled Tern on the 4th is so far the only one of the season (Sterne bridée).

Sandwich Tern / Sterne caugek, Ngor, Oct. 2016

 

September is also peak month for Sandwich Tern (Sterne caugek), which passes through daily in double or even triple digits (that’s BPH). The peak at the end of the month is clearly visible on this chart combining 2017 and 2018 data:

Hourly average number of Sandwich Terns per decad, 2017 & 2018

 

Now for some slightly more advanced data viz’ fun: I tried to find a clever way of visualising the intensity of bird migration at Ngor alongside wind speed and wind direction. The chart below shows average “BPH” per day as histograms (primary axis: number of birds) and wind speed as the dotted line (secondary axis: knots), while the colour represents the wind direction: dark green for WNW to N winds, pale green for SW to W winds, and orange for SSW to ENE. One would expect the highest number of birds during the favourable winds, i.e. higher wind speed from a WNW to N direction, and less so on days with little wind and/or with winds coming from the “wrong” side. That does seem to be the case on most days, but not always… though in general it’s fair to say that days with stronger NW winds usually see the highest number of birds, and also a higher diversity of species. Shearwaters, skuas, Sabine’s Gulls and most terns are largely influenced by these conditions, which can rapidly change from day to day or even within the same day. A good site to check out wind forecasts is Windguru.

Disclaimer: nothing scientific here, just fooling around with Excel!

 

Arctic Skuas continued to pass through on a daily basis, and Long-tailed Skuas were seen on 13 dates, mainly at the start and at the end of the month, with a max. of 61 birds in 2h15′ on the 4th (Labbes arctique et à longue queue). The four Catharacta skuas were seen in the last week of the month but as usual could not be identified down to species level (Great or South Polar Skua, Grand Labbe/Labbe de McCormick).

A usual, waders were fairly well represented this month: Whimbrel and Oystercatcher remain the most frequent migrants and thanks to the regular rains this autumn there has been a good diversity of waders in general, including my first Grey Plovers here and regular sightings of migrating Turnstones (Courlis corlieu, Huîtrier pie, Pluvier argenté, Tournepierre). Red Phalaropes were seen on five occasions in relatively modest numbers (Phalarope à bec large).

Oystercatcher / Huîtrier pie, Ngor, Oct. 2017

 

Table with September totals for 2019, 2018 and 2017:

Species	2019	2018	2017
Cory’s/Scopoli’s Shearwater	2	0	0
Sooty Shearwater	271	87	393
Balearic Shearwater	0	0	1
Manx Shearwater	98	6	60
Boyd’s/Barolo Shearwater	9	16	1
Shearwater sp.	51	22	34
Storm-Petrel sp.	1	0	0
Northern Gannet	0	1	1
Brown Booby	0	4	3
Oystercatcher	51	20	16
Whimbrel	211	75	78
Eurasian Curlew	0	0	2
Bar-tailed Godwit	4	1	8
Grey Plover	2	0	0
Common Ringed Plover	0	2	0
Turnstone	33	2	0
Dunlin	0	0	40
Sanderling	12	0	25
Little Stint	1	0	0
Common Sandpiper	1	0	0
Greenshank	1	0	0
Common Redshank	3	1	1
Grey (Red) Phalarope	163	133	1
Audouin’s Gull	21	1	3
Lesser Black-backed Gull	1	15	1
Kelp Gull	1	0	0
Large gull sp.	1	5	0
Slender-billed Gull	6	1	1
Grey-headed Gull	0	1	2
Sabine’s Gull	95	43	123
Arctic/Common Tern	11,161	4,100	4,500
Roseate Tern	144	89	35
Little Tern	304	57	76
Sandwich Tern	2,425	2,080	1,928
Lesser Crested Tern	61	147	95
African Royal Tern	295	305	219
Caspian Tern	10	13	19
Black Tern	3,870	2,187	2,342
Sooty Tern	0	1	0
Bridled Tern	1	0	0
Great/South Polar Skua	4	1	2
Pomarine Skua	13	5	35
Arctic Skua	400	172	142
Long-tailed Skua	215	265	59
Skua sp.	167	64	226
Total birds	20,109	9,922	10,472
Number of days	25	17	15
Number of hours	38h35′	24h50′	20h30′

