Port
Stephens Pelagic Trip Report – Sun 11th August 2013
Boat:
M.V. Argonaut, skippered by Ray Horsefield
OBSERVERS
Mike
Kuhl, Jim Smart, Tiffany Mason, Bruce Hosken, Dick Jenkin, Allan Richardson,
Mark
Simpson, Craig Anderson, Dan Williams, Michael Kearns, Lorna Mee, Steve
Roderick and Mick Roderick (organiser).
CONDITIONS
Consistent
with the 2013 trips that we’ve managed to get out, today was once again calm
seas
with <1m combined sea and swell. On the run out there was a nice, brisk
southerly at around 10 knots, but this faded into a gentle sou-wester by around
0945. Water temperature at the shelf approximately 18 degrees.
HIGHLIGHTS
No
outstanding avian highlights but a pod of Offshore Bottlenose Dolphins thrilled
us with some spectacular and synchronised leaping out of the water at the
shelf.
SUMMARY
Departed
Nelson Bay Public Wharf at 0705 returning at 1705.
As
we rounded Tomaree Headland a brisk southerly air flow hit our faces and the
first birds seen were Silver Gulls and an unidentified albatross behind a
trawler. Before long we started seeing small flocks of Fluttering Shearwaters
and
once the berley hit the water it didn't take too long to attract some attendant
albatross (the vast majority of which were Yellow-nosed). The season’s first
Wedge-tailed Shearwater joined us briefly and a Brown Skua that accompanied us
for virtually the entire day flew in.
The
closer we got to the shelf, the calmer the conditions became, though there was
still a slight wind chop at our drift starting point at 32 55 25s 152 35 31e. It
was a generally quiet drift with mostly Yellow-nosed Albatross and one or two
Black-browed attending the boat. A Fairy Prion was picked up, soon to become 2
birds down the slick, then a White-faced Storm-petrel appeared to the north. A
very hungry young Shy Albatross joined in as the first of 3 Solander’s Petrels
arrived from the north (and continued flying south).
A great
dolphin spectacle was observed as an acrobatic trio of Offshore Bottlenose
Dolphins within a larger pod that had moved through leapt out of the water in
near-perfect synchronicity. Having drifted north, we finished the drift at 32
51 54s 152 36 48e and started the trip journey back to port. This started with
the only Wandering Albatross sighting for the day as a bird flew up the wake of
the boat but unfortunately flew off, giving only brief views. Not a great deal
else was seen apart from the albatross that came and went, the occasional Fairy
Prion, some more returning Wedge-tailed Shearwaters and a single Hutton’s
Shearwater
which was added to the day’s list not too far from the heads.
A
detour was made as we approached the offshore islands as a pod of Humpback
Whales were spotted just off Boondelbah Island. We saw 2 Reef Egrets on the
rocks and a Peregrine Falcon circling up high. A somewhat unusual sight was a
feral pigeon (a ‘Red Chequer’ or something similar) sitting on a rock ledge a
few metres above the water on Boondelbah Island, looking much like one of its
ancestral Rock Doves – or perhaps just hiding from the Peregrine Falcon?!
Cheers,
Mick
Roderick
BIRDS
Species:
Total (maximum number visible from the boat at one time)
White-faced
Storm-Petrel: 2 (1)
Black-browed
Albatross: 3 (2)
Shy
Albatross: 2 (1)
Yellow-nosed
Albatross: 30 (11)
Wandering
Albatross: 1
Fairy
Prion: 7 (2)
Fluttering
Shearwater: 60 (8)
Hutton’s
Shearwater: 1
Wedge-tailed
Shearwater: 7 (3)
Solander’s
Petrel: 3 (1)
Australasian
Gannet: 70 (30)
Crested
Tern: 20 (9)
Silver
Gull: 40 (25)
White-bellied
Sea-Eagle: 1
Peregrine
Falcon: 1
Eastern
Reef Egret: 2 (2)
Great
Cormorant: 4 (3)
Pied
Cormorant: 1
Sooty
Oystercatcher: 1
Feral
Pigeon: 1
MAMMALS
Offshore
Bottlenose Dolphin: 25+
Humpback
Whale: 10
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