In Newcastle we haven't been able to get out on the water, but from the rock
shelf behind Newcastle Baths this week it has been interesting.
Early in the season (late August - early September) we had large numbers of
Wedge-tailed Shearwaters and mid week last week there were a mix of
Short-tailed (dominant), Wedgies and hundreds of Fluttering feeding in groups
with Silver Gulls and commic terns (W-f, Common and Little). At the end of this
week it is just short-taileds and very close inshore, which is unusual off
Newcastle. Puts you in mind of the sort of close in activity we had from Fairy
Prion and Common Diving Petrels earlier in the year.
Allan
On 01/11/2013, at 10:00 PM, Nikolas Haass wrote:
> Hi Chris & Tony,
>
> Similar scenario off Southport, QLD, on the 20th October. We had many hungry
> Short-tailed Shearwaters around the boat for the whole time and very low
> counts of Wedge-tailed Shearwater (35) and Flesh-footed Shearwater (6).
> http://www.adarman.com/Pelagics/Queensland-Pelagics/2013-October-20-Southport/i-5PF9nLz/A
>
> http://www.adarman.com/Pelagics/Queensland-Pelagics/2013-October-20-Southport/
>
>
> Let's see what it looks like off Mooloolaba, QLD, tomorrow.
>
> Nikolas
>
> ----------------
> Nikolas Haass
>
> Brisbane, QLD
>
>
> ________________________________
> From: Tony Palliser <>
> To: 'Chris Brandis' <>
> Cc: 'birding-aus' <>
> Sent: Friday, November 1, 2013 8:49 PM
> Subject: Re: [Birding-Aus] more dead Short-tailed Shearwaters
>
>
>
> Chris,
>
> We had the same experience today off Sydney - that is 100's of Short-tailed
> Shearwater that appear to be starving and many dead birds throughout too.
> Something appears to be very wrong this year! This is way beyond normal in
> my opinion. Like you very few Wedge-tailed Shearwater and no definite
> Flesh-footed Shearwater either.
>
> Cheers,
> Tony
>
>
>
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From:
> On Behalf Of Chris Brandis
> Sent: Friday, 1 November 2013 7:42 PM
> Cc: birding-aus
> Subject: Re: [Birding-Aus] more dead Short-tailed Shearwaters
>
> The pelagic trips off Wollongong this week had 100s of Short-tailed
> Shearwaters following the boat fighting over the burley of minced meat and
> fat and pieces of fat, obviously starving. A couple fell on board and
> appeared to have reasonable breast condition but many flying past appeared
> to have crops prominent from the breast line.
> In my experience this is unusual as they normally stream past heading south
> with the Wedge-tailed being the prominent Shearwater, but this time they
> were in the minority.
> Cheers Chris
>
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