Hi Edwin
Oh How I envy you the opportunity to seawatch from the land!! Reminds me
of swatching many years ago off Cape Clear - southern Ireland. At that
location Poms were not common and Long-tailed Skuas very rare, Artics
and Bonxies (Great Skua) were very regular.
We would often see both latter species harassing the resident gulls and
they swooped high and low in the chase. It was not uncommon to see the
skuas coming at any height above the water, in fact, they didn't
restrict themselves in their approach. It's possible, too, that the
seawatch point, being the most southerly point in Ireland, was treated
as a 'feeding spot' and the skuas behaviour reflected this intention, ie
they approached with food in mind knowing the many Herring, Lesser and
Black-backed Gulls and Kittiwakes would provide a meal, maybe before a
long trip across the Atlantic? Maybe your skua was doing something
similar?
Good seawatching!
On Mon, 14 Feb 2005 20:33:37 +1100, "Edwin Vella"
<> said:
> David Koffel and I spent a few hours (about 3-6:30 pm) yesterday
> afternoon (13th February 2005) sea watching from Magic Pt, Maroubra
> (about 10km south of the Sydney CBD).
>
> The afternoon produced mainly light to moderate southerly sea breezes
> which was good enough to bring lots of birds close to shore (most birds
> seen where within 1 km from the shore) and with good afternoon light,
> good views were obtained of all species present.
>
> Unlike my last two sea watches the past couple of months, there was not
> even one Streaked Shearwater to be seen but had fairly good views of at
> least one LONG-TAILED JAEGER. A good number of Pomarine Jaegers were
> also present with about 60 seen during 4:30-6:30 pm. I reckon If I
> stayed a little longer, I would have expected to see well over a 100 by
> the rate they seemed to be appearing between 6 -6:30 pm. I was also
> amazed to see one Jaeger soar very high (at least a few hundred feet in
> the air and just visible through the scope) like what a Peregrine would
> do. Has anybody seen a Jaeger do this before?
>
>
>
> The species and minimum numbers seen yesterday were as follows:
>
> Fairy Penguin (heard calling below Magic Pt)
> Wedge-tailed Shearwater (1,500)
> Short-tailed Shearwater (4)
> Fluttering Shearwater (33)
> Australasian Gannet (25)
> Little Pied Cormorant (1)
> Little Black Cormorant (1)
> Great Cormorant (4)
> Pomarine Jaeger (62)
> LONG-TAILED JAEGER (1)
> Silver Gull (500)
> Crested Tern (20)
> Eastern Reef Egret (1 dark morph)
>
> Edwin Vella
>
>
>
>
--
Colin Reid
So many birds, so little time......
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