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Hi Birders,
Barbara Lake, on behalf of the Northern NSW Group
of Birds Australia organised a pelagic off South West Rocks on Sunday 29th June
2003 on the charter vessel "Seaspray", owned and skippered by Lawrie
McEnally. The boat departed at 600 hrs and on board were Hans Lutter,
Harry Foran, Shirley Cook, Jenny Norton, Andrew Ley, Rene Meure, Phil Gilmore
and Alan Morris. We crossed th bar at 6.30 hrs and headed out wide. Seas
choppy with a 2m swell coming from the south east, overcast sky and we went
out 19 nautical miles.We returned to port at 1130 hrs due to unpleasant
conditions at sea. At 900 hrs we were at 30 54 S, 153 16 E with no birds to be
seen!
Out on the Continental Shelf, a north-east wind of
18-20 knots began to strengthen and on top of the SE swell made conditions
unpleasant and because the wind deepened it was decided to return to port, due
mainly to a possible difficult crossing of the South West Rocks bar on a run out
tide, and a strong NE wind on top of a SE swell. There were few birds to see,
the north-easter seemingly keeping all the birds away.
Species recorded (maximum seen at one time in
brackets)
971 Providence Petrel 5 (2)
068 Fluttering Shearwater 2 (2)
864 Yellow-nosed Albatross 3 (2)
104 Australasian Gannet 24 (8)
096 Great Cormorant 32 (30)
098 Pied Cormorant 8 (2)
125 Silver Gull
115 Crested Tern
Once inside the bar, White-breasted Sea-eagle,
Osprey, Brahminy & Whistling Kites were all seen as well as Pelicans,
Darter, Little Black Cormorants and White-faced Herons.
Good views were had of a number of Humpback Whales
moving north along the coast.
Alan Morris
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