Autumn seabird passage off Ngor, Dakar

Sabine's gull (700+ in a season), sooty, Cory's & Cape Verde shearwaters, pomarine, Arctic & long-tailed skuas, grey phalarope, gannet, Wilson's & Leach's storm petrels, terns. Pointe des Almadies / Ngor, Cap-Vert peninsula, Senegal.

Best time: 1 Sep – 15 Oct (September to October). Where: Ngor – Club Calao terrace, Pointe des Almadies, Pelagic trips from Ngor beach (Senegal). Time of day: First 2–3 hours after sunrise.

• You can go on your own
• Free
• Telescope recommended
• Sound 1/5

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 – 15 Oct. September to mid October, best on a north-westerly after a front; Dakar is one of the world's top seawatch points

Active from 15 Aug to 15 Nov (August to November) in a typical year.

Time of day

First 2–3 hours after sunrise; sessions are traditionally from 07:00

• Morning seawatch: sunrise → 3 h after sunrise

What will you hear?

A visual event over Africa's westernmost point: streams of shearwaters and Sabine's gulls within a few hundred metres of the rocks. Surf, pirogue outboards and Ngor village are the soundtrack; humpback whales pass Sept–Nov and a hydrophone off the rocks is worth a try.

Binoculars?

Telescope recommended. Shearwaters and Sabine's gulls pass a few hundred metres off the rocks; a scope is the whole point, binoculars minimum.

Where to go

• Ngor – Club Calao terrace — The established watchpoint (a private club terrace; ask at the bar) above the Ngor rocks. Map
• Pointe des Almadies — Public rocks and restaurants at the westernmost tip; free alternative watchpoint. Map
• Pelagic trips from Ngor beach — Occasional pirogue pelagics organised by the Dakar birding community. Map

How to go on your own, and what it costs

Bus or taxi to Ngor/Almadies from anywhere in Dakar; the Almadies point and Ngor beach are public and free at any hour. The Calao terrace is a club — ask politely at the bar.

Cost: Free (2026).

Field-recording notes

Not a sound site: the value is the counts (submit them to Trektellen/eBird — coverage is thin) and the whales. Dakar surf and wind in the rainy season's end are relentless; the Almadies rocks at first light are as quiet as the peninsula gets.

Sources

• Senegal Wildlife – Ngor seabird migration update
• Senegal Wildlife – seawatching posts
• IRD – Seawatching from Cape Verde, Senegal (historical paper)

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More: all spectacles in Senegal · bird migration hotspots · September · Senegal in October