Responding to Rod Gardner’s note on potential good sea watching weather this
weekend, I decided to brave both the cold and rain, by heading out to Maroubra
(within 10 km south of Sydney CBD) for a satisfying day of sea watching. I was
accompanied part of the time by both Rod Gardner and David Mitford, but stayed a
bit longer after both had left till about mid afternoon.
There were several bands of rain throughout the day; driven by moderate SW
winds, but these weather conditions were not as good as it can get for optimal
sea birding. Despite this there were good numbers of Albatross (4 species
atleast), hundreds of Fluttering Shearwaters and Australasian Gannets, fair
numbers of Giant Petrels, but fewer Prions than in previous years. Many of the
birds were seen quite well through the scope, and lots of Albatrosses, Giant
Petrels, Shearwaters and a few Fairy Prions flew within 100 metres from the
headland. I was told that there is alot of bait fish out there in the ocean
which may account for the large numbers of Australasian Gannets. Can anyone
further comment on this? Atleast 3 fishing trawlers were seen within 5 km from
the coast, but not many birds were following them. What surprised me today was
seeing a number of the Shearwaters hydroplaning over the water just like Prions
do. I have not noticed this previously. Has anyone noticed this before?
Overall it was an above average sea watch with 17 full species of seabird
seen today.
Seabirds Observed:
Fairy Penguin (1 seen and others heard)
Black-browed Albatross (100 plus)
Campbell Island Albatross (atleast 2 seen)
Yellow-nosed Albatross (20 plus)
Shy Albatross (6) (including a possible Salvin's Alabtross)
Wandering Albatross (1)
Southern Giant Petrel (2)
Northern Giant Petrel (2)
Giant Petrels unidentified (5)
Fairy Prion (5)
Prions unidentified (5 plus, including one possible Slender-billed)
Hutton’s Shearwater (50 plus)
Fluttering Shearwater (200 plus)
Hutton’s/Fluttering Shearwaters (1000 plus)
Australasian Gannet (300 plus)
Great Cormorant (4)
Antarctic Skua (3)
Pacific Gull (1) (possibly a 2nd winter bird)
Silver Gull
Crested Tern
White-fronted Tern (2)
