Today (5th August 2006), Stuart Pickering and I enjoyed another good sea
watch at Magic Pt in Maroubra, (approx. 10 km south of Sydney CBD) with
moderate southerly winds prevailing throughout the morning and slightly
easing towards the end of afternoon.
We enjoyed good views of 4 species of Albatross, a few Cape Petrels, one
Southern Giant Petrel as well as many Fluttering Shearwaters close to
shore. We watched a Cape Petrel being mobbed by a Brown Skua over or a
minute or so about half way out to the horizon.
Surprisingly, Stuart and I did not see a single Great-winged Petrel
(though David Mitford advised me he had seen two later this afternoon at
nearby Mistral Pt) and both Giant Petrels and Albatrosses were in lower
numbers than expected.
Apart from several sea birds seen from Magic Pt, we also had a very good
fly past view of the resident Peregrine Falcon, a pair of Eastern Reef
Egrets, a Sooty Oystercatcher and a Far Eastern Curlew (the later may be
one of the early returning birds).
Both Stuart and I also enjoyed 2 separate sightings of Humpback Whales
breaching and spy hoping within a few hundred metres from shore.
Our list of sea birds and numbers for the 6 hours (10:00-4:40 pm) we
were at Magic Pt today included the following:
Fairy Penguin (heard)
Black-browed Albatross (32)
[Campbell Island Albatross (1)]
Yellow-nosed Albatross (18)
Shy Albatross (12)
Wandering Albatross (3-4) (Gibson's Albatross)
Southern Giant Petrel (1)
Giant Petrels other (1)
Cape Petrel (5)
Fairy Prion (1)
Prions other (4)
Fluttering Shearwater (1500)
Australasian Gannet (150)
Little Pied Cormorant (1)
Great Cormorant (3)
Brown Skua (2)
Kelp Gull (7)
Silver Gull (100)
Crested Tern (100)
White-fronted Tern (10)
Edwin Vella
PS - it should only be a week or so till we see our first Wedge-tailed
Shearwaters returning back to our waters for this coming summer season.
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