SYDNEY PELAGIC TRIP REPORT
September 13, 2008
Conditions
It was a really lovely early spring day in Sydney and looked very promising
for a good day of pelagic birding. The day was mostly sunny and it was
unseasonably warm reaching 30degC in Sydney but nothing close to that warm
offshore with the cool ocean temperatures. The sea water temperature was
15.1degC inshore and became marginally warmer at 15.5degC at the shelf
break.
The MV Halicat departed from Rose Bay at 07.15hrs and returned at 15.40hrs.
The sea conditions were quite reasonable with a north easterly swell running
at about 1.5metres with a sea of 1.0metre on top of that. Despite the
somewhat bumpy conditions, nobody on board appeared to suffer from sea
sickness. The wind was north/north west blowing at about 10 -15 knots in the
morning and increasing to about 20 knots in the afternoon.
Trip Summary
We had a moderate attendance of about 15 enthusiastic passengers from both
overseas and from Sydney, Central Coast and the Central Tablelands. Despite
the reports of good numbers of birds seen from land recently there were
surprisingly few birds inshore as we passed through Sydney Heads. There were
numbers of Wedge-tailed Shearwaters, good numbers of Australasian Gannets,
Hutton's and Fluttering Shearwaters in small numbers with Hutton's
predominating, and two Black-browed and two Shy Albatross. Somewhat
surprisingly, there were very few prions in evidence after the large numbers
which had been seen inshore on the previous two trips. A rather strange
sighting was a flock of twenty Little Corellas flying low over the water
like a squadron of Silver Gulls.
As we entered the 'Abysmal Plain' which commences about 5NM east of the
heads, there continued to be birds in evidence all the way to the shelf
break which is not usually the case on Sydney pelagics. We continued to see
unusually large numbers of Australasian Gannets most of which were adults
flying in a southerly direction presumably to their breeding grounds.
Yellow-nosed, Shy and Black-browed Albatross occurred in small numbers and
Wedge-tailed Shearwaters continued to be seen in good numbers. Fairy Prions
began to make an appearance but not in large numbers and a single
Short-tailed Shearwater flew past on its way south. A pod of fifty Common
Dolphins came and rode on our bow wave for a while and, after seeing quite a
few distant Humpback Whales, we had very close views of two whales that were
happily spy-hopping and fin waving to the enjoyment of all on board. These
two Humpbacks were accompanied by a two Oceanic Bottlenose Dolphins, the
only ones seen during the day.
When we reached the shelf break at Brown's Mountain there were few birds in
evidence and, when we cut the motors to set up the berley trail, the only
birds in evidence were surprisingly large numbers of hungry Crested Terns.
As the slick built up, we were visited briefly by a few Wandering Albatross,
some Shy Albatross (two of which had grey hoods indicating that they were
probably immature White-capped), a small number of Providence Petrels and a
single Cape Petrel. After a long drift, we decided to return to our starting
point and make the same drift again. The difference in the numbers and
behavior of the birds on the second drift was very marked. Almost
immediately, we had Wandering Albatross settling on the berley trail and
they were joined by Black-browed, Yellow-nosed and Shy Albatross, Cape
Petrels, Wedge-tailed shearwaters and then, the avian highlight of the day,
a beautiful BULLER'S SHEARWATER. We were visited by a pair of the many
Humpback Whales that were present in the area and by a pair of fur Seals no
doubt attracted by our fishing activity. By the end of this second drift, we
had a total of twenty Wandering Albatross close to the boat, mostly Gibson's
but also at least two Snowy's (one of which was so white that we looked
carefully to make sure that we were not overlooking a Southern Royal) and
one Antipodean.
The wind began to freshen as we headed back to Sydney and no new bird
species were recorded en route although there continued to be Humpback
sightings at regular intervals. However, at about 8NM from Sydney Heads we
came across a large number of Australasian Gannets feeding on small fish,
probably Slimy Mackerel and then, closer to shore, we flushed a very large
flock of mixed Hutton's and Fluttering Shearwaters that would have numbered
about 400.
In summary, we had a very pleasant day of seabird watching and a
satisfactory number of species were recorded.
Bird List
(Note that numbers in parenthesises represent the maximum numbers seen at
any one time)
Cape Petrel 4 (2)
Providence Petrel 18 (2)
Fairy Prion 30 (5)
Prion sp 60
Wedge-tailed Shearwater 400 (60)
Short-tailed Shearwater 4 (2)
Flesh-footed Shearwater 1 (1)
Fluttering Shearwater 50 (10)
Hutton's Shearwater 90 (15)
Fluttering type shearwaters 500
Wandering Albatross 26 (20) (mostly gibsoni, two
exulans, and one antipodenesis)
Black-browed Albatross 8 (2)
Yellow-nosed Albatross 10 (2)
Shy Albatross 10 (2) (two probable
steadi)
BULLER'S ALBATROSS 1 (1)
Australasian Gannet 180 (80)
Silver Gull 30 (10)
Crested Tern 45 (20)
Cetaceans and other animals
Humpback Whale 30
Common Dolphin 50
Oceanic Bottlenose Dolphin 2
Fur Seal (sp) 2
Next Sydney pelagic trip will be on Saturday 11 October, 2008 departing
Mosman Ferry Wharf at 0645 and Rose Bay Public Wharf at 0700. Call Hal on
0411 311 236 to make a reservation. Also note that there is an additional
trip out of Rose Bay only on Wednesday 1 October, 2008
Cheers
Roger McGovern
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www.birding-aus.org
birding-aus.blogspot.com
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