Monsoon Seawatch

1 June - 1 September

Seawatching along the western coast of India during the Southwest Monsoon offers a unique opportunity to observe seabirds driven closer to shore by the monsoon winds. During this time, strong winds blow inland, making coastal locations ideal for spotting a variety of seabird species. Monsoon winds, rain and choppy seas create an environment where birds are often seen flying low over the water or soaring with the wind currents. The west coast, with its strategic vantage points and dynamic weather, becomes is ideal for birders eager to witness these rare pelagic visitors during the height of the rainy season.

Monsoon Seawatch is an annual event that, over multiple years, will allow us to understand the status of seabirds in the Indian Ocean over many years of monitoring. Participants are expected to follow a fixed protocol to enable greater collective learning.

Please refer to the Land-based Seabird Monitoring Protocol before starting your seawatch. We especially encourage birders from the the western Indian Coast and Sri Lanka – Specifically the Indian states of Gujarat, Maharashtra, Goa, Karnataka, Kerala, and southern Tamil Nadu till Rameswaram. The western coastline directly faces the southwest monsoon winds, making it especially conducive for seabird activity.

Do take photos of seabirds and seawatching and tag the social media handles of any of the organizers!

What can you expect?

An overview of likely species.

Monsoon Seawatch

Pale Terns	Great Crested & Lesser Crested Tern (more of former), Common Tern, and rarely White-cheeked, Roseate, Sandwich or Arctic Tern, beached birds may include Saunder’s or even White Tern
Dark Terns	Bridled Tern and Sooty Tern (more often juveniles)
Noddies	Lesser and Brown Noddy
Frigatebirds	Lesser, sometimes Christmas Island and Greater Frigatebird
Storm Petrels	Wilson’s and rarely Swinhoe’s Storm Petrel
Shearwaters & Petrels	Flesh-footed Shearwater, sometimes Persian and Streaked Shearwater, possibly Wedge-tailed or Tropical Shearwater or Jouanin’s Petrel
Skuas	Arctic (=Parasitic) and rarely Long-tailed Skua, Pomarine in monsoon is rare, Brown and South Polar Skuas may be expected
Gulls	Usually rare in July but Sooty and White-eyed Gull may be expected
Boobies	Masked Booby (usually shored) but can expect Brown and Red-footed Boobies as well
Tropicbirds	Usually rare but beached Red-billed or White-tailed Tropicbirds possible
Phalaropes	Possibly Red-necked Phalarope
Albatrosses	If you are lucky, Grey-headed Albatross

If you are lucky, you can expect to see not just one or two nice birds but 100s of shearwaters and storm-petrels among many other exciting species like Grey-headed Albatross, Arctic Tern, many frigatebirds and noddies.

Collaborating Groups

Coming Soon

Sea-Watching Protocol Webinar

Header Image: © Ashwin Viswanathan

Details

Start:: 1 June
End:: 1 September

Venue

: India and Sri Lanka

Organizers

: Indian Seabird Group
: Bird Count India