David Mitford and I spent a few hours yesterday afternoon
(6th February 2005) sea watching from Magic Pt, Maroubra (about 10km south of the Sydney CBD).
The afternoon produced mainly light easterly sea breezes which
could explain why many sea birds were just resting on the water and with most
bird activity at least a kilometre from the shore. Several
feeding flocks comprising of mainly Wedge-tailed Shearwaters and Silver Gulls were
observed, and with a few Gannets plunging into the water, this would indicate
there was some fish moving about. The main highlights for the afternoon was one
STREAKED SHEARWATER (at least one bird seen on 3 occasions during the 3 hour
period and observed at one stage reasonably close to shore), a single Fleshy-footed
Shearwater (probably the closest observed of all the shearwaters and only
within a hundred or so metres from the shore) and at
least one LONG-TAILED JAEGER.
The species and minimum numbers seen yesterday were
as follows:
Fairy Penguin (heard calling below Magic Pt)
Wedge-tailed Shearwater (1,000)
Fleshy-footed Shearwater (1)
Short-tailed Shearwater (2)
STREAKED SHEARWATER (1)
Fluttering Shearwater (4)
Australasian Gannet (26)
Australian Pelican (1)
Pomarine Jaeger (9)
LONG-TAILED JAEGER (1)
Silver Gull (500)
Crested Tern (30)
I would also like to note that Rod Gardner was fortunate to
see 7 Streaked Shearwaters within a 2 hour sea watch from Maroubra,
on one of the days during the past week. They are certainly just about twitchable for anyone wanting to add one to their life list.
However, a scope is usally needed.
Edwin Vella
