Birding from the helm

Why counting seabirds as a sailing hobby is an educational addiction

- Marsali Taylor

Over last year, I surveyed seabirds. It wasn’t a scientific survey; I just took a notebook and logged the birds I saw while I was out sailing... and in the process I learned a lot about the birds I’d just taken for granted.

For starters, there were more species than I’d expected. I couldn’t mistake the chittering tirricks, or Arctic terns, Shetland’s white swallows, but I’d vaguely lumped common guillemots and razorbills together. Anything large and long-necked I’d taken for a scarf (shag), so it was a surprise to see raingeese (red-throated divers) on the voe. Another surprise was that they all had defined territory, not just of species but individuals, as I would get the same numbers day after day. Two pairs of terns chittered around the marina, and a young guillemot bobbed around the boats, rarely going further than the end of the pier.

The raingeese liked narrower water too; I regularly saw two pairs in the inner voe, within a mile of the marina. As the voe widened, there were guillemots and razorbills in sociable clumps of both species. One dozen-strong group reappeared regularly in the same place.