 

In addition to the seabirds, as usual a few other species were noted on active migration: a Purple Heron on 10.9 and more surprisingly two Squacco Herons the next day coming from out at sea. Common Swifts were spotted on at least three occasions (max. 66 on 11.09, migrating low over the ocean), while a Hoopoe was seen on 8.9 and a Sand Martin on 12.9 (Heron pourpré, Crabier, Martinet noir, Huppe fasciée, Hirondelle de rivage). What appeared to be a juv. Barbary Falcon was seen several times from 4 – 12 Sept., with a Peregrine also here on 9th (Faucons de Barbarie et Pèlerin). This provided for some action as both birds were regularly seen hunting pigeons and other birds; on the 6th it was a juv. Common Cuckoo (or at least I assumed it to be this species and not African Cuckoo) which was seen coming on land from Ngor island or islet, chased by the Barbary Falcon only to disappear into the Calao gardens and never to be found again… (Coucou gris).

Migrating Purple Heron / Héron pourpré en migration, Ngor, Sept. 2017

 

That’s all for now – let’s see what October brings (Pomarine Skuas! Sooty Shearwaters! Sabine’s Gulls!). Conditions are expected to be good in the next few days.

The August report can be found in this post.

 

 

 

Seawatching Ngor – August 2019

An update on this autumn’s seabird migration at Ngor is long overdue, so here we set off the season’s summary with the month of August. I managed to count migrants during 18 hours spread out over 16 sessions, starting with the first on August 9th, straight after coming back to Dakar from a short break Up North. As usual I tried to do relatively brief sessions (usually about an hour) as often as possible, typically early morning about an hour after sunrise. And always from the Club Calao terrace, of course.

View from the Calao terrace, 31 August 2019

 

With some 7,100 birds counted, numbers passing through during August were about average in comparison with previous years. The few highlights so far were a Great Shearwater (Puffin majeur) flying SW on the 10th which I believe is the first August record, more than usual ‘Macaronesian’ Shearwaters (=Boyd’s or Barolo, Puffin “de Macaronésie”) with no less than 21 birds spread out fairly evenly throughout the period, and again a decent amount of Long-tailed Skuas (Labbe à longue queue). So far, 226 of these elegant pelagic skuas passed through, compared to 213 in August 2018; last year a record 500 were logged during the entire season. Top day was the 20th when I counted a very honorable 84 birds in just one hour, surprisingly during modest NNW wind – always impressive seeing loose flocks of up to 15-20 birds, usually including several adults. None were seen the following two days but during 24-26th there were 89 in 4h35′. Last year the peak passage was during the first decad of September when no less than 217 were counted in just 75′ on 2.9.18, so it’s possible that quite a few more Long-tails will pass through in coming weeks, though this will in part depend on wind conditions: moderate to strong winds from W to NW are usually required to see this species in double or even triple digits (in 2017, hardly any were seen, as shown in the chart below where the dashed line is 2017 and the dotted line 2018; solid line is hourly average per decad).

 

Other pelagics included early Sooty Shearwaters (Puffin fuligineux) with seven birds during 24-26 August, and three Sabine’s Gulls (Mouette de Sabine) on the 20th. September and October should see many more of these two species! In contrast with last year when more than a thousand birds were seen in August when conditions were good for this species, just three Red Phalaropes (Phalarope à bec large) were detected this past month, though I had the first small flock this morning Sept. 1st, about 15 towards the SW and one coming in from the N and landing at sea. Of course many must have passed through these past few weeks, just too far off-shore for them to be seen from the coast.

Typical view of a migrating Red Phalarope, low over the waves… Off Ngor, Oct. 2018 (Bruce Mast)

 

What was most likely the same Red-footed Booby (Fou à pieds rouges) was seen daily from 9th-12th, usually flying past at close range and sometimes feeding just behind the surf, with two birds together on Aug. 17th. I also twice saw one in July so it’s quite possible that at least one of these two immatures – both dark morph, as all others seen so far – oversummered around the peninsula.

