BA-Vic Group Pelagic off Portland, Victoria, Sunday 14 August 2011
Participants: George Appleby, Scott Baker, Peter Barrand, Stuart Cooney,
Paul Dodd, Rosemary Lester, Golo Maurer, Patrick Scully, Mark Stanley,
Ruth Woodrow, Chris Lester (organiser).
Crew: Peter and Mick.
Activity: Departed Portland harbour aboard the Southern Pride boat at
07.05 passing Lawrence Rocks and heading south to the shelf. Went
straight out to the shelf, passing quite a few Fairy Prions, to our
first stop at 38°42.61’E, 141°25.23S in 108 fathoms of water. Berleyed
here from 10.00 till 10.50, but there were few birds except the two
common albatrosses. We moved out a fair bit to 38°46.23’E, 141°19.04S,
32 nm from Portland harbour, in more than 550 fathoms, looking for
birds. We stayed there from 11.30 until 12.00 but again there we few
birds other than the albatrosses. In fact, at the first two berleying
spots, we did not see a new species that was different from those we saw
on the trip out. From 12.30, we berleyed at 38°46.51E, 141°25.89S, 28 nm
from Portland harbour, in 230 fathoms until 13.45. We stayed here a bit
longer as some other pelagic species finally joined us. But, as you can
see from the list, there were not many individuals. Headed back in
passing Lawrence Rocks, where we had a quick look, before returning and
docking at 16.35.
Conditions: The weather predictions on Friday did not look all that
great (seas up to 1.5 - 2 m and swell of up to 2 m), but it turned out a
very acceptable day with respect to conditions. There was an initial 5
knot NE wind, which stayed pretty constant all day, and was initially
cool. The swell was less than 0.5 m with no sea. It was very foggy
during the first part of the day. It gradually cleared up with some
cloud cover and a few sunny breaks, then the weather cleared over the
course of the afternoon with mostly sunny conditions and a quite warm
temperature. Sea conditions stayed pretty much the same all day, with an
occasional swell passing through but virtually no sea, resulting in a
very pleasant trip. So much for the forecast.
Summary: Average diversity with 21 species of seabird recorded during
the trip but the numbers of most regular species were very low. There
were no rare birds with the highlights being a single Northern Royal
Albatross and the two Brown Skuas in Portland harbour on our return.
Mammals:
Common Dolphin: a few inshore on the way out.
Australian Fur Seal: the normal numbers loafing at Lawrence Rocks.
Birds:
Grey-backed Storm-Petrel: 1. Pelagic.
White-faced Storm-Petrel: 1. Travelling out.
Wandering Albatross: 1. Pelagic.
ROYAL ALBATROSS: 1. Northern race. Pelagic.
Black-browed Albatross: 100 (40). All identified birds were race
melanophrys, with no impavida. Mostly pelagic, but quite a few inshore.
Shy Albatross cauta: 150 (60). All race cauta, except one salvini on the
way out. Mostly pelagic, but quite a few inshore.
Yellow-nosed Albatross: 5 (3). Pelagic.
Northern Giant-Petrel: 1. Pelagic.
Fairy Prion: 200 (50). Mostly on the way out and in. A few pelagic.
Short-tailed Shearwater: 2 (1). Pelagic.
Fluttering Shearwater: 20 (5). Inshore waters and pelagic.
Hutton's Shearwater: 1. Pelagic.
Great-winged Petrel: 1. Race macroptera. Pelagic.
Australasian Gannet: 1000+. Most were on or near Lawrence Rocks and
Point Danger but about 100 offshore and pelagic.
Black-faced Cormorant: 50 inshore, mostly on Lawrence Rocks.
BROWN SKUA: 2. In the harbour.
White-fronted Tern: 1. Pelagic.
Crested Tern: 20 inshore and pelagic.
Pacific Gull: 1. In the harbour.
Kelp Gull: 3. 1 at Lawrence Rocks and 2 in the harbour.
Silver Gull: 5. Inshore.
A White-faced Heron was seen on Lawrence Rocks on the way in.
For details of future Portland trips, go to the BA-Vic web site at the
bottom of the page on
http://www.birdsaustralia.com.au/the-organisation/vic-activities.html
For reports of past BA-Vic trips from Portland and Port Fairy, search
the Birding-Aus archives for the trip reports at
http://bioacoustics.cse.unsw.edu.au/archives/html/birding-aus/
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