Eaglehawk Pelagic Trip Report – October 8th, 2016
Participants:
Ruth Brozek, Chris Darby, Rob Hamilton, Mike Honeyman, Lauren Roman, Mona
Loofs-Samorzewski, Mark Sanders, John Tongue, Shirley Tongue, Peter Tongue,
Kimberley Tongue, Els Wakefield, and Paul Brooks (organiser and report
compiler)
Boat:
The Pauletta, skippered by John Males, with deckhand Adam Mackintosh.
Notes:
The day got off to a slow start, after problems with the Pauletta’s starter
motor saw us leaving the jetty over half an hour late. Due to this, we
headed straight out to the shelf-break, rather than south to the Hippolyte,
so we reached deep water not long after we usually would. The strong
southerly made for a bumpy ride with a bit of spray, even while stopped at
our first berley point, so we took to trolling around to try to avoid the
worst of it. This meant that, for most of the time, the viewing angle of
our slick was straight into the sun, which was unfortunate considering the
high numbers of storm petrels gathering there. A single Antarctic Tern was
the obvious highlight, being the fourth record for Tasmania and the ninth
for Australia (pending BARC acceptance). The adult Salvin’s Albatross
encountered over just 50 fathoms was another highlight, as was the high
concentration of Grey-backed Storm Petrel feeding in our slick throughout
the day.
Activity:
Headed east to the shelf from Pirates Bay to berley over 275 fathoms at
0935 hrs. Rather than drift, we trolled around and got out to 450 fathoms
before motoring south at 1130 hrs to pull up and berley over 245 fathoms at
1155 hrs. We continued to troll for the remainder of the day, getting out
to 320 fathoms at 1300 hrs, before heading straight back to Pirates Bay to
dock at 1455 hrs.
Conditions:
Left port under sunny skies with a light southerly breeze and choppy seas.
The 2 metre swell didn’t hit until we were a couple of kms out when the
southerly started topping 25 knots, with the seas increasing to 2 metres.
Soon, the southerly pushed up over 30 knots, pushing the seas over 2 metres
at times, causing considerable spray. Cloud cover increased with
accompanying rain squalls. Out wide, the wind varied between 15 and 30+
knots with some periods of rain. From midday, the wind began to drop out
and cloud decreased. Water temperature was a stable 13.6 deg C in all
waters. Air temperature was cool. None seasick.
Mammals:
Short-beaked Common Dolphin: 6 in offshore waters.
Birds (IOC v 6.3 – max at one time in brackets):
Grey-backed Storm Petrel: c. 60 (c. 60) Numbers swelled all day until there
were at least 60 birds foraging in the slick and flying around the boat in
pelagic waters.
Wilson’s Storm Petrel: 7 (7) Numbers also grew steadily all day as we
trolled around. One bird followed us quite a way back past the shelf on
the return trip.
Southern Royal Albatross: 4 (4) All pelagic.
Black-browed Type Albatross: 1 fly-by in pelagic waters not seen well.
SALVIN’S ALBATROSS: 1 bird made several passes over 50 fathoms in the
morning.
Shy Albatross: c. 50 (35) 1 inshore in the morning; 6 offshore; remainder
pelagic.
Buller’s Albatross: 4 (3) 1 offshore in the morning; remainder pelagic.
All adult.
Southern Giant Petrel: 1 fly-by in offshore waters.
Northern Giant Petrel: 10 (10) 8 immatures and 2 juveniles in pelagic
waters.
Giant Petrel Sp.: 3 (1) Distant fly-bys; 1 inshore, 2 in offshore waters.
Fairy Prion: c. 50 (12) 17 offshore in the morning; c. 20 pelagic;
remainder offshore in the afternoon.
Great-winged Petrel: 1 (1) Pelagic.
Grey-faced Petrel: 2 (1) Pelagic.
White-chinned Petrel: 3 (3) Pelagic.
Sooty Shearwater: 2 (1) Pelagic.
Short-tailed Shearwater: c. 5000 (c. 3000) We passed through a wide band of
shearwaters, numbering at least three thousand, from about 40 fathoms.
Numbers dropped off towards deeper water but still numbered several hundred
throughout the day.
Common Diving Petrel: 4 (3) Offshore in the morning, only seen by a few
observers.
Black-faced Cormorant: 3 (1) Inshore in the morning, a very low count for
Eaglehawk.
Australasian Gannet: 7 (1) 4 inshore in the morning; 2 offshore in the
morning; 1 inshore in the afternoon.
Silver Gull: 9 (3) Inshore in the morning.
Pacific Gull: 1 adult inshore in the morning.
Kelp Gull: 10 (10) Inshore in the morning.
Greater Crested Tern: c. 75 (c. 50) 4 offshore in the morning; remainder
pelagic, including a large flock over a bait ball.
White-fronted Tern: 1 (1) Flew by the port side a couple of minutes after
the Antarctic Tern.
ANTARCTIC TERN: 1 adult, moulting into breeding plumage, flew by the port
side close enough to allow for identifiable photographs. Depth 380
fathoms. 3rd record for Eaglehawk in the last 2 years.
PB
<HR>
<BR> Birding-Aus mailing list
<BR>
<BR> To change settings or unsubscribe visit:
<BR> http://birding-aus.org/mailman/listinfo/birding-aus_birding-aus.org
</HR>
|
