Late yesterday afternoon (about 4 to 7 pm on 17 February 2007), David
Mitford, Stuart Pickering and I enjoyed a fairly good sea watch from
Mistral Pt in Maroubra, (approx. 10 km south of Sydney CBD) with mainly
moderate north to north-easterly winds prevailing that afternoon.
Our highlights included a Streaked Shearwater heading south about 5:30
pm and good numbers of Long-tailed Jaegers. The number of Wedge-tailed
Shearwaters seen was quite low compared to our previous visits to
Maroubra. We had seen no more than 40 Wedge-tailed Shearwaters before
the Streaked Shearwater flew past. Streaked Shearwaters are usually
present off Sydney in usually small numbers around January to March. I
have been told that over a hundred Streaked Shearwaters were seen on a
sea watch from North head (Sydney) about a year ago. At 7 pm, David and
I saw a single flock of at least 17 Long-tailed Jaegers heading north
with smaller numbers of up to 6 birds together at other times that
afternoon. This is the second largest number of Long-tailed Jaegers I
have seen from Maroubra. My highest count of Long-tails on any one day
was 64 birds on 26th February 2005 from Magic Pt, Maroubra.
Our list of sea birds for our afternoon sea watch included the following
species:
Fairy Penguin (heard calling)
Wedge-tailed Shearwater (100)
Short-tailed Shearwater (5)
STREAKED SHEARWATER (1)
Fluttering Shearwater (4)
Australasian Gannet (45)
Little Pied Cormorant (1)
Little Black Cormorant (1)
Great Cormorant (3)
Pomarine Jaeger (12)
Long-tailed Jaeger (36)
Silver Gull (200)
Crested Tern (30)
Mammals seen:
Unidentified Cetacean (1)
Earlier on, I also spent half an hour looking at shore birds beside
Penrhyn Rd. Saw a couple of Double-banded Plovers in with 10 Red-capped
Plovers, 45 Red-necked Stints, 2 Curlew Sandpipers, 45 Bar-tailed
Godwits and 38 Common Terns.
Last Monday on a fairly wet day at Maroubra, David also watched a single
White-necked Petrel (for at least half an hour), 6 Sooty Terns, 35
Flesh-footed Shearwaters etc and Stuart also saw there a couple of Sooty
Terns the following morning. Another White-necked Petrel and a Brown
Booby was also seen from Long Reef (20 or so km north of Maroubra) last
Friday.
----------
Edwin Vella
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www.birding-aus.org
birding-aus.blogspot.com
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