21/06/2014: little terns!

On Saturday 21st June, with a spring-like weather, we left O Grove harbour at the usual time, 8:30 a.m.
In the route throughout the 'ria' of Arousa we managed to see five Eurasian oystercatchers, European shags, great black-backed and yellow-legged gulls. Once off Sálvora island, the first shearwaters popped up, with one Cory's shearwater (quite scarce this year) and some Balearics. A stormy (European storm-petrel) showed well at the chum, plus northern gannets, two common terns and, remarkably, two little terns, a not common species in the area.

About cetaceans, we saw both common and bottlenose dolphins, and a sunfish was enjoyed for all the passengers.

Here below is the species list, with highlights in bold and approximate numbers in italics:

SPECIES LIST

Latin name	English name	N	Notes
Puffinus mauretanicus	Balearic shearwater	6
Calonectris diomedea	Cory's shearwater	1	Scarce this year
Hydrobates pelagicus	European storm-petrel	1
Phalacrocorax aristotelis	European shag	50
Morus bassanus	Northern gannet	86
Haematopus ostralegus	Eurasian oystercatcher	5
Larus michahellis	Yellow-legged gull	90
Larus marinus	Great black-backed gull	2
Sterna hirundo	Common tern	2	Spring record
Sternula albifrons	Little tern	2	Not common in the area
Delphinus delphis	Common dolphin	3
Tursiops truncatus	Bottlenose dolphin	22
Mola mola	Sunfish	1

An some pictures of the trip, (c) Xoán Diéguez and Gustavo Ferreiro:

Some participants of the trip. 21/06/2014, 'ria' of Arousa, SW Galicia (c) Gustavo Ferreiro.

Some participants of the trip. 21/06/2014, Sálvora island, SW Galicia (c) Gustavo Ferreiro.

European storm-petrel Hydrobates pelagicus, 21/06/2014, 12 nm off Sálvora island, SW Galicia (c) Xoán Diéguez.

Eurasian oystercatcher Haematopus ostralegus. 21/06/2014, 'ria' of Arousa, SW Galicia (c) Xoán Diéguez