{"id":297,"date":"2009-12-13T11:27:05","date_gmt":"2009-12-13T11:27:05","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.northernexperiencewildlifetours.co.uk\/blog\/?p=297"},"modified":"2012-03-17T06:45:58","modified_gmt":"2012-03-17T06:45:58","slug":"masters-of-all-we-survey","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.northernexperiencewildlifetours.co.uk\/blog\/index.php\/birdwatching\/masters-of-all-we-survey","title":{"rendered":"Masters of all we survey?"},"content":{"rendered":"

I’ve just finished my 3rd consecutive day of survey work (ok, today was just a couple of hours around dawn, but you get the idea).<\/p>\n

Friday and Saturday saw me up to 20 miles offshore, leading a survey team of Alan Tilmouth, Ross Ahmed, Allan Skinner (our boat skipper) and Jimmy (erstwhile SarahJFK crew member and very diligent data-recorder).\u00a0\u00a0Friday didn’t look promising as we drove to Royal Quays in thick fog, and the marina was mired in the gloom as well as we met up with Tom Brereton from Marinelife.\u00a0 However, once out of the Tyne we quickly passed out of the fog bank and into some stunning weather.<\/p>\n

\"Martin
Martin and Tom scanning for cetaceans<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"Ross,
Ross, Alan and Tom observing and recording seabird distribution and abundance<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\u00a0On the return there was a superb sunset but the fog had extended to almost 6 miles offshore and we had one of those real pelagic experiences.<\/div>\n
\"Tom
Tom scanning ahead of the SarahJFK for cetaceans<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"Ross
Ross and Alan still recording as we approach the fog bank that ended Friday's survey<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"Tom,
Tom, Martin, Ross and Alan heading home<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Yesterday had overall better visibility but slighty lumpier seas, as we covered the area from Blyth to Druridge Bay.\u00a0 Having completed about 80 miles of transect surveys in 2 days we’ve already gathered a lot of seabird data.\u00a0 The North Sea (which is relatively small) seems pretty big when you’re far enough offshore to not be able to see any land.\u00a0 When 3 experienced seawatchers look around and say “we don’t really have a clue what’s out here do we?” then it hammers home the importance of what we’re doing.\u00a0 Having found Puffins on both surveys so far, and five Little Gulls on Saturday, we’re all eagerly anticipating the rest of our winter surveys.\u00a0 We’ve got a few spaces on\u00a0most of the survey trips (which will run when the weather allows us the opportunity) which are available for a contribution of \u00a320\/person\/trip (a much lower rate than our commercial pelagics trips in July-September).\u00a0 Give us a call, wrap up warm and join us on a journey into the unknown.<\/p>\n

On dry (well, drier) land, Sarah and myself set out this morning for the December Icelandic Goose Census.Two Barn Owls were a bonus in the bone-chilling temperatures.\u00a0 Last month<\/a> I drew a blank with our goose monitoring and this month was hardly any better; just 3 Greylag Geese at the roost site that is designated as part of the census.\u00a0 Looks like we’ll be out again at dusk, trying to locate the birds as they fly to roost.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I’ve just finished my 3rd consecutive day of survey work (ok, today was just a couple of hours around dawn, but you get the idea). Friday and Saturday saw me up to 20 miles offshore, leading a survey team of Alan Tilmouth, Ross Ahmed, Allan Skinner (our boat skipper) and Jimmy (erstwhile SarahJFK crew member […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3,9,5],"tags":[97,823,91,61,93,94,95,825,58,92,96],"class_list":["post-297","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-birdwatching","category-druridge","category-northumberland","tag-barn-owl","tag-birdwatching","tag-cetaceans","tag-druridge-bay","tag-little-gull","tag-marinelife","tag-northern-experience","tag-northumberland","tag-puffins","tag-seabirds","tag-survey"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.northernexperiencewildlifetours.co.uk\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/297","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.northernexperiencewildlifetours.co.uk\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.northernexperiencewildlifetours.co.uk\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.northernexperiencewildlifetours.co.uk\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.northernexperiencewildlifetours.co.uk\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=297"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/www.northernexperiencewildlifetours.co.uk\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/297\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":305,"href":"https:\/\/www.northernexperiencewildlifetours.co.uk\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/297\/revisions\/305"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.northernexperiencewildlifetours.co.uk\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=297"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.northernexperiencewildlifetours.co.uk\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=297"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.northernexperiencewildlifetours.co.uk\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=297"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}