Hi all,
Steve Roderick and I made our maiden visits to the famous Magic Point, Maroubra
on Friday and Saturday (22/23rd Aug). We can see what all the fuss is about -
it is an incredible seawatching location. The conditions were very difficult
(particularly Friday) with driving S-SW winds and rain - thus great for
seawatching (we had been booked on the Wollongong pelagic for Saturday but it
was cancelled). Good numbers of Fluttering-type Shearwaters were observed very
close to shore on Friday, less so yesterday. 2 of the Shy Alby's seen yesterday
had quite grey hoods but were too distant for any other features to be seen.
Plenty of Black-broweds about yesterday too.
By far the most interesting sighting was that of a single Flesh-footed
Shearwater that was seen very well with prolonged views quite close to shore.
The SOSSA website lists this species as being 'common' in September off
Wollongong / Sydney so I guess this is just an early bird. We ran into local
stalwarts Edwin Vella and David Mitford on their way out as we returned on
Saturday and they were astonished at how early this bird was.
Below is a list of birds seen over the ocean on each date.
Fri 22/08 1000-1100
Black-browed Albatross - 2
Fluttering Shearwater - 800+
Hutton's Shearwater - 2
Wedge-tailed Shearwater - 80
Australasian Gannet - 20
Eastern Curlew - 3
Silver Gull - 25+
Crested Tern - 12
White-fronted Tern - 13
Brown Skua - 1
Sat 23/08 1130-1430
Black-browed Albatross - 50+
Yellow-nosed Albatross - 3
Shy Albatross - 6
Wandering Albatross - 2
Prion sp. - 2
Fluttering Shearwater - 100
Wedge-tailed Shearwater - 30
FLESH-FOOTED SHEARWATER - 1
Eastern Reef Egret - 1
Australasian Gannet - 100+
Eastern Curlew - 1
Silver Gull - 35+
Kelp Gull - 2 (both imm.)
Crested Tern - 17
White-fronted Tern - 5
Brown Skua - 3
Three 'interesting' species were heard along the track on the way out over the
course of the 2 days, including Skylark, Lewin's Rail and a Horsfield's
Bronze-Cuckoo.
Great stuff - I'm turning green with envy that Newcastle doesn't have a
seawatch site such as this one!
Mick Roderick
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http://au.docs.yahoo.com/homepageset
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