I'll be really interested in comments as well as I moderate the BirdLife
Photography gallery for correct id so this will be an extra challenge!
Sonja
On 11/11/2013, at 1:14 PM, Mick Roderick <> wrote:
> Hi Roger,
>
> Another great report. We were on the wrong side of the weather gods (again)
> as the Port Stephens trip was planned for Sunday. Alas it became our 8th
> cancellation for the year due to an unfavourable forecast. We hope that you
> guys find a boat and that we have better luck with the weather!
>
> Your comment about the 'Shy-types' is very relevant because under BirdLife
> Australia's Working List of Australian Birds (see
> http://birdlife.org.au/conservation/science/taxonomy ), White-capped (T.
> steadi) is split from Shy (T. cauta) as separate species. This is going to
> make the recording of 'Shy-type Albatrosses' very tricky indeed.
>
> There has been some discussion on the topic of 'Shy-type' ID on the SOSSA
> forum (see
> http://www.sossa-international.org/forum/forumdisplay.php?21-Identification )
> but mostly the 'Shy-type' discussions there surround possible or purported
> Salvin's Albatrosses as opposed to separating Shy and White-capped.
>
> As far as I understand it (and to wrap it up in a tight nutshell), breeding
> adult Shy's with yellow at the base of the bill are likely Shy's (i.e. T.
> cauta), but if an adult lacks the yellow at the base of the bill it could be
> either a Shy OR a White-capped. Juveniles are best identified by the time of
> year that the birds are seen, with White-capped fledging later than Shy's
> (i.e. in July/August).
>
> T. steadi wasn't even recognised at the time that HANZAB Vol 1 went to the
> printers though there is some discussion of steadi in the Geographical
> Variation section that is not surprisingly, inconclusive. Onley and Scofield
> say "Non-breeding, immatures and juveniles of two (sub)species indeterminable
> at sea."
>
> And we thought the Wandering and Black-browed types were hard!?! I agree that
> the hypotheses need to be backed up by research as I've heard conflicting
> stories on what is what and how to tell them apart.
>
> From what I can tell from fisheries and radio-tracking data, White-capped is
> likely to be the more regular one found in waters off NSW (at least, north
> from Wollongong anyway).
>
> Comments welcome...as this will be something very relevant when the BirdLife
> Working List is adopted.
>
> Mick
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
> On Sunday, 10 November 2013 5:00 PM, Roger McGovern <>
> wrote:
>
> SYDNEY PELAGIC TRIP REPORT - NOVEMBER 10, 2013
>
> OVERVIEW
> The final Sydney pelagic trip of the 'Halicat Era' had extraordinarily good
> fortune from the weather gods - had it been scheduled a day earlier or a day
> later, it would not have got out. After a few days of very strong north
> winds, the conditions calmed right down on Friday night and then, the
> southerly buster forecast to hit at lunchtime on Saturday did not arrive
> until we entered the Sydney Heads at about 3.30pm. The last couple of trips,
> and most recently the Sunbird/Wings trip ten days ago had been characterised
> by huge numbers of extremely hungry Short-tailed Shearwaters which were
> prepared to fight the albatrosses for food and, in conjunction, there were
> very few Wedge-tailed Shearwaters at a time when this species should be the
> most numerous off Sydney. Today, normal November service was resumed with
> very good numbers of Wedgies, fewer and less desperate Short-taileds and
> reasonable numbers of Flesh-footed Shearwaters, the latter being our first
> record of the summer. Good numbers of birds were present for the entire trip
> and the species count of 20 meant that a lot of our visitors added some
> species to their life lists. The only minor rarity of the day was Black
> Petrel, with two birds arriving together on our slick and staying to feed
> for quite a while and then another bird was seen about halfway back to
> Sydney.
>
> Incidentally, with regard to the Sunbird/Wings pelagic on December 1st,
> another era came to an end as it was David Fisher's last visit to Australia
> as the leader of this group since he will be retiring in March 2014. I
> mention this as a lot of birding-aus subscribers will know David - he is a
> fine field ornithologist and one of the nicest people you will meet.
>
> We left the heads in remarkably benign conditions with light winds and a
> swell of 1.0m to 1.5m and no sea on top of that. The conditions remained
> this way for the entire journey to the shelf break but, with the expectation
> of a strong southerly change at lunchtime we made our berley stop about 5NM
> short of Brown's Mountain in anticipation of an early return. As it turned
> out, the three hour trip back was equally comfortable and we were hit with
> very strong south winds just as we entered Sydney Harbour. Surface sea water
> temperatures were in the range of 20.5degC to 21.0degC for the entire trip.
> We departed from Rose Bay at 7.20am and returned at 4.15pm.
