Hillarys Perth Pelagic Trip Report Sunday 6th September 2009

[Frank O'Connor <>]

Note: There are still a few places for the Albany pelagics on 3/4
October.  Contact Alan Collins  for
details.

Perth Western Australia Pelagic Trip
Report Sunday 6th September 2009

Participants (27) :

Alan Collins (organiser), Frank O'Connor (organiser), Sue Abbotts,
Margaret Armstrong, John Brooke, Wendy Brown, Wes Cooper, Bruce Corfe,
John Cotton, Joe Fontaine, Gary Innes, Pat Kennedy, John Lillywhite, Ian
Mayer, Clive Nealon, Simon Nevill, Easy Patterson, Neil Robertson (NZ),
Andrew Sherwin, Mark Stanley, Andrew Sutherland, Gavin White, Barry
Whittington, Jenny Whittington, Cressida Wilson, Sue Young, John
Zupan.

Conditions :

Departed Hillarys Boat Harbour at 7.05am.  Returned at
3.25pm.  Following a day with strong winds, the forecast was for a
cloudy but fine daywith a maximum of 16°C.  The wave height was
forecast to be 5.2 metres dropping to about 4.7 metres late in the
day.  The winds were forecast to be less than 10 knots SW, swinging
to the W.  There was cloud for much of the day, with a couple of
passing light showers accompanied by squalls of about 15 knots.  The
wave height had subsided with very few large waves, but there were some
choppy conditions.  The ocean surface temperatures were about
19°C.

Description :

The highlights of the trip were the Salvin's Albatross, Little
Shearwaters and a few late Hutton's Shearwaters.  The disappointment
was the absence of Soft-plumaged Petrels.  The chum and fish oil
worked well at bringing the albatross in close, giving excellent
opportunities for photography. 

 From Hillarys we headed roughly WSW heading for the trench NW of
Rottnest Island.  We saw several early
Yellow-nosed Albatross and a few
Humpback Whales breaking the surface and
occasionally performing some tail slaps.  A few
Wedge-tailed Shearwaters and
Flesh-footed Shearwaters were seen along
with some passing Hutton's Shearwaters on
their way to New Zealand.

We made our first extended stop at 9:30am in 200 metres depth as we saw
the first White-faced Storm-Petrel.  We
were slightly south of the north end of the trench.  We started to
chum.  The number of Yellow-nosed
Albatross increased.  There were a few
Flesh-footed Shearwaters to begin with,
followed by a Cape Petrel, a few
Great-winged Petrels, a
Shy Albatross, some
White-faced Storm-Petrels, another
Cape Petrel and a
Black-browed Albatross.  The immature
Shy Albatross showed some yellow on the tip
of the bill, a first for the Hillarys pelagics.  After nearly an
hour we moved on. 

The boat had access to satellite data for sea surface temperature,
currents and plankton.  We headed SSW for an area of water just
below 19°C sea surface temperature.  We stayed for more than 90
minutes.  The initial depth was about 500 metres but we drifted west
back in to 240 metres by the time we moved on.  We moved a short
distance in the middle to check some albatross sitting on the
surface.  We had good numbers of Yellow-nosed
Albatross of all ages, a number of
White-faced Storm-Petrels on the slick,
regular Great-winged Petrels including a few
that landed briefly on the slick, and the occasional
Flesh-footed Shearwater.  The highlight
was the passage of two individual Little
Shearwaters.

We moved back to the north end of the trench for our final stop for 30
minutes.  There were similar species, with another
Hutton's Shearwater passing through.

We started back for Hillarys at 13:30.  We made a few brief stops
for a Salvin's Albatross taking off, a few
more Wedge-tailed Shearwaters on the
surface, a Brown Skua sitting on the water,
some dolphins and a distant
giant-petrel.  None of these came to
the boat and so the views were disappointing.

Bird List (Christidis & Boles order) Total Number (Maximum at Same
Time) :

White-faced Storm-Petrel 20 (7)
Black-browed Albatross  1 (1) (immature)
Shy Albatross (race cauta)  1
(1) (sub adult)
Shy Albatross (race salvini) 
1 (1) (immature)
Yellow-nosed Albatross (race
bassi) 120 (30)
Giant-Petrel sp. 1 (1)
Cape Petrel 2 (1)
Wedge-tailed Shearwater 9 (4)
Flesh-footed Shearwater 11 (4)
Hutton?s Shearwater 8 (3)
Little Shearwater 2 (1)
Great-winged Petrel 21 (6)
Australasian Gannet 19 (4) (mostly immatures)
Brown Skua 1 (1)
Silver Gull 2 (2)
Crested Tern 7 (2) 

The following were seen in and just outside the harbour.

Australasian Darter 1 male
Little Pied Cormorant 2
Pied Cormorant 30
Eastern Osprey 2
Pacific Gull 1 immature
Silver Gull 10
Australian Raven 1
Welcome Swallow 2

Mammal List :

Humpback Whale (Megaptera
novaeangliae) 6 (4)
Dolphin sp. 4+ (2) (probably Bottle-nose
Dolphin)

_________________________________________________________________
Frank O'Connor           Birding WA http://birdingwa.iinet.net.au
Phone : (08) 9386 5694              Email :

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