Dear Birding-Ausers
For many years the pelagic boat trips out of Portland and Port Fairy have
been unofficially supported by the Victorian group of Birds Australia.
Now, it's official. These pelagics are to become the BA-Vic Victorian
Pelagic from Port Fairy.
Last year, I wrote a series of articles for Babbler, the BA-Vic newsletter,
on the seasonal variation of seabirds seen on the Portland / Port Fairy
trips over the last 10 years. The distribution of Babbler is quite
limited, mainly to Victorian members of Birds Australia. I thought birders
from other areas might be interested in information on these trips so I am
going to post them on Birding-Aus. The first article was on pelagic
birding in Summer. (Please note that it was written at the start of 2003.)
Regards
Chris
PELAGIC BIRDING IN SUMMER
FROM PORT FAIRY, VICTORIA
INTRODUCTION
What are pelagic birds?
Of the approximately 10,000 birds in the world, about 300 are regarded as
sea-birds. These are defined as those species whose normal habitat and
food source is the sea, whether they may be coastal, offshore or pelagic.
In Australia, they include penguins, albatrosses, petrels and shearwaters,
storm-petrels, diving-petrels, tropicbirds, gannets and boobies,
cormorants, frigatebirds, skuas, gulls and terns and noddies.
Many other species not normally regarded as sea-birds have been seen at
sea, including ducks, waders and migrating raptors and passerines. In
Victoria, some of the strange sightings from boats far out at sea from Port
Fairy include Cattle Egret, Galah, Barn Owl and Grey Fantail.
True pelagic birds are those that spend most of their time at sea, beyond
the continental shelf, returning to land only to breed. These include
species like the albatrosses and petrels.
Sea-birds are one of the bird groups that cause the greatest difficulties
with identification. Many of the group fly similarly, are similarly
coloured in dull hues like grey and brown and are of a similar size. As
well, observing conditions can be challenging. Boats provide an unstable
platform in conditions that are often overcast, wet, windy and cold and
with distant birds flying close to the waves and appearing and disappearing
regularly in the crests and troughs.
What is pelagic birding?
There are several traditional forms of sea-bird watching. Some observers
watch for sea-birds flying past cliffs or headlands. This can be quite
productive, particularly in winter and spring, when south-westerly gales
push sea-birds inshore. However, this past-time is not all that exciting
or popular in Victoria because most of the vantage points face Bass Strait.
This water body is not very deep so many true pelagic species do not
venture into or through the Straits and therefore only a limited range of
more common species is usually seen.
Many pelagic species can be found beach-washed along our shores.
Occasionally, large numbers of sea-birds are washed up in "wrecks" after
strong storms. Walking the coastal beaches can lead to some excellent
finds. Some rarer species have only been observed in Victoria as
beach-washed specimens because of their rarity or because of the difficulty
of separating very similar species as they fly past. Birds such as Mottled
Petrel and Broad-billed Prion have never been sighted alive in Victoria.
The best way to see pelagic birds is by boat. Boat trips for sea-birding
are run by bird clubs and commercial operators in Port Phillip Bay and from
some of the ports along the Victorian coast. This is a good way to see
some of the commoner sea-birds, like Australasian Gannet, Short-tailed
Shearwater and Black-faced Cormorant. However, seeing true pelagic birds
requires a boat trip some distance from shore into the Southern Ocean.
In Victoria, the main pelagic sea-bird trips are currently run monthly from
Port Fairy, in the south-west of the State. Previously, the trips were run
for many years from Portland. These sites are favoured because it is
possible to reach the continental shelf in a day trip.
There are several other places in Australia from which regular pelagic
trips originate. They include Southport in Queensland, Newcastle, Sydney,
Wollongong and Eden in New South Wales, Eaglehawk Neck in Tasmania and
Perth in Western Australia. Specialist trips are sometimes organised to
remote locations such as Ashmore Reef in WA and Raine Island in northern
Queensland as well as Macquarie Island, south of Tasmania. However, this
article will now concentrate on pelagic birding in Victoria.