As usual, the most frequently seen wader was Whimbrel, with just a handful of Oystercatchers and Bar-tailed Godwits each (Courlis corlieu, Huîtrier pie, Barge rousse). The lower number of waders compared to the past few years is probably due to the late arrival of the rains and a four-day gap in my presence during the last week of the month (waders tend to be seen mostly during and just after spells of rain here).

Whimbrel / Courlis corlieu, Ngor, Oct. 2017 (BP)

 

The table below lists all species with totals for the month, with 2017 and 2018 numbers to compare with. Note that the vast majority of the ‘Comic’ Terns were Arctic, and the higher number of Roseate Terns is possibly explained by the fact that I may feel more confident identifying these birds (Sterne arctique/pierregarin, Sterne de Dougall). Oftentimes, Roseates are migrating 2-3 birds together, usually mixed in with Arctic Terns.

 

Species	2019	2018	2017
Wilson’s Storm-Petrel	0	157	0
Cape Verde Shearwater	0	100	1
Great Shearwater	1	0	0
Sooty Shearwater	7	0	0
Boyd’s/Barolo Shearwater	21	3	0
Shearwater sp.	3	6	4
Red-footed Booby	2	0	0
Oystercatcher	8	8	6
Whimbrel	127	340	437
Bar-tailed Godwit	6	1	49
Turnstone	0	4	13
Red Knot	0	28	0
Ruff	0	1	5
Sanderling	0	0	16
Curlew Sandpiper	0	0	4
Little Stint	0	0	4
Grey (Red) Phalarope	3	1,123	0
Common Sandpiper	0	7	1
Common Redshank	1	1	1
Audouin’s Gull	7	0	0
Lesser Black-backed Gull	0	0	1
Yellow-legged Gull	0	1	0
Large gull sp. (prob. Kelp Gull)	1	0	2
Slender-billed Gull	1	0	1
Sabine’s Gull	3	12	6
Arctic/Common Tern	3,878	4,500	1,399
Roseate Tern	56	44	10
Little Tern	23	56	28
Sandwich Tern	462	343	463
Lesser Crested Tern	4	40	41
African Royal Tern	342	585	166
Caspian Tern	10	14	1
White-winged Tern	0	1	0
Black Tern	1,803	2,160	774
Bridled Tern	0	4	0
Catharacta Skua sp.	0	0	1
Pomarine Skua	3	1	2
Arctic Skua	59	94	24
Long-tailed Skua	226	213	25
Skua sp.	46	18	17
Total birds	7,103	9,865	3,502
Number of days	16	22	13
Number of hours	18h05′	26h20′	17h05′

 

Meanwhile at Technopole, the lagoons are finally starting to fill up again now that we’ve had a few decent showers, though a lot more will be needed to ensure that the site remains wet all through the dry season. There’s a good diversity of waders again and breeding activity is at its peak for many of the local species. Striated Heron for instance is now very visible, and last Sunday I saw a pair feeding a recently fledged young at the base of one of the Avicennia stands on the main lagoon, while Spur-winged Lapwing juveniles are all about, Zitting Cisticolas are busy tending their nest, and this morning a small flock of juvenile Bronze Mannikins was seen (Héron strié, Vanneau éperonné, Cisticole des joncs, Capucin nonnette).

Several wader species are starting to pass through again, such as Common Ringed Plover, Little Stint, Curlew Sandpiper and Marsh Sandpiper (Grand Gravelot, Bécasseau minute, Bécasseau cocorli, Chevalier stagnatile). It’s also peak season for Ruff, with a very modest max. so far of 148 counted this morning (Combattant varié).

On the gulls & terns front, a Mediterranean Gull was still around on 18 & 25.8, probably one of the two immatures that were seen in May-July and apparently completing its summer stay here (these are the first summer records for the species in Senegal), while the first juvenile Audouin’s Gulls of the year were also seen last Sunday, Aug. 25th (Mouette mélanocéphale, Goéland d’Audouin, . This morning a White-winged Tern was of note, as were 24 Little Terns resting with the other terns or feeding above the main lake (Guifette leucoptère, Sterne naine). Three Orange-breasted Waxbills and three Long-tailed Nightjars on 11.08 were far less expected (Bengali zebré, Engoulevent à longue queue).

