Barolo Shearwater - Blast From The Past Finds

Barolo Shearwater (though I still habitually refer to them as Little Shear) is one of those fantastic stable, old school rarities that people crave for their finds lists. I've been lucky enough to find two of them over the years.

It's an incredible thrill, when after 100s of hours looking through thousands upon thousands of Manxies you suddenly see these silvery little gems.

August 28th, 2005

On the Sunday 28th of August I had planned on sleeping in after finding my first Bee-eater in Ireland the previous evening, However, after receiving a text stating that the winds had picked up for Galley Head, a horrible fear of being 'gripped off' descended on me and I dashed down to Galley — just in case.

I had expected to find several birders already there, but arrived to a barren headland. I could see that passage was actually very good, with good numbers of Manx Shearwaters moving through, together with 3 Great Shearwaters and 8 Sooty Shearwaters, all within 15 minutes of observation.

Suddenly, in the close stream of Manx Shearwaters, there it was, a small white-faced bird flapping furiously in a group of Manx Shearwaters. Little Shearwater!! And exceptionally close! I could not believe my luck. For 30 seconds I watched helplessly (helpless is the best description) and the bird made its way west before I started to grill it for identification points. Two minutes of sheer bliss if you will forgive the pun.

Other birders soon joined me, and a decent seawatch was had with 9 Balearic Shearwaters, one Blue Fulmar, one Pomarine Skua, and a scattering of Great Skuas. Manx passage remained high and amazingly ANOTHER (or the same doing a circuit) small shearwater was picked up by another Cork birder in the late evening. Undoubtedly another Little Shearwater, this second bird was unfortunately just too distant and in poor light to tick for some of the birders on the headland.

August 31st, 2013

My second self found bird came on Saturday 31st of August 2013.

A planned pelagic out of Kilbaha sadly had to be scrapped due to heavy swell. Most of the participants headed on home or to the Bridges of Ross to make the most of the windy conditions.

Robert Vaughan, Shane Farrell and myself however decided to try seawatching from Fodry.

We had heard good things about seawatching from here from John Murphy but none of us had ever visited the site. 

We set out early, walking the 700 meters or so across the heather, listening out for Lapland Buntings or yank waders as we went.

We found the hollow described to us and settled in. 

Seawatching location at the Fodry

We found this location superb, a really ideal height above the sea, with excellent shelter (much better than the Bridges) and being further west, it meant you had a better shot of twigging birds which have passed the Bridges too far out to nail.

The passage was decent (but not great), with a few Balearic Shearwaters, tens of Sooty Shearwater, Sabine's Gulls, Leache's Petrels and Grey Phalaropes. Skua numbers were OK though, with decent numbers of Bonxies and Arctic Skuas, a few Pomarine and Long-Tailed Skuas each. There was a consistently decent Manx passage all day.

In the afternoon, in middle Manx stream, I locked on to a smaller Sheawater banking over a wave with some manxies. 

It leveled out, showing a clean white face, more rounded wings, silvery upperwings and a markedly different flight style to it's companions.

Barolo Shearwater - Robert Vaughan 

I flagged the guys to get on this rapidly and they had no trouble in doing so, both locking on in seconds. It banked in closer again and I let the call out. "Barolo!!". 

We enjoyed the bird for several minutes as it continued west, with Rob scribbling away in real time. It was a tick for both the lads.

The lads delighted with a tick

We saw the seawatch out with a few more bits and bobs before making for the pub in Kilbaha for food and a few well deserved pints.

The weather looked much the same for the following day, so the three of us camped out overnight and made our way back to what we now termed "The Barolo Cave".

Another decent day was had, with much the same as the previous day, including Poms and Long-Tailed Skuas but no rarity this time.

An enjoyable weekend in good company and a top seabird!