Swewatch

Anyone who knows me only the slightest bit knows that whenever there is a seawatch at hand, I'm in. Therefore, the minute that the boys here started to get anxious about Wednesdays winds there was no doubt that I would go with. Ringing was sure to be cancelled due to winds over 13 m/s and so I found myself in the car with Kaj, Sissel and David. We picked up another birder, Mattias Ullman, in Malmö and drove to Kattvik on the southwest side of the Bay of Laholm.
Immediately it was apparent that I had miscalculated a bit. Initially I suspected the bay to be really small and hence the shearwaters and other goodies would be well visible all the time, I was wrong. Had I been looking onto a map I could've seen that the bay is in fact bigger than the whole Falsterbo peninsula! A bit of a shock. Anyhew, seawatching began and I took a view at about 11 o'clock (these digits are based on seeing yourself as the middlepoint of a clock with 12 o'clock being right ahead) like what I was used to in Holland. Strange was it then when the first bird was picked up flying to the right at about 1 o'clock, an Arctic Skua at about 4km distance. Had I missed this? It could easily be the case since it was so far away and was flying reasonably low on the surface of the water, I continued watching at 11 o'clock. About an hour later David shouted 'Mindre Lira!' (Manx Shearwater). I looked up and to my surprise saw his scope turned towards the inner parts of the bay at about 3 o'clock! What the.... The bird passed close at 700m and was visible from east to west. Getting curious about 'what the deal' was here I asked Kaj about whether you search for a bird or just keep one position in your scope. To my surprise he indeed said that you look for the birds, totally different than in Holland!

The first time I ever went seawatching, it was at Camperduin, I learned from the counter at that moment (I believe it was Maarten Platteeuw) that it was best to keep your telescope fixed on 1 particular point instead of continuously scanning the water. This technique did fine at all places I seawatched so far as long as there was even a bit of migration. As soon as there were very little birds to be found, you'd scan and find them yourself instead of letting them fly into your scope view.

At this point I knew that this wasn't going to be a 'good' day to Dutch standards but it would be hard work all day. Fulmars and Great Skuas popped up at 11 o'clock and would fly either into the bay or fast SW, other birds would appear at around 12-1 o'clock and would fly along the horizon to the east or west, coming not a hint closer. Getting up at 4:30 every morning is tiring and so I'm not really proud of my next move; I slept in the back of the car, only occasionally waking up by the loud yell of someone and then seeing the bird they were yelling about before again falling into a deep comatose sleep. To my shame in the end I actually saw all good things with 3 1cy Long-tailed Skuas and a 1cy Sabine's Gull being the best.