Subject: Time: 12:16 PM
short-tailed shearwaters Date: 2/9/1997
Alexandra Appleman wrote:
>
> My question is: where do [Short-tailed Shearwaters] go after Townsville? To
they track down the coast or do they fly futher out to sea before heading
south?
I've been doing regular seawatches off the Sydney coast for the last couple of
years (usually several a week), and have found that Short-tailed Shearwaters
begin to arrive (at least visibly from the coast) in the second half of
September. Perhaps they'll be earlier this year. They peak in November.
Approximate averages for half-hour watches in ten-day blocks over the past two
years (off Coogee and Maroubra) have been as follows:
0.5 70 30 150 1000 1000 30 80
26.9- 8.10- 18.10- 28.10- 7.11 17.11- 17.11- 7.12
7.10 17.10 27.10 6.11 16.11 26.11 6.12 16.12
A lot of this depends on weather conditions, particularly winds. As there are
literally millions that breed down in the Bass Strait, we clearly only see a
small proportion from the coast. This would seem to be because most are 6-10
km off shore, as Pete Milburn says, which is probably too distant to see from
the shore - or is it?
If there are any major deviations from this pattern this year, I'll keep the
list informed.
Apart from the Fluttering Shearwaters in their thousands (up to 20,000) over
the winter that Chris Shinton mentioned, Wedge-tails have now arrived in
numbers. The first came in the middle of August, and a couple of days ago
there was a raft of over 3000 just off North Head in very still weather.
Wedge-tails seem to hug the coast more closely than Short-tails, even without
offshore winds.
Rod Gardner
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