This morning’s eBird checklist has all the details.

 

Redshank & Ruff / Chevalier gambette & Combattant

Curlew Sandpiper / Bécasseau cocorli juv.

 

 

 

Pelagic trip off Ngor

Why would two Portuguese, a Mauritanian, a Cape-Verdian, a French, an American and a Belgian set off on a boat trip one morning in October? Seabirds of course! With Gabriel in town, Bruce over from the US, Miguel and Antonio as motivated as ever to get out of the office and to have some of their BirdLife colleagues strengthen their seabird id skills, it was time to organise our now annual autumn pelagic, on October 1st.

Conditions were perfect to get out on our small boat (organised through Nautilus Diving: merci Hilda!) though probably a bit too calm for active seabird migration. We chose to head straight west to the edge of the continental shelf, rather than try the “trawler area” off Kayar as this is quite a bit more distant from Ngor. Needless to say that expectations were high as is always the case during these rare opportunities to get close views of the treasured tubenoses – storm petrels, shearwaters – skuas and maybe some Grey Phalaropes or Sabine’s Gulls.

Ngor plage

 

A Manx Shearwater zooming past the boat was one of the first pelagic species we got to see, followed by quite a few Sooty Shearwaters (Puffin fuligineux).

Sooty Shearwater / Puffin fuligineux (BP)

 

Further out, Wilson’s Storm Petrel became the dominant species, with a few dozen birds seen – and probably many more that went undetected – particularly around the upwelling area. Almost all were obviously actively migrating, and we managed to get some good views of several of them as they zoomed past our boat. Of course, several storm petrels remained unidentified, but we did manage to get decent views of at least two European Storm Petrels (though alas no pictures!). The toes projecting beyond the tail that are diagnostic of Wilson’s are more or less visible on the pictures below.

Wilson’s Strom Petrel / Océanite de Wilson (A. Araujo)

Wilson’s Strom Petrel / Océanite de Wilson (B. Mast)

Wilson’s Strom Petrel / Océanite de Wilson (B. Mast)

 

Up next: skuas, or jaegers as our American friends call them. We didn’t see many, with just three Pomarines and just as few Arctic Skuas, as well as an obliging Long-tailed Skua. The latter was an interesting bird that we aged as a third-summer moulting into third-winter plumage. It briefly joined two Pomarine Skuas (second-year birds?) allowing for nice comparisons of size and structure.

 

Long-tailed Skua / Labbe à longue queue (BP)

Long-tailed Skua / Labbe à longue queue (BP)

Long-tailed Skua / Labbe à longue queue (A. Araujo)

Long-tailed & Pomarine Skuas / Labbes à longue queue & pomarin (B. Mast)

Pomarine Skuas / Labbes pomarins (B. Mast)

 

Rounding up our seabirds is this Red (Grey…) Phalarope (Phalarope à bec large), the only one we saw during the trip but somehow Bruce managed to get a picture:

Red Phalarope / Phalarope à bec large (B. Mast)

 

As seems to be quite often the case during these pelagic trips, some landbirds were also encountered, in our case European Turtle Dove (Tourterelle des bois) of which we twice saw singles migrating over the ocean (in October 2016, the PAOC pelagic recorded at least three species of passerines, including a migrating Bluethroat). One of our doves had a very worn and messy plumage, probably a moulting young bird:

European Turtle Dove / Tourterelle des bois (B. Mast)

 

Our complete eBird checklist, expertly compiled by Miguel, can be found here. We really ought to add the Osprey that can just about be seen sitting on top of the Almadies lighthouse, but which was noticed only later on this neat picture by Bruce of the lighthouse – Africa’s westernmost building, constructed some time in the 19th century (precise date seems unknown?) on a reef that lies just off the Pointe des Almadies.

Le phare des Almadies… and an Osprey (B. Mast)

 

 

Many thanks to Antonio and Bruce for sharing their pictures!