Spent a good part of the weekend (20th - 21st March 2004) sea watching from
Maroubra (about 10km south of the Sydney CBD) with Graham Turner and David
Mitford on the Saturday and with David Mitford and Rod Gardner on the
Sunday. It was a very interesting weekend for not only observing seabirds
but for other critters as well.
The conditions for sea watching started off very calm early on Saturday with
winds light from the SW to start off with and tending SE in the early
afternoon. Myself and Graham were struggling to see even a few Wedge-tailed
Shearwater for the first 2 hours on the Saturday but the presence of a group
of FALSE KILLER WHALES (probably at least 15 of them) very close to shore
certainly made the morning worth while indeed. Apart from seeing the Whales,
It was rather quite for the rest of the morning and until the early
afternoon, when a feeding frenzy of seabirds started to take place and for
the rest of the afternoon. This activity was first noticed when a group of
up to a hundred or so Wedge-tailed Shearwaters, several Australasian Gannets
(many dive bombing) as well as several Crested Terns and many Silver Gulls
were all going after the fish and this was when I first noticed a COMMON
NODDY was also amongst them and quite close to shore. The feeding frenzy was
than later seen much further out for the rest of the afternoon. After Graham
and I had to leave later in the afternoon, David Mitford stayed an hour or
so longer and was fortunate to pick up both a STREAKED SHEARWATER and
BULLERS SHEARWATER and saw both Common and Bottle-nosed Dolphins amongst the
feeding frenzy.
The next day (Sunday) after having to do a few household chores, I picked up
David Mitford from his house to arrive at Maroubra just before noon,
experiencing much windier (from the SE) and high sea conditions along the
coast. Hundreds of Wedge-tailed Shearwaters were flying into the wind
heading south and very close to shore and after careful watching we starting
to pick up other shearwaters including a Sooty Shearwater, Short-tailed,
Fleshy-footed then our afternoon highlight another BULLERS SHEARWATER. The
winds however started to ease by the middle of the afternoon, when about
this time we had more Jaegers passing through (though not as many as the
previous 2 weekends) and had at one time both an Arctic and Pomarine Jaeger
flying very close to each other (easy to compare size and shape
differences).
Species and minimum numbers seen on Saturday (20th March 2004) were as
follows:
Fairy Penguin (heard calling below the cliff)
Wedge-tailed Shearwater (200) (David probably saw twice as much)
Short-tailed Shearwater (3)
STREAKED SHEARWATER (1)
BULLERS SHEARWATER (1)
Fluttering Shearwater (1)
Fluttering/Hutton's Shearwater (2 plus)
Australasian Gannet (90)
Little Pied Cormorant (2)
Little Black Cormorant (4)
Great Cormorant (3)
Pied Cormorant (5)
Australian Pelican (1) (don't often see these flying past Maroubra)
Arctic Jaeger (1)
Pomarine Jaeger (7)
Kelp Gull (1 adult)
Silver Gull (300)
Crested Tern (50)
COMMON NODDY (1)
In addition to the seabirds above, Graham and I got great looks of a juv.
Brown Goshawk flying low over the heath, a Black-shouldered Kite, Peregrine
Falcon, a Greenfinch and flying close to the rocks an Eastern Reef Egret.
The walk from the car park to our sea birding spot produced 5 species of
reptiles including an excellent look at a COMMON SCALY-FOOT (Pygopus
lepidopodus), at least 16 Jacky Lizards (Amphibolurus muricatus), 6
Copper-tailed Skinks (Ctenotus taenidatus), 2 Whites Skink (Egernia whitii)
and 2 Eastern Water Skinks (Eulamprus quoyii). Many of the Jacky Lizards see
were small young ones.
Species and minimum numbers seen on Sunday (21st March 2004) were as
follows:
Fairy Penguin (2-3 heard calling below the cliff)
Great-winged Petrel (1)
Wedge-tailed Shearwater (800)
Fleshy-footed Shearwater (15)
Short-tailed Shearwater (20)
Sooty Shearwater (1)
BULLERS SHEARWATER (1)
Fluttering Shearwater (2)
Fluttering/Hutton's Shearwater (1)
Australasian Gannet (40)
Little Pied Cormorant (1)
Little Black Cormorant (1)
Great Cormorant (2)
Arctic Jaeger (5)
Pomarine Jaeger (12)
Silver Gull (200)
Crested Tern (30)
We also had a good look at an adult White-bellied Sea-eagle flying fairly
low over Maroubra Bay and there was another Eastern Reef Egret passing the
cliffs.
A top weekend indeed!
Edwin Vella
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