Albany Western Australia Pelagic Trip Report Saturday 1st May 2004
Participants (15) :
Frank O'Connor (organiser), Margaret Armstrong, David Bennett, Sally
Bennett, Hilary Brooke, John Brooke, Michael Craig, Dave Crossley, Jan
Crossley, Chas Hayward, Sonja Melgares, Luis Onate-Sanchez, Easy Patterson,
Peter Wilkins, Wayne Zadow
Conditions :
Departed Torbay near West Cape Howe at 7.20am. Returned at 3.40pm. The
winds were forecast to be 15 to 20 knots S overnight, 13 to 18 knots SSE in
the morning strengthening to 15 to 20 knots SE in the afternoon. The sea
conditions were forecast to be 1.5 metre seas on a 2 metre swell. The
forecast was very close, although the wind was probably more from the
east. The conditions were fair to good, although often it was hard to
focus clearly because of the dull light due to the cloud cover.
Description :
This was the second pelagic trip organised from Albany, and the first at
this time of year, so it was difficult to know what to expect. It turned
out to be a excellent trip. We booked the Sail-A-Away, a 42ft catamaran
operated by John Woodbury, and most people stayed at the Woodbury Boston
Environmental School close by.
It was a 3 hour journey to the shelf. We saw the first few Flesh-footed
Shearwaters very early on. There were also a few Hutton's Shearwaters and
one Little Shearwater fairly early on. We kept looking for Great-winged
Petrels but mostly we couldn't be sure in the light as we were moving. We
saw a few Yellow-nosed Albatross and a Shy Albatross on the way out, as
well as some very high flying Great Skuas.
We finally stopped at 10:10 when the depth went past about 300 metres and
the depth sounder stopped working. Just before we stopped we started
seeing a number of Soft-plumaged Petrels and Great-winged Petrels. We
burleyed with pilchards and fish oil. It was quite disappointing (at least
for the more experienced people) until just after 11am. There were
Soft-plumaged Petrels, Great-winged Petrels, Flesh-footed Shearwaters,
Yellow-nosed Albatross, Shy Albatross, White-faced Storm-Petrels and
WIlson's Storm-Petrels. An adult Black-browed Albatross was the main
highlight. Then Mike Craig shouted Black-bellied Storm-Petrel and things
greatly improved for the next two hours. Most people missed it, but after
more burleying the bird returned for reasonable views for most. Soon after
Mike picked out a Sooty Shearwater. It stayed frustratingly on the water
on the edge of a group of Flesh-footed Shearwaters away from the boat for
quite some time, but eventually it came in fairly close for good
views. Then Mike called Kerguelen Petrel. This stayed disappointingly
away from the boat, so probably only people who knew what to look for saw
it and another about 80 metres from the boat.
At noon we moved the boat back towards where we first stopped. We had
drifted 4.5 kilometres roughly north back to 130 metres depth. We stopped
the boat, burleyed with the last of the pilchards and fish oil, and had
lunch. Most of the birds returned, including a younger Sooty Shearwater
and many more Wilson's Storm-Petrels. At 1pm we had just started to head
for home when a shout went out and a Wandering Albatross was seen. Then
another was seen very soon after. And a third was seen as we had started
for home again. An excellent end to the day.
The trip home was fairly uneventful except for an Australian Sea-lion that
popped it head up briefly for a look around. Disappointingly, no cetaceans
were seen during the day despite quite good seeing conditions.
Thanks to the skipper John and deck hand Trevor.
Bird List (Christidis & Boles order) Total Number (Maximum at Same Time) :
Kerguelen Petrel 2 (2)
Great-winged Petrel 50 (8)
Soft-plumaged Petrel 80 (12)
Flesh-footed Shearwater 400 (100)
SOOTY SHEARWATER 2 (2)
Hutton's Shearwater 15 (3)
Little Shearwater 1 (1)
Wandering Albatross (race exulans?) 3 (3)
Black-browed Albatross (race melanophris) 3 (2)
Shy Albatross (race cauta) 5 (2)
Yellow-nosed Albatross (race bassi) 20 (5)
Wilson's Storm-Petrel 25 (6)
White-faced Storm-Petrel 20 (5)
BLACK-BELLIED STORM-PETREL 1 (1)
Australasian Gannet 20 (3)
Great Skua 7 (3)
Silver Gull 3 (3)
ARCTIC TERN 1 (1)
Mammal List :
Australian Sea-lion (Neophoca cinerea) 1 (1)
Next Trip :
I plan to organise a further pelagic trip from Albany at this on Saturday
16th October 2004. For details contact Frank O'Connor on 08 9386 5694 or
email <> The next Perth
pelagics are on Sunday 27th June and Saturday 14th August.
_________________________________________________________________
Frank O'Connor Birding WA http://birdingwa.iinet.net.au
Phone : (08) 9386 5694 Email :
--------------------------------------------
Birding-Aus is now on the Web at
www.birding-aus.org
--------------------------------------------
To unsubscribe from this mailing list, send the message 'unsubscribe
birding-aus' (no quotes, no Subject line)
to
|
