Rod Gardner wrote:
I wasn't going to send in more reports from Maroubra, fearing overkill, but
there does seem a reason - the variety and quality of birds seems to be at
least as good as the recent pelagics off Sydney and Wollongong. So what's
going on?
Rod, please keep telling us the news thats worthy. I'm not suprised at all
by your sightings having spent many hundreds of hours sea-watching from the
UK. I have posted details of some of my more spectacular days from
Australian vantage points.
The point about the compoarison with pelagic trips is that they sample only
2 days per month. If you compared some kind of excitment parameter and
normalised it for the number of observer hours the pelagic trips would
obviously win hands down. Normally pelagic trips provide more species and
better views but land based sea-watches under the correct conditions do
have the potential to be unbelievable. If you don't believe me try sitting
on the end of Kaikoura Head (NZ) for a few days.
The occurence of Solander's Petrel is very interesting. I have not
recorded them from any of my sea-watches further south in NSW. We do see
this species inshore under windy conditions on the pelagic trips so it is
no suprise that they would be observed from shore.
Keep an eye on those Prions........
Milburn
Dr.Peter Milburn
Biomolecular Resource Facility
The Australian National University
GPO Box 334 Canberra ACT 0200 AUSTRALIA
Phone No. <61> <2> 6249 4326
Fax No. <61> <2> 6249 4326
E-mail Address
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