Hi birders,
After last winter, it was going to have to be a disappointing
winter for seabirds at Maroubra, in Sydney's south-east, but
despite what seemed like week upon week of light westerlies,
twenty eight species of seabirds were seen between June and
August, which doesn't compare too badly with the thirty three
last year.
The best period was early June, when the highlight of the
winter was seen (with Edwin Vella): a full summer plumage
Arctic Tern flying along the cliff top at Magic Point. This
period also brought an influx of Common Diving Petrels, with
eight plus seen between 4th and 18th, with three birds on the
4th. There was also a big influx of prions at this time,
amongst which Antarctics was picked out on 12th and 13th, and
a Slender-billed on 11th. On 11th alone more than 500 prions
were logged. These three days also brought two Northern Giant
Petrels (singles on 12th and 13th), whilst 15 records of Shy
Albatross and six of Wandering in this period are unusual for
early June (they have normally arrived here in good numbers in
July).
Petrels generally put in a very poor showing close to shore
this year, with a single Providence Petrel on 17th August, and
a single Cape Petrel on 11th. On a positive note, this was a
very good year for Black-browed Albatross, the best in the past
six winters (averaging over 15 birds per hour), with Wanderers
and Shy about or a little above average (0.4 and 0.6 bph
respectively), but Yellow-nosed had another bad year, with just
3.4 bph, their worst in the six years, and sightings have
declined each year since 1997. Of course, this is just a
snapshot, and the birds may simply be elsewhere.
Brown Skuas had a good year, with 45 sightings between 5th June
and end of August, the best in the six years. White-fronted
Terns and Fluttering/Hutton's Shearwaters showed in average
numbers (though they've built up strongly in the past few days,
with thousands present).
Other sightings of note included a late Short-tailed Shearwater
on 2nd June, and high numbers of Australasian Gannets between
20th and 22nd July, with over 300 birds on each of these days.
Rod Gardner
Birding-Aus is on the Web at
www.shc.melb.catholic.edu.au/home/birding/index.html
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