Yesterday morning (10/3/07) I spent a few hours sea watching from Magic
Pt in Maroubra, (approx. 10 km south of Sydney CBD) with light to
moderate south-westerly winds (5-20 knots) and a partly cloudy sky.
There were a few large fishing boats out from Magic Pt and I watched one
come in reasonably close with a Pomarine Jaeger tagging behind, soon
joined by 4 more Pomarine Jaegers and a flock of about 22 Wedge-tailed
Shearwaters and then, a nice adult Wandering Albatross. The Wandering
Albatross then hanged about half an hour or so around the then
stationery fishing boat. This is the first time I have seen a Wandering
Albatross in Autumn after seen a number of them over the summer months
including 2 recently in February. Maybe the cold sea temperatures over
summer may have something to do with it and have caused them to move up
further north during the summer.
Unlike my last sea watch a couple of weeks ago, I struggled this time to
see any Long-tailed Jaegers (a far cry of the 80 birds we had then).
However David Mitford did advise me that he had seen 9 Long-tailed
Jaegers the previous evening.
My list of sea birds recorded during yesterday morning's sea watch
included the following species:
Fairy Penguin (heard calling)
Wandering Albatross (1)
Wedge-tailed Shearwater (122)
Short-tailed Shearwater (2)
Flesh-footed Shearwater (2)
Fluttering/Hutton's Shearwater (1)
Australasian Gannet (55)
Great Cormorant (1)
Arctic Jaeger (3)
Pomarine Jaeger (45)
Silver Gull (300)
Crested Tern (100)
Mammals seen:
Dolphin species (2)
I also spent half an hour or so at Penrhyn Rd as the tide was starting
to fall with 11 Pacific Golden, 6 Double-banded and 18 Red-capped
Plovers (the later consisted of mainly juv. birds), 50 Red-necked
Stints, 32 Bar-tailed Godwits and 2 Caspian Terns. There was a nicely
coloured Red-necked Stint and a few Bar-tailed Godwits close to full
breeding plumage amongst these waders.
I also had a bizarre observation of a dead Grey-headed Flying-fox with 2
also dead New Holland Honeyeaters at its side beside Penrhyn Rd.
----------
Edwin Vella
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www.birding-aus.org
birding-aus.blogspot.com
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