birding-aus

Southport Pelagic 20th Feb 2010.

To: Birding-aus <>
Subject: Southport Pelagic 20th Feb 2010.
From:
Date: Sun, 21 Feb 2010 23:15:16 +0000
"a sub-adult White-tailed Tropicbird was flushed up off the water"

Showing my ignorance here, but I didn't think they could sit on the water. I don't know where I got the idea, from but I assumed they weren't waterproof!

John Leonard

On , Paul Walbridge <> wrote:
Hi All, here is the full report for Saturdays Southport Pelagic.

SouthportPelagic Trip Report 20/2/2010





Vessel: MVGrinner.


Skipper: Craig Newton.





Leader & Organizer: Paul Walbridge


Pax: Owen Prowse, Chris Sanderson, Dave Stickney, Brian Russell, Martin


Cake, Andy Jensen, Stuart Pickering, Steve Murray, Tom Tarrant, Brian


Coates, Richard Fuller, Rob Morris, Chris Barnes, Andrew Stafford.





Weather Conditions: A high over the Tasman Sea formed a ridge along the


Queensland coast bringing moderate to strong south-easterly winds into


South-east Queensland waters. Generally a fine day with a few scattered


squally showers inshore. Offshore, just some light cloud mainly clear


conditions and excellent visibility. Wind, from the SW early, before


leaving the Seaway then turning to SE, then more easterly later in the


day. Wind speed varied from 10-17 knots. Maximum air temp. 28* C,


barometric pressure 1020 hPa.





Sea Conditions: Moderate seas for most of the day on a swell of up 2.5


metres at times which gradually levelled out as the day progressed. Sea


surface temps. 25.9* C at the Seaway, rising to 26.8* C across the Shelf


and 27.8* C at the Shelf-break. EAC out wide running at 3.5-4 knots.





Summary: Left the Southport Seaway at 0620 hrs rather carefully as a


combination of low tide and big swell made for a bumpy ride to say the


least. With a strong current running against a SE swell we headed out


over the Shelf in an ESE direction, arriving at the Shelf-break at 1000


hrs and starting the first drift at 1010 hrs, approx. 26 nm ESE of the


Seaway. Rode down the burley slick and started a 2nd drift at 1107 hrs


before heading for home at 1200 hrs. Arrived back at the Seaway at 1540


hrs, total duration of trip, 9 hs 20 min.





On leaving the Seaway there was very little activity as, due to the


conditions there were no returning trawlers and few charters going out,


just a few terns, Pomarine Jaegers and Wedge-tailed Shearwaters. The


Skipper loaded up the berley bag halfway across the Shelf and


immediately brought in some Wedge-tailed and Flesh-footed Shearwaters


plus a couple of prospecting Poms. The occasional Sooty Tern with young


in tow started to appear, along with the first Hutton*s Shearwater and


the first Tahiti Petrel of the day crossing the stern well before the


Shelf-break.





Started the first drift just after crossing the Shelf-break and began


berleying with immediate results. The always exciting *what*s this,


it*sa cookilaria* shout cried out and a Black-winged Petrel circled


the vessel, almost immediately joined by a Gould*s. At one point the


two crossed astern, side by side, providing virtual field-guide


comparison, only better, the more experienced punters on board


explaining the major differences between the two. Another Gould*s


Petrel appeared and not long after a second Black-winged Petrel. Over


the next hour several new birds appeared, notably two more Gould*s


Petrels, a dark phase Kermadec Petrel and also a Bridled Tern,


surprisingly a species rarely seen on SEQ pelagics.





After approx. an hour at this drift we decided to head down the slick


to where we could see a mass of feeding Shearwaters (for most of the day


the sounder was indicating lots of mid-water baitfish). On stopping,


there were quite a few Wedge-tailed Shearwaters and a few Sooty Terns


with the occasional Tahiti Petrel and the only Great-winged Petrel of


the day putting in an appearance. On the first drift there had been a


probable sighting of White-necked Petrel albeit distant and just before


midday the first of three positive sightings of this species appeared,


the second bird, first sighted on the water, put on quite a show, by now


CF cards were in meltdown.





