Engish version of the APNAE census

These days I've been really busy, so I couldn't explain my last experiences with birds. Last month I went to a census with the APNAE association (Amics del Parc Natural dels Aiguamolls de l'Empordà, it means Aiguamolls de l'Empordà Nature Park Friends). It was in the Bay of Roses, and the idea was to see some seabirds. This census had been posponed many times because of the bad weather, so instead of winter seabirds, that were the expected species to see, we saw some migratory birds. Really early at the morning, we were at the Roses harbor ready to sail together with other birdwatchers. There we saw a Sandwich Tern (Sterna sandvicensis) and I could took a few photos of it.

The say started so good: at the Bay of Roses we saw like 12 Black-throated Loons (Gavia arctica)! We also saw a Great Crested Grebe (Podiceps cristatus).
Then, at the Aiguamolls de l'Empordà beach, we saw some Dunlins (Calidris aplina), many Sanderlings (Calidris alba) and a Greay Plover (Pulvialis squatarola). Later, just before starting to throw fish to atracct seagulls, ve saw a Great Skua (Stercorarius skua).

At the catalan post you can see some images. They aren't that good but you can clearly see the species.

When we started to throw fish and bread, we saw the first Balearic Shearwaters (Puffinus mauretanicus) of the say. Then, there came many Yellow-legged Gulls (Larus michahellis) and some Black-headed Gulls (Larus ridibundus). They were all trying to catch the food we were throwing. The most interesting species came a bit later. We saw a Mediterranean Gull (Ichthyaetus melanocephalus) and some Northern Gannets (Morus bassanus), that started doing their caracteristic high-speed divings. There were also some European Shags (Phalacrocorax aristotelis), that are so photogenic.

But definitely, the rarest bird of the day was the Puffin (Fratercula artica). It was the first time I saw it and I was really excited. We also saw it for a moment, because then it dived into the water. We all tried to re-locate it, but we couldn't. However, it was a fantastic observation. The photo didn't came out really well, because there was a lot of people trying to see the bird, the boat was moving a lot and the bird was moving too, but I'm happy with the result.

Before this, I saw many other interesting birds, like the Little Gull (Hydrocoloeus minutus), a migratory species, and the Razorbill (Alca torda), but couldn't see it really well because of the backlighting.
We also saw some Common bottlenose dolphins, and they swam around our boat.

When we went to Cap Norfeu, we saw two peregrine falcons (Falco peregrinus) and a Blue Rock Thrush (Monticola solitarius). We also saw more European Shags with their chicks. The last rare species was the Audouin's Gull (Ichthyaetus audouinii).

Finally, we went to the Aiguamolls de l'Empordà Nature Park to have lunch. There we saw 13 Common Cranes, that are also a rare species, but it isn't a really rare thing because we are in migration time. There also was Great Egret (Ardea alba) and a White Stork. The last one was stained with oil, and it looked nearly black.