Hi all,
A great morning’s sea-watching at Mistral Point today. At about 9am Ray
Gobbe and I saw an adult Buller’s Albatross from the seacliffs at Mistral
Point. It was amongst a group of 4 Black-Browed Albatross. It was down to
200m away in good light and was instantly different when first seen, having
a huge thick yellow band on its bill, a distinctly white cap as well as dark
cheeks. On closer viewing the underwing was clearly not of a Yellow-Nosed or
Grey-Headed, having a medium thickness (and evenly thick) dark fore-edge to
the wing contrasting with a thin dark hind-edge and the immaculate white of
the remainder of the underwing. A beautiful bird and the first I’ve seen in
over 300 hours of sea-watching.
In addition we saw 5 individual Wandering Albatrosses in different age
stages and moults, 2 Giant Petrels, many Black-Browed (often the same
individuals coming back repeatedly) both nominate and 1 Campbell Island, and
2 Shy Albatross (cauta). About 20 Fluttering Shearwaters were also seen. For
the first time this winter we saw White-Fronted Terns – 6 number and close
in.
Yesterday, I missed a Providence Petrel (seen by Ray Gobbe in excellent
light, with bright white windows on the underwing) by 10 seconds…so today
was a bit karmic I suppose.
It will be interesting to see David Mitford’s and Edwin Vella’s report
tonight (they were out on the much wilder and windier Magic Point today).
Cheers,
Graham Buchan
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