Hi birders,
Mike Carter mentions in his Port Fairy pelagic report the scarcity of
jaegers, particularly Arctics, off the Victorian coast this summer. With
respect to the Arctics, it has been the same off the Sydney coast at
Maroubra, though the other two species have been around in much higher than
usual numbers, probably because of the prevalence of onshore winds this
summer. In the past two months in particular, Pomarines have outnumbered
Arctics from the coast, which is most unusual, and even Long-tails haven't
been far behind. In the past three days of unrelenting onshore winds here,
short early morning seawatches have produced 16, 8 and 21 Long-tailed
Jaegers. Compare this with just four records for Long-tails in the whole
period of the first atlas in the late seventies and early eighties! Have
they become commoner, or has knowledge of how to identify jaegers improved?
Or both?
Two days ago Dave Mitford saw a Brown Skua of Maroubra, an extremely early
date.
Rod Gardner
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