Seabird passage at Estaca de Bares
Gannet, Manx, Balearic, sooty and great shearwaters, skuas, Sabine's gull, phalaropes, auks. Galicia, A Coruña; also Cabo Peñas (Asturias), Spain.
Best time: 1 Sep – 31 Oct (September to October). Where: Estación Ornitolóxica de Estaca de Bares, Cabo Peñas (Asturias), Punta da Candieira / Cabo Ortegal (Spain). Time of day: Passage is heaviest from first light to about 10:00, especially the morning after a westerly gale.
- You can go on your own
- Free
- Telescope recommended
- Sound 2/5
Open it in the interactive calendarSunrise and sunset listening times for the day you pick, and the map.
When is the best time?
Peak: 1 Sep – 31 Oct. September–October, on north-westerly gales
Active from 15 Aug to 5 Dec (August to December) in a typical year.
Time of day
Passage is heaviest from first light to about 10:00, especially the morning after a westerly gale; a lesser movement in the 2 h before sunset.
- Morning passage: 15 min before sunrise → 10:00
- Evening passage: 2 h before sunset → sunset
What will you hear?
Mostly a scope spectacle — over a million seabirds a year round Spain's northernmost point — but the gale, the surf on the rocks and passing gannet flocks make a raw Atlantic ambience.
Binoculars?
Telescope recommended. Seabirds pass 200 m to 2 km out in a gale; a scope is the whole point, binoculars catch only the nearest.
Where to go
- Estación Ornitolóxica de Estaca de Bares — Observation hut and lighthouse headland; the counting station has volunteers in autumn. Map
- Cabo Peñas (Asturias) — Second Cantabrian headland with a visitor centre and seawatching point. Map
- Punta da Candieira / Cabo Ortegal — Wilder cliffs to the west; no facilities. Map
How to go on your own, and what it costs
Drive to the Estaca de Bares lighthouse car park (free) and use the observation hut on the headland; Cabo Peñas has a free car park and visitor centre; Cabo Ortegal is a road-end with a car park.
Cost: Free.
Field-recording notes
Wind is the point and the problem — 40-knot gales bring the birds. Heavy wind protection, a sheltered nook below the ridge, and treat it as a storm-ambience session with birds passing through. The lighthouse foghorn may sound in poor visibility.
Sources
Similar spectacles
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Helgoland Lummenfelsen: guillemots, gannets and the 'Lummensprung'Germany's only seabird cliff: guillemot growls, kittiwake screaming, gannet colony grating, fulmar cackles; at the jump, chicks peeping and adults calling them down to the sea 40 m below.
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More: all spectacles in Spain · gannets · bird migration hotspots · Spain in September · Spain in October