Due to the current and tide we had drifted considerably south and it


would be quite a hard slog back, so we headed inshore diagonally back to


the Seaway. Arriving back on the Shelf, 3 large birds appeared from high


up, showing interest in the few shearwaters following the vessel, an


adult male, adult female and juvenile Lesser Frigatebirds, Not long


afterwards a sub-adult White-tailed Tropicbird was flushed up of the


water and provided brilliant views. On approaching the Seaway just a few


shearwaters and terns were noted plus a couple of Pomarine Jaegers.








Species:





White-tailed Tropicbird * 1


Wedge-tailed Shearwater - 339 (150)


Flesh-footed Shearwater * 16 (3)


Hutton*s Shearwater * 3 (1)


Tahiti Petrel * 10 (4)


Kermadec Petrel * 1


Great-winged Petrel * 1


Gould*s Petrel * 4 (2)


White-necked Petrel * 3+ (1)


Black-winged Petrel * 2 (2)


Lesser Frigatebird * 3 (3)


Great Cormorant * 1


Pied Cormorant * 1


Pomarine Jaeger * 9 (2)


Bridled Tern * 1


Sooty Tern * 11 (4)


Little Tern * 1


Common Tern * 3


Crested Tern * 5 (2)


Silver Gull * 1





Cetaceans:





Offshore Bottlenose Dolphin * 100+


Common Dolphin (Long-beaked) * 10+











This wasn*t the best pelagic I have been on in SEQ but maybe comes


close. I have been on a few that were better over the years however.


There are a few spots left on the March 20th trip, which is potentially


better than February.


Cheers * Paul W.





Contact: Paul Walbridge; Ph: (H) 3256 4124 (W) 3139 4555 E- Mail:














********************************************************************************


This email, including any attachments sent with it, is confidential and for the sole use of the intended recipient(s). This confidentiality is not waived or lost, if you receive it and you are not the intended recipient(s), or if it is transmitted/received in error.


Any unauthorised use, alteration, disclosure, distribution or review of this email is strictly prohibited. The information contained in this email, including any attachment sent with it, may be subject to a statutory duty of confidentiality if it relates to health service matters.


If you are not the intended recipient(s), or if you have received this email in error, you are asked to immediately notify the sender by telephone collect on Australia +61 1800 198 175 or by return email. You should also delete this email, and any copies, from your computer system network and destroy any hard copies produced.


If not an intended recipient of this email, you must not copy, distribute or take any action(s) that relies on it; any form of disclosure, modification, distribution and/or publication of this email is also prohibited.


Although Queensland Health takes all reasonable steps to ensure this email does not contain malicious software, Queensland Health does not accept responsibility for the consequences if any person's computer inadvertently suffers any disruption to services, loss of information, harm or is infected with a virus, other malicious computer programme or code that may occur as a consequence of receiving this email.


Unless stated otherwise, this email represents only the views of the sender and not the views of the Queensland Government.


**********************************************************************************





===============================


www.birding-aus.org


birding-aus.blogspot.com





To unsubscribe from this mailing list,


send the message:


unsubscribe


(in the body of the message, with no Subject line)


to: 


===============================



===============================
www.birding-aus.org
birding-aus.blogspot.com

To unsubscribe from this mailing list, send the message: unsubscribe (in the body of the message, with no Subject line)
to: 
===============================

<Prev in Thread] Current Thread [Next in Thread>
Admin

The University of NSW School of Computer and Engineering takes no responsibility for the contents of this archive. It is purely a compilation of material sent by many people to the birding-aus mailing list. It has not been checked for accuracy nor its content verified in any way. If you wish to get material removed from the archive or have other queries about the archive e-mail Andrew Taylor at this address: andrewt@cse.unsw.EDU.AU