>
> TRIP SUMMARY
> We left the harbour on the MV Lormar with a full complement of 24 passengers
> with several visiting from overseas and the remainder from around Sydney and
> the Central Coast. While still in the harbour, we encountered our first
> cetaceans of the day with views of the resident pod of Inshore Bottlenose
> Dolphins lounging around near Watson's Bay. David had the berley going
> straightaway and, although we saw a few moribund Short-tailed Shearwaters
> just inside the harbour, it was immediately obvious that the hoards of
> starving birds which descended on us in recent trips were no longer there.
> We quickly attracted a following of shearwaters but the Wedge-taileds easily
> outnumbered the Short-taileds. As is usually the case at this time of the
> year, there were fewer Australasian Gannets in evidence and we had a couple
> of Greater Crested Terns follow the boat and a few well seen Hutton's and
> Fluttering Shearwaters pass by. It was not long before we were joined by our
> first albatrosses, immature Black-browed and both juvenile and adult Shy.
> The usual discussions regarding the separation of the NZ White-capped from
> the Tasmanian nominate race took place and I always think that many of our
> hypotheses need to be backed up with a lot more research. A Pomarine Jaeger
> began to follow the boat as did an Arctic Jaeger shortly afterwards thereby
> allowing those on board to study the difference in structure between the two
> species. At about the 10 mile mark, we had a brief visit from a couple of
> Pantropical Spotted Dolphins and, then, a few minutes later a larger pod of
> these cetaceans came to the boat and rode on our bow for a while. Just
> before reaching our berley location, a Common Tern approached the boat for a
> close look at us and quickly disappeared and we then came across the only
> Southern Ocean Sunfish of the day.
>
> With our concerns for deteriorating weather, we decided to make our berley
> stop about 5NM short of Brown's Mountain, just over the beginning of the
> continental shelf break. With David laying down a good slick, new species
> began to appear on a regular basis. The first of these was a handsome adult
> Campbell Albatross which was joined later by two more. David and I were
> wondering why, at this time of the year, all the Black-browed Albatross are
> immature birds and the Campbells are all adults. A very late immature
> Yellow-nosed Albatross was the next new species to appear followed by the
> first of several Wilson's Storm Petrels, a couple of Providence and
> Great-winged Petrels, and the our only Wandering-type Albatross of the day,
> an Antipodean Albatross ssp gibsoni. The principal excitement of the day
> came with the arrival of two Black Petrels which came and fed on the berley
> close to the boat giving great views to everyone. The journey back to Sydney
> did not bring any new species, although a third Black Petrel was seen by
> some on board at about 8NM from the heads. We also had our third cetacean
> species of the day when a group of Short-beaked Common Dolphins came by
> close to the boat and kept on going. With the excellent weather conditions,
> the good numbers of birds present and the species count of 20, all on board
> had a great time and we finished off in the harbour with drinks and snacks
> to celebrate the end of an era.
>
> Although, I had said previously that Hal and I were retiring from organising
> pelagics, we have been re-thinking this position because there is a real
> danger that without the continuity from the Halicat period, it would be very
> difficult for a new organiser to start from scratch. We have tentatively
> identified a boat that might be suitable for pelagic work and we plan to
> meet with the owner in the next few weeks to see what sort of arrangement
> could be made. We are hopeful that we will be in a position to run the next
> pelagic in February 2014 so please put February 8th into your diary with a
> question mark.
>
> BIRD LIST
> Note that the number in parentheses represents the maximum number of that
> species present at one time)
>
> Antipodean Albatross 1 (1) adult gibsoni
> Black-browed Albatross 15 (7)
> Campbell Albatross 3 (3)
> Shy Albatross 10 (5)
> Indian Yellow-nosed Albatross 1 (1)
> Great-winged Petrel 4 (2)
> Providence Petrel 2 (1)
> Black Petrel 3 (2)
> Wedge-tailed Shearwater 360 (200)
> Short-tailed Shearwater 130 (100)
> Flesh-footed Shearwater 20 (10)
> Fluttering Shearwater 11 (2)
> Hutton's Shearwater 14 (3)
> Wilson's Storm Petrel 9 (6)
> Australasian Gannet 3 (1)
> Silver Gull 250 (200)
> Greater Crested Tern 8 (3)
> Common Tern 1 (1)
> Pomarine Skua 3 (2)
> Arctic Jaeger 2 (1)
>
> OTHER
>
> Inshore Bottlenose Dolphin 10
> Short-beaked Common Dolphin 25
> Pantropical Spotted Dolphin 20
> Southern Ocean Sunfish 1
>
> AS stated above, there are no firm plans at the moment for the next Sydney
> pelagic but, hopefully, there will be one scheduled for February 8, 2014.
> Please contact Hal at or me at
> if you have any questions.
>
> Cheers
> Roger McGovern
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
> ===============================
>
> 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/
> ===============================
> ===============================
>
> 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
> ===============================
===============================
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
===============================
|
