After reading a report on the Southport Boat trip I am afraid the Sydney one
pales into insignificance.
Firstly, it rained most of the day, there were very few birds, and as we had
no one from SOSSA on board we had to work them out manually. We were
hopeless, but fortunately there were so few that we did work them all out in
the end. We went 25 miles off shore. There were 8 passengers.
Little Penguin 3
Providence Petrel 2
Great-winged Petrel 4
Wedge-tailed Shearwater c50
Flesh-footed Shearwater c60
Wilson's Storm-Petrel 2
Australian Gannet 4
Silver Gull
Great Crested-Tern 6
Pomarine Jaeger 8
Parasitic Jaeger 10
Rufous Fantail 1
12 SPECIES
The highlight for me was at 12 miles a Rufous Fantail tried to land on the
boat. It flew right around my side of the boat just a metre away.
Mammals
Melon-headed Whales 20-30
Common Dolphin 2
Bottle-nosed Dolphin 6
I don't wish to convey the impression it was a dull trip. Our skipper, Hal
was terrific in making it a memorable day. He chummed and chummed until the
only birds around were in the water beside us. His crew nudged the boat
into a circle of Melon-headed Whales and we had the best views. They also
positioned the boat to keep pace with the dolphins and we leaned over the
front looking straight down the blowholes. The finale was the closeness we
got to a 5 or 6 foot Marlin basking or feeding on the surface and the
closeness we got to a small sunfish.
I was only a little bit sick.
Trevor Quested
Sydney, Australia
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