I’ll try again, here is the trip report for Port Fairy Pelagic.
Birdswing Birding & Wildlife Tours Pelagic trip off Port Fairy, Victoria
Sunday 19th May 2013
Observers: Neil Macumber (organiser and report writer), Kev Lobotomi, Geoff
Glare, Anne Looney, Bernie O’Keefe, Angus Hartshom, Clive Curson, Cindy
McDonald, Nora Lord and Lyn Brown.
Conditions: When we left port and headed out of the river there was
overcast skies, a cool autumn day with approx. 80% cloud cover, a slight
breeze and the sun trying to poke through, a swell of 1 to 1.5 metres with
choppy seas that moderated later in the day with approx. 50% cloud cover
and the sun out at times.
Overview: Departed the Port Fairy wharf at 0716 EST along the Moyne River
out to sea heading at 210˚and boat speed of 12.3 knots.
An enthusiastic group left the Moyne River into a slightly choppy Bass
Strait with fairly small swells. We saw crested tern and silver gull just
outside the river and 14 minutes after leaving port saw our first Albatross
- a Black-browed. Travelling out toward the shelf we saw Shy Albatross,
Australasian Gannet, Fairy Prion, Yellow-nosed Albatross, White-fronted
Tern, Antarctic Prion, Crested Tern, Common-diving Petrel, Little
Penguin,Great-winged Petrel and a Short-tailed Shearwater.
At 1024 in 171 fathoms we made our first stop, there were birds around and
the kettle was boiled. We ended up with around 100 Albatross, around 60
were Shy and the others were mainly Black-browed, with 5 Campbell Island, 2
Bullers and couple of Wandering Albatross as well. There were 3 Great-
winged and 1 White-chinned Petrel, along with up to 10 Wilson’s, 3 Grey-
backed Storm-petrels. We also had 1 Sooty Shearwater, 1 White-fronted Tern,
some Fairy Prion and about 4 Northern Giant Petrel. One of the Shy
Albatross had a silver band on the left leg. A small pod of Common Dolphins
headed toward the boat but disappeared about 50 metres before getting
there. We left our first stop at 1053 in 158 fathoms.
We moved from our first stop to a flock of birds sitting and flying birds
some 6 minutes away.
So our second stop started at 1059hours the depth was around the same as it
was when we left our first stop. We had even more Albatross with
approximately a 50/50 mix of Shy and Black-broweds. There was also 1
Bullers, 4 Campbell, 3 Wandering and 1 Royal Albatross. We also had 4
Northern Giant Petrel (one old grey/white coloured bird), 3 Southern Giant
Petrel, 15 Fairy Prion, 1 Sooty Shearwater, 3 Great-winged, 2 Cape Petrel
and 1 juv. Auatralasian Gannet, there were also Wilson’s and Grey-backed
Storm-Petrel around the boat. We had drifted quite a few miles before we
started to head back to port at 1323hours when the depth was 237 fathoms.
On travelling back to port we added Fluttering Shearwater to the days list.
Everyone enjoyed themselves with most people adding pelagic species to
their life list and we docked 1608hours.
Birds: 25 species off shore
Pelagic Species: - Little Penguin, Shy Albatross, Black-browed Albatross,
Campbell Island Albatross, Indian Yellow-nosed Albatross, Buller's
Albatross, Wandering and Royal Albatross, Fairy Prion, Great-Winged
Petrel, White-chinned Petrel, Cape Petrel, Sooty Shearwater, Fluttering
Shearwater, Grey-Backed Storm-Petrel, Wilson's Storm-Petrel, Australasian
Gannet, Pacific Gull, Kelp Gull, Silver Gull, Crested Tern and White-
Fronted Tern, Northern and Southern Giant Petrel and Common-diving Petrel.
Species seen in shore: - Masked Lapwing, Great Egret, Rufous Night-heron,
Pied Oystercatcher, Hoary-headed Grebe and Kelp Gull.
Mammals: Saw up to 20 Common Dolphins and 3 Australian Fur Seal.
Proposed Dates for remainder of 2013 Trips: Sunday 30 June (only 4 places
left), 14 July, 11 August, 15 September, 27 October, 17 November and 1
December. Trips will go if there are enough numbers and the weather is
suitable. First in gets a spot allocated. See our website for more
details <http://www.birdingwildlifetours.com.au/>
http://www.birdingwildlifetours.com.au/
Cheers
Neil
Neil Macumber
Manager
Albatross logo
Birdswing Birding & Wildlife Tours
C/- PO
POMONAL VIC 3381
PH. 03 5356 6274
Mob. 0413 628 306
www.birdingwildlifetours.com.au
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