On 6 July 1997, 12 observers steamed out of a fog-bound Portland harbour at
0745 h, returning at 1700 h. Once passing Lawrence Rocks, we headed on a
bearing of about 185 degrees, continuing after pauses for birds and
dolphins, until over 300 fathoms of water. Weather was fine, sunny with
light north-easterlies, gusting north-westerly briefly in mid afternoon. The
past two weeks of calm weather seemed to have had a dipersing effect on
birds, hence we had a relatively quiet day, observing only 19 species of
seabirds (+ 1 unidentified to species).
Little Penguin 3 Lawrence Rocks
Southern Giant-Petrel 1 juv.
Cape Petrel 2
Great-winged Petrel 1
Sooty Shearwater 5
Fluttering Shearwater 6
Fairy Prion 80
Whalebird sp. 1
Black-browed Albatross 80
Shy Albatross 100
Yellow-nosed Albatross 3
Wilson's Storm-Petrel 1
Grey-backed Storm-Petrel 1
Australasian Gannet 8000 Lawrence Rocks and a few out as far as shelf-break
Black-faced Cormorant ca. 20 Lawrence Rocks and 1 in Portland Bay
GREAT SKUA 10; including 9 harassing Gannets around Lawrence Rocks
Silver Gull 20
Pacific Gull 6 Lawrence Rocks and Portland Bay
White-fronted Tern 2
Crested Tern 10
others : Peregrine Falcon 1 Lawrence Rocks
Bottle-nosed Dolphin ca. 250 several miles off Cape Nelson
[Aust. Fur Seal] 3 Lawrence Rocks
Forthcoming trips: 3 August (fully booked)
7 September (fully booked)
5 October (2 positions available - contact Peter Lansley
at Birds Australia (RAOU) or 03 9375-4564 (home)
Peter Lansley.
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