Lisa Hug and I looked at a few points along the northern NSW coast last
Thursday (22 Nov 2001).
At Flat Rock, just N of Ballina, we had:
200 Common Terns, mostly adults, a few 2nd year birds and at least one which
appeared to be in worn juvenal plumage.
100 Little Terns, of which 2 were in definitive Alternate plumage with fresh
primaries, suggesting they were Australian breeding birds
1 Gull-billed Tern
1 White-winged Black Tern, a juvenal still with nearly all the scapulars
broadly tipped dark brown.
We also did an afternoon seawatch at Fingal Head in northern NSW from the
vicinity of the lighthouse, overlooking Cook Island. There we saw:
1 Masked Booby, a subadult bird with mainly adult features but dark under
primary coverts and dark on the rear scapulars
100 Wedge-tailed Shearwaters
2 Fleshyfooted Shearwaters
200 Short-tailed Shearwaters
20 Fluttering-type Shearwaters
2 Jaegers (probably Arctic)
1 White-bellied Sea-Eagle carrying a dead Silver Gull chick from the colony
on the island
Lots of Silver Gulls, Crested Terns, Common Terns and Little Terns offshore.
Chris Corben
www.hoarybat.com
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