Clouded Vision: This month's top 40

We had a load of graphs in the last blog, which focused on the summer months, but as the year moves on, we should too. There are stacks of data to be written up and reported on this month, and because we’re sitting looking at graphs, trend lines and error bars all day every day, we thought we’d find a different way to represent what’s happening in the Bay this month.

Interpreted as “Word Clouds” are the top forty species that you can expect to see in Dublin Bay this month and next. While the position of the text is random, the size of the font represents the abundance of that species in September, based on our low tide data collected over the last three Septembers. 

The top 40 species recorded in Dublin Bay in low tide surveys in

 September 2013, 2014 and 2015. Font size is proportional to the

 number of each species recorded, but the positioning of the text

 is random.

There are lots of Black-headed Gulls, Oystercatchers, Redshanks and Herring Gulls around this month and good numbers of Black-tailed Godwits and Curlews too. The Brent influx hasn't really got going yet, but they are on their way.

Brent Goose will arrive in numbers over the coming weeks David Dillon 

We won’t get many Whimbrel at this time of the year, as the ones that dropped in to spend May with us on their way to breeding grounds, won’t bother calling in on their way to western Africa, and will just do the journey from Iceland in a oner.

Shoveler, Pintail, Wigeon and Teal are waiting in the wings, but won’t really make their presence known for a while yet. We’ll have to wait until mid to late October for decent numbers of any of these. It’ll be the last we see of the terns for a while too. The odd straggler into October wouldn’t be totally surprising, but the majority will have cleared out by now. 

And here’s a sneak peek of what October is likely to have in store. 

The top 40 species recorded in Dublin Bay in low tide surveys in
 October 2013, 2014 and 2015. Font size is proportional to the
 number of each species recorded, but the positioning of the text
 is random.