Today (25/3/07), David Mitford, Stuart Pickering and I had a good morning
sea watch from Magic Pt Maroubra (approx. 10 km south of Sydney CBD).
Winds were quite strong and gust southerlies up to about 35 knots but
produced few numbers of sea birds than expected.
Several Great-winged Petrels (probably all race macroptera) were driven
close in (one actually went into Maroubra Bay heading towards the beach for
a little while) as well as a single Wilson's Storm Petrel which only David
got to see briefly as if came in within a few hundred metres from the point.
Stuart and I should have used our binoculars to pick up this Storm Petrel
instead of frustratingly searching for it through our scopes. David has
observed Wilson's Storm Petrel from Magic Pt on at least 2 occasions in the
past and its conditions like we had today when they could make their
appearance.
Alan McBride joined us later that morning where we had a nice adult Shy
Albatross come in close to the point.
Other highlights included an early Brown Skua, 3 Sooty and a few
Flesh-footed Shearwaters (both shearwaters being rather scarce this summer
from Maroubra).
Our list of seabirds for today's sea watch included:
Shy Albatross (1)
Great-winged Petrel (20)
Wedge-tailed Shearwater (120)
Flesh-footed Shearwater (4)
Sooty Shearwater (3)
Short-tailed Shearwater (1)
Wilson's Storm Petrel (1)
Australasian Gannet (100)
Little Black Cormorant (5)
Pied Cormorant (1-2)
Great Cormorant (1)
Brown Skua (1)
Arctic Jaeger (3)
Pomarine Jaeger (10)
Kelp Gull (2 adult plus juv.)
Silver Gull (200)
Crested Tern (20)
Cetaceans
1 unidentified
I also later made a brief visit to Penrhyn Rd estuary at Port Botany where I
met Graham Buchan. We saw 10 Pacific Golden, 16 Double-banded and
14 Red-capped Plovers as well as 25 Red-necked Stints and 37 Bar-tailed
Godwits. Two of the Double-banded Plovers had leg bands (one bird appeared
to have a red over blue band on the left leg and red over silver on the
other when viewed front on. All I can see on the other bird was one yellow
leg band)
Regards
Edwin Vella
==============================www.birding-aus.org
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