Hi Folks, Spent a great couple of mornings birding (mainly whale-ing but not
with a harpoon obviously because that's illegal..immoral...impossible as I
don't own one.not that I would...I'm not Faeroese) with Ray Gobbe. Anyway,
Saturday a.m. I got down to Maroubra about 7.30 am and the second bird seen
was a white phase Southern Giant Petrel (only second sighting in about 5
years). It had no discernible dark spotting and was quite ethereal in the
soft morning light. Then a lady swimmer (midwinter seabaths close by!!)
pointed out a frolicking whale close to the beach. It was unusual - broad
back with no pectoral fin, and a very broad dark grey/black tail both
upperside and underside, then a V-shaped blow, then the barnacles around the
blowhole became apparent.a Southern Right Whale! Ray and I followed it north
up the coast and then waited at North Bondi. There was a surfing comp on at
the Bondi Bathers so we intermittently watched that until the Southern Right
turned up and almost became a gatecrashing surfer. It eventually left Bondi
Beach going north again after we'd observed it for about an hour. Magic! As
we were getting ready to pack up we saw the white petrel again.
Sunday a.m. saw us again at Maroubra - a few Humpbacks going past and pretty
poor birding. Then a Humpback put on the best whale show I've seen in 5
years. It did 17 breaches with head-slap in one go. This was followed by 2
breaches where the entire body came out of the water and each time there was
a complete corkscrew turn. Further behaviour included multiple slapping of
the tail both upside down and as normal. This went on for about 20 minutes.
The white petrel turned up later to feed on a dead Giant Cuttlefish and
gradually drifted out to sea.
Cheers, Graham Buchan
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