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Hi all,
This may be seen to be stretching the rules re
advertising, but I think this will be of interest to many birders and I have
checked with Russell that it's OK to make this post.
Many of you will be aware of the success of recent
pelagic excursions to Ashmore Reef. Due to high
demand for places, this year two trips are are scheduled. The cruise running
from 1-8 November is currently fully booked. However, there are FOUR places
still remaining for an earlier trip, set down for 21-28 October.
These places need to be filled by the deadline 1
June, otherwise it will be cancelled. As I'm currently on the list for this
trip, I don't want to miss out because not enough people knew about it! It's
worth pointing out that this will probably be the last such trip for some time,
as the current operators will not be available for the foreseeable
future.
This part of Australian waters is still relatively
unknown and is turning out to be a major hotspot for tropical seabirds. Among
the highlights last year were Jouanin's Petrel (first record for Australia),
several groups of Swinhoe's Storm-Petrel (second record), Matsudaira's and
possibly Leach's Storm-Petrel, many Bulwer's Petrel, Tahiti Petrel, Streaked
Shearwater, Lesser Noddy - not to mention Tropicbirds, Boobies, Frigatebirds,
other tern species and various non-birding highlights.
If anyne is interested in taking up this
opportunity, please contact me directly and I will forward your details to the
operators.
Cheers,
Andrew Stafford
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