Yesterday afternoon, 23rd February, Dion Hobcroft and I had an
excellent three hours seawatching at Mistral Point, Maroubra, in the
south-east of Sydney. Conditions were excellent for a summer sea
watch, with fresh north-easterlies, squalls and a big sea.
First good bird was a distant White Tern picked up near the horizon
close to a rain squall. About half an hour later we saw two a lot
further in, and another half an hour later another, which stayed in
view for a long time feeding close to a number of shearwaters - so at
least two, possibly four White Terns, were recorded.
Amongst those shearwaters was a Streaked Shearwater, seen poorly as
it dipped up and down along the troughs. A little earlier we got on
to a Buller's Shearwater, which came in very close to the point,
giving excellent views of this stunning bird. The final outstanding
species was Sooty Tern, an adult and a juvenile, which flew right in
to the bay.
Other birds recorded included Pomarine and Arctic Jaeger, a couple of
Sooty Shearwaters, and a few Flesh-footed Shearwaters.
On Friday, also at Mistral, there were two Streaked Shearwaters, and
eighteen Long-tailed Jaegers, the latter stretched outover about two
kilometers in a very loose linear flock, flying north slowly and
feeding.
On Saturday, at Eastlakes golf course, the Yellow Wagtail was still
there, now coming into summer plumage, with its grey head, and very
yellow on the belly and under tail coverts. I watched it then fly off
to the east (towards the ocean), until I lost sight of it. Also
present still was one Freckled Duck.
Rod Gardner
--
Dr Rod Gardner
Senior Lecturer
Department of Linguistics
School of Modern Language Studies
University of New South Wales
NSW 2052
Australia
Tel: ±61 2 9385 1454
Fax: ±61 2 9385 1190
CRICOS Provider Code 00098G
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