NB – the following report is a sea watch from land NOT a pelagic trip
report………..
Today’s Cumberland Bird Observers Club outing to Magic Pt, Maroubra (Sydney,
NSW) could not have been at a better time, as myself, atleast 8 other CBOC
members joined Rod Gardner, David Mitford and Matt Hughes in a thrilling day of
sea watching. Winds where quite strong from the SW, driving many sea birds very
close in shore, producing good numbers of Albatrosses, Pterodromas (only
Great-winged Petrels of the race macroptera were observed), Prions, Shearwaters
etc within good identification range. The big highlight for all of us, was
seeing a juv. GREY-HEADED ALBATROSS within a few hundred metres off the
pont, giving us enough chance to positively see its black bill, dark underwings
and grey hood. Another great highlight, were 5 separate sightings of COMMON
DIVING PETRELS (which most, if not all got to see atleast one or two) very
close to shore. Two sightings of these tiny seabirds were of them diving and
submerging a few times amongst a small raft of feeding Shearwaters (which
appeared almost twice the size of the Diving Petrels). At other times, they were
just flying past in their distinct non-stop "whirring" quail-like flight. Other
great sightings were 4-5 Fairy Penguins seen together feeding, 4
Wandering Albatrosses (including atleast one Gibson’s), 3 Northern
Giant Petrels, great views of several Great-winged Petrels (amongst
50 plus all dark Pterodroma Petrels seen), 2 Antarctic Prions amongst
others.
What Rod, David and myself have noticed from several sea watches at Magic Pt,
is that Yellow-nosed Albatrosses appears to become more common inshore during
the afternoon. Also, during the last few hours of the day, lots of Australasian
Gannets head north along the coast. Has anybody also noticed these two
occurrences before?
With the combined effort of everyone at Magic Pt, today’s list of seabirds
were as follows:
Fairy Penguin (5 plus)
Black-browed Albatross (100 plus) (including atleast 5 Campbell Island
Albatrosses)
GREY-HEADED ALBATROSS (1 juv.)
Yellow-nosed Albatross (30 plus)
Shy Albatross (20 plus) (including Diomedea cauta, steadi/salvini)
Wandering Albatross (4) (including atleast 1 adult Gibson’s Albatross)
NORTHERN GIANT PETREL (3)
Southern Giant Petrel (1)
Unidentified Giant Petrels (1)
Great-winged Petrel (20 plus) (possibly all race macroptera)
Unidentified dark Pterodroma Petrels (30 plus, possibly all Great wing’s)
Fairy Prion (20 plus)
ANTARCTIC PRION (2)
Unidentified Prions (20 plus) (1 possible Slender-billed Prion seen)
Hutton’s Shearwater (30 plus)
Fluttering Shearwater (150 plus)
COMMON DIVING PETREL (5)
Australasian Gannet (300 plus)
Little Pied Cormorant (1)
Great Cormorant (1)
Antarctic Skua (3)
Silver Gull
Crested Tern
White-fronted Tern (2-3 seen at the same time, amongst 10-20 sightings)
MAMMALS:
Fur Seal (2 seen briefly within a few metres off the point)
No doubt a great day for all those who attended, and a very good reason to
get out of bed and brave the cold weather.
Edwin Vella
