Cap Gris-Nez: seabird passage through the Dover Strait
Gannet, great/pomarine/arctic/long-tailed skua, Sabine's gull, sooty, Manx & Balearic shearwater, fulmar, kittiwake, divers, scoters, brent geese, little gull; plus passerines and raptors overhead. Côte d'Opale, Pas-de-Calais (Audinghen), France.
Best time: 15 Sep – 31 Oct (September to October). Where: Cap Gris-Nez cliff top (Grand Site des Deux-Caps), Cap Blanc-Nez, Digue du Clipon, Loon-Plage (Dunkerque) (France). Time of day: From first light to about 4 h after sunrise is the heart of the seawatch.
- 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: 15 Sep – 31 Oct. Mid September to end of October on north-westerly winds; a spring passage (mid March to mid May) is also counted
Active from 20 Aug to 15 Nov (August to November) in a typical year.
Time of day
From first light to about 4 h after sunrise is the heart of the seawatch; a second pulse before dusk. The volunteer counters are on the cliff from dawn to sunset through both seasons.
- Dawn seawatch: 15 min before sunrise → 4 h after sunrise
- Evening passage: 150 min before sunset → sunset
What will you hear?
A visual passage — skuas harrying terns, gannet lines, scoter strings — above the one great sound of the place: the Channel breaking on the rocks 50 m below, with kittiwakes and the Gris-Nez foghorn in sea fog. Overland, meadow pipits and finches stream past calling on October mornings.
Binoculars?
Telescope recommended. Everything passes at sea, 200 m to 2 km out; a scope is the tool. In strong wind the birds come below the cliff top.
Where to go
- Cap Gris-Nez cliff top (Grand Site des Deux-Caps) — Large free car park at the cape; the counters stand on the flat rocky plateau by the lighthouse. Conservatoire du Littoral land, Natura 2000. Map
- Cap Blanc-Nez — Higher chalk cape 12 km north; same passage, more exposed, fewer observers. Map
- Digue du Clipon, Loon-Plage (Dunkerque) — Long jetty into the Channel west of the port; the other Nord seawatch station. Map
How to go on your own, and what it costs
From the D940 between Wissant and Audinghen follow the signs to Cap Gris-Nez; park in the free car park and walk 300 m to the lighthouse plateau. Open at all hours, no fees. Cap Blanc-Nez: car park at the Dover Patrol monument. Clipon: the jetty road from Loon-Plage past the port works.
Cost: Free.
Field-recording notes
Wind is the point and the problem: the best days are the worst for a microphone. Record the sea at the cliff base paths on calmer days, and the overland passerine passage (pipits, finches, larks) on still mornings with easterlies when seawatching is poor. The car park fills with walkers from 10:00; Conservatoire land, stay on the paths (cliff edge is unfenced). Seawatch data go to Trektellen — counters welcome visitors but need quiet.
Sources
- Observatoire du Parc naturel régional des Caps et Marais d'Opale – A04 Seawatching au Cap Gris-Nez
- Birdingplaces – Cap Gris-Nez
- Migraction.net – French migration count sites (Cap Gris-Nez, pre- and post-nuptial)
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.
Wadden Sea autumn: millions of waders and geeseKnot and dunlin flocks in the tens of thousands wheeling with a rushing wing-roar, curlew and godwit calls at the roost, brent geese growling, barnacle geese yapping; wind, surf and the tide-edge trickle.
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More: all spectacles in France · gannets · bird migration hotspots · France in September · France in October