Sydney pelagic trip report, 8th September 2012
Overview:
After
last month’s cancellation due to strong westerly winds, this time the 22
participants, including visitors from the USA, Germany, Denmark, Finland, UK
and some local regulars, had a beautiful day on the water aboard the Halicat.
Despite the again prevailing westerly winds, we had a good number of seabirds
(see list below).For most of the day we had W
to WSW winds around 20 kts, the swell was up to 3 m. The water temperature near
the shore was 15.8°C and near the shelf break 16.8°C. The main berley point was
25 NM (55 km) off Sydney south of Brown’s Mountain at 200+ fathoms (400 m water
depth). One of the highlights was already seen from shore before the Halicat
showed up: A Pink-eared Duck on salt water in Rose Bay! True pelagic highlights
were 5 White-faced Storm-petrels and a good number of Wandering-type Albatross.
Non-avian highlights were two Eagle Rays ‘flying’ past the boat, an enormous
Ocean Sunfish, four Humpback Whales and two pods of Short-beaked Common
Dolphins.
Raja's
photos will be uploaded here: http://www.adarman.com/Pelagics/Sydney-NSW
Trip summary – annotated list
Birds:
Pink-eared Duck: 1 (Rose Bay)
White-faced Storm-petrel: 5 (3 together)
Wandering Albatross: 10+ (most were Gibson’s,
one possible exulans)
Black-browed Albatross: 50+
Campbell Albatross: 2 (1 1st/2nd year with amber eye; 1 2nd/3rd year with pale
eye)
Shy Albatross: 10+ (including at least 3
adult cauta with yellow base of the culminicorn and at least 3 very fresh
juveniles with very dark grey heads, likely steadi)
Indian Yellow-nosed Albatross: 15
Southern Giant-petrel: 2 (1st year)
Northern Giant-petrel: 3 (1 1st year, 2 2nd year)
Wedge-tailed Shearwater: many
Fluttering Shearwater: 50+
Hutton’s Shearwater: 10+
Great-winged Petrel: 4 (not clear if
macroptera or gouldii)
Providence Petrel: 30
Australasian Gannet: 4
Pied Cormorant: 2 (Rose Bay)
Brown Skua: 3
White-fronted Tern: 1
Crested Tern: many
Silver Gull: many
Mammals:
Humpback
Whale: 4
Short-beaked
Common Dolphin: 10+
Fish:
Sunfish Mola spec. (likely Ocean Sunfish Mola mola): 1 (large)
Eagle
Ray spec: 2
The next Sydney pelagic trip will be on
Saturday 13th October 2012 departing Mosman Ferry Wharf at 6:45am
and Rose Bay Ferry Wharf at 7:00am. Call Hal at 0411311236 to make the booking.
Cheers,
Nikolas
Haass
----------------
Nikolas Haass
Sydney, NSW
===============================
To unsubscribe from this mailing list,
send the message:
unsubscribe
(in the body of the message, with no Subject line)
to:
http://birding-aus.org
===============================
|
