Hi,
A follow up to the recent post about this trip. Here's some information on the
birds likely to be encountered during April. April
is an incredible time of year to be south of Tasmania. The diversity of
seabirds is possibly higher than any other time with the chance of just
about anything turning up, including real rarities like Cook's Petrel.
There are two reasonable references to the area for that time of year:
1. The Seabird Atlas of South-eastern Australian waters.
2. Blaber (1986) on a visit to the sea mounts south of Tasmania in April.
Here are the main features for that time of year:
The Seabird Atlas of South-eastern Australian waters.
As well as the normal variety of southern ocean seabirds, the following
species also featured predominantly in the April period in records for
this atlas.
GREAT-WINGED PETREL - peaks April / May
WHITE-HEADED PETREL - present but in reduced numbers compared to Aug-Sep
PROVIDENCE PETREL - Present. Peaks around April to August
SOFT-PLUMAGED PETREL - Peaks between Feb - Apr (then again, Sep - Dec).
MOTTLED PETREL - Peaks April (then again, December).
GOULD'S PETREL - peaks April
WHITE-CHINNED PETREL - present
LITTLE SHEARWATER - peaks Nov - Apr, present off SE coast Tassie.
All Albatrosses present though in reduced numbers compared to winter.
SOOTY ALBATROSS - peaks in April over the seamounts south of Tassie.
BLACK-BELLIED STORM PETREL - peaks March but present April (see Blaber paper).
WESTLAND PETREL- Peaks around April.
SOUTH POLAR SKUA - peaks around April.
Blaber recorded the following highlights:
LIGHT-MANTLED SOOTY ALBATROSS
WHITE-HEADED PETREL
SOFT-PLUMAGED PETREL
GOULD'S PETREL
ANTARCTIC PRION
GREY PETREL
WESTLAND PETREL
WHITE-CHINNED PETREL
BLACK-BELLIED STORM PETREL
LITTLE SHEARWATER
Note, Antarctic Prions breed in New Zealand at this time of year and
were reported by Blaber to be only common near the seamounts. This is
despite the fact that they are generally only associated with east
coast Australia later in the year (July to October) - see SOSSA Pages.
Similarly, Broad-billed Prions are recorded on the east coast in July /
August, though there is no reason why this New Zealand breeding species
shouldn't also be present at other times of year, around the sea
mounts. There are two records of Broad-billed Prion in the Atlas from
south of Tasmania and both are birds during NZ incubation season
(Sep-Oct).
For bookings:
Simon Mustoe
Tel: +61 (0) 3 97526398
Mob: +61 (0) 405220830
Email:
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