I was today (18/7/04) amongst a fortunate group of sea
birdo’s (David Mitford, Graham
Turner, Rod Gardner et al) to
observe from Magic Pt, Maroubra (approx. 10km south of Sydney CBD) a large
number and a good variety of excellent seabirds. It was a very cold day with
winds up to gale force from the SW but as usual we protected ourselves from the
elements in our usual concrete bunker during the 8 hours of observation.
Amongst the several highlights today were hundreds of
Great-winged Petrels mainly in loose flocks of up to 50 birds traveling mainly
north and with a count at one time of up to 100 Petrels within a few minutes.
They were the seen on arrival at Magic Point and remained with us till we left
8 hours after. There was not a single moment were you could not see a few
Great-winged Petrels at sea and crippling views we had of them at times (within
100 metres from the shore). All Great-winged Petrels
seen appeared to be of the race macroptera (from NZ).
Another superb highlight was a “white-phase”
Southern Giant Petrel and this is probably the 3 time I have seen such a
“stunning” bird from Maroubra.
The number of Albatross were very low throughout the morning
but there number picked up later in the afternoon and as always, were pleased
to see at least 3 Wandering Albatross today.
There were feeding flocks of sea birds seen throughout the
day which comprised of 200 or more Fluttering Shearwaters and lesser number of
Great-winged and Cape Petrels, Giant
Petrels, Australasian Gannets as well as Crested and White-fronted Terns.
The Brown Skuas were also seen pirating the Australasian
Gannets with the later species (mainly adult birds) building up in their
hundreds towards the end of the day.
Seabird species and minimum numbers seen were as
follows:
Black-bowed Albatross (50)
Campbell Island Albatross
(2)
Yellow-nosed Albatross (28 – all race bassi)
Shy Albatross (6)
Wandering Albatross (3)
Southern Giant Petrel (5 including one
“white-phase”)
Giant Petrels other (20)
Cape Petrel (2)
Great-winged Petrel (800)
Providence Petrel (1
plus)
Fairy Prion (1)
Fluttering Shearwater (2,000)
Hutton’s Shearwater (2)
Australasian Gannet (500)
Great Cormorant (5)
Brown Skua (3)
Silver Gull (100 plus)
Crested Tern (50)
White-fronted Tern (8)
In addition to the above seabirds, 2 Eastern Reef Egrets
(both dark morph), an Eastern Curlew and a Pied Oystercatcher were seen passing
the coast. There were also
2 Fur Seals seen today.
This is what it is all about – awesome birding!
Edwin Vella