What should you expect on a pelagic trip?
>From Port Fairy, more than other sites, pelagic trips are governed by
weather conditions. Forecast strong winds (greater than 15-20 knots) and
rough seas (greater than 2-3 metres) cause the postponement or cancellation
of many planned trips. The Southern Ocean can be very wild, with
conditions changing significantly over the course of a day. We rely
heavily on the advice of the Bureau of Meteorology and the boat skipper
when deciding whether to go or not. Of course, safety is the prime
concern.
The boat we are currently chartering is a commercial fishing boat, used for
catching shark and crayfish. It holds up to 13 in relative comfort, but
does not have the luxuries of some boats like real toilets and
coffee-making facilities. However, there is some protection to help you
remain dry.
The standard of the birders on most trips varies from new birders to good
birders with little experience with sea-birds to very competent and
knowledgeable observers. The latter spend lots of time helping the other
groups with identification problems and behaviour discussions.
There are four major zones in a pelagic trip from Port Fairy ? inshore,
travelling to the shelf, the continental shelf itself and out past the
shelf. While good birds can be found in each zone, the main observing
sites are the shelf (about 30 nautical miles out) and the area past the
shelf where the true pelagic species are usually found. It takes 2.30 to 3
hours to reach the shelf and the same to return to port. So usually, we
spend only 2 to 4 hours around the shelf.
Many species just fly past the boat, skimming the waves, as we try to
locate and identify them. However, we take berley (fish, shark's liver,
fish-oil) with us on the trip to try and get the birds to come to the boat
and feed on the water behind us. This allows for close observation,
discussion of finer points of identification and photographic
opportunities.
In planning this series of four articles for Babbler based on the seasons,
I intend to cover the possibilities for the common pelagic species that are
almost always found and the rarities that we hope to see and might
encounter, starting below with summer.
VICTORIAN PELAGIC BIRDING IN SUMMER
Historical trips in summer
For many years, trips were only organised in December, with no scheduling
for January or February. This was because the fishing boats were not
available as they were working full-time during the cray season. In the
last 10 years, only 10 summer trips have been run. Consequently, not much
information is available on the regularity of species or their numbers is
available.
Common pelagic bird species
For several species, the number of albatross species is significantly down
in summer, with the common three (Shy, Black-browed and Yellow-nosed) being
regularly seen in reasonable numbers and Wandering in small numbers.
Great-winged Petrels are always seen in numbers and White-chinned Petrels
are regularly recorded especially in December. Short-tailed, Flesh-footed
and Fluttering Shearwaters are also regular, with Sooty and Hutton's
occasionally observed. White-faced Storm-Petrels are regularly seen,
sometimes in large numbers (up to 100), with occasional records of Wilson's
and Grey-backed. Both Arctic and Pomerine Jaegers are nearly always
observed. Common Diving-Petrels are often seen.
Other birds regularly seen are Little Penguin, Australasian Gannet,
Black-faced Cormorant, Silver, Pacific and Kelp Gulls and Crested Tern.
Summer rarities
Grey-headed and Buller's Albatrosses are occasionally seen and there is a
February record of Sooty in 1999. White-headed Petrel was seen in Jan 2000
and February 2001 and Gould's, Soft-plumaged and Barau's Petrels have been
recorded in summer. Long-tailed Jaeger and South Polar Skua were seen in
February 1999.
There are number of other possible rarities that we are still searching for
that are more likely to turn up in summer. These include species such as
Cory's and Manx Shearwaters and Sabine's Gull. The larger penguins are
more likely to turn up in late summer.
Bird numbers
Compared to winter, albatross numbers are well down, but Yellow-nosed and
Wandering are more common in summer. Shearwater numbers, particularly
Short-tailed and Flesh-footed, are of course very high. These birds are
uncommon in winter. Other species in larger numbers are terns and gannets.
Other species in low numbers are jaegers and Common Diving-Petrels.
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