I enjoyed an interesting 3 hours sea watch today this afternoon (2nd
April 2006) at Magic Pt in Maroubra, (approx. 10 km south of Sydney
CBD).
Though I missed the more ideal "windier" conditions earlier in the day
and for most of the previous day, the winds were still southerly and
fairly moderate late in the afternoon. Two of my main highlights this
afternoon was seeing my first Yellow-nosed Albatross for the year and a
Long-tailed Jaeger coming into summer plumage (though the long-tail
streamers did not appear to be fully formed). Two Flesh-footed and a
single Hutton's Shearwater were also seen amongst the relatively few
Wedge-tailed Shearwaters still present.
There was also a constant movement of Australasian Gannets (at least 500
seen) for the total duration I was there. There were many Gannets seen
close to shore as well as many birds further out.
A flock of 15 White-faced Heron also put on an interesting appearance as
they flew past and were amongst the very few birds heading north.
A list of sea birds species and the minimum numbers seen for the
afternoon from Magic Pt is as follows:
Fairy Penguin (1 heard calling)
Yellow-nosed Albatross (1)
Wedge-tailed Shearwater (50)
Fleshy-footed Shearwater (2)
Hutton's Shearwater (1)
Fluttering Shearwater (15)
Australasian Gannet (500)
Little Black Cormorant (2)
Great Cormorant (1)
Arctic Jaeger (3)
Pomarine Jaeger (5)
Long-tailed Jaeger (1)
Silver Gull (100)
Crested Tern (30)
Yesterday, David Mitford and Stuart Pickering also did a sea watch in
much windier conditions from Maroubra seeing 2 Wandering and a
Yellow-nosed Albatross, 3 Great-winged Petrels, 2 Long-tailed Jaeger, a
Sooty and 22 Fleshy-footed Shearwater and 5 Kelp Gulls. This is
certainly some good sightings for this time of year.
Edwin Vella
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