SYDNEY PELAGIC TRIP REPORT - SATURDAY 12 NOVEMBER 2016
OVERVIEW
After a year of several pelagic trip cancellations due to high winds and
rough seas, this trip once again looked to be in jeopardy from the weather
based on the forecast that we had a few days before. Fortunately however,
the forecast improved somewhat just prior to the trip and we made the
decision to go ahead. The conditions on the day were more or less as
forecast with fresh north westerly winds producing a choppy sea and quite
uncomfortable conditions - however, we expected these conditions to produce
plenty of birds. In the event, all the birds that we encountered on the day
appeared to be very well fed and none showed any great interest in our
berley offerings. It was interesting that the Port Stephens pelagic the next
day encountered exactly the same conditions with not even Silver Gulls
coming to their berley leading us to believe that there was a very abundant
food source available to the birds off NSW. Many of the various shearwater
species that we found in rafts resting on the water were so heavy with food
that they had difficulty flying! There were no major highlights for the day
but we had a reasonable mix of bird species and some interesting sightings
of Humpback Whales, a very 'friendly' Mako Shark and a Southern Ocean
Sunfish.
The weather started off very dull with steady rain for the first couple of
hours, and the 20 knot north easterly meant that we tracked out to the shelf
on a far more northerly path than usual to avoid heading into a beam sea -
even then it was quite uncomfortable with plenty of spray. The rain stopped
and the day became quite bright and sunny but the wind did not moderate all
day and we encountered 2 - 3 metre seas throughout the trip which caused a
few cases of sea sickness unfortunately. We went out through the Heads at
7.35am and, since we could not motor quickly in the conditions, reached the
continental shelf break at about 11.10am. We did one long drift at the shelf
until 12.30pm as conditions were not conducive to moving around the area,
and then had a fairly comfortable ride back to shore (with the following
wind), arriving at Rose Bay at 3.15pm. Sea water temperature was around
20.0degC which is about the norm for this time of the year.
TRIP SUMMARY
We set off from Rose Bay at 7.20am in very dismal and wet conditions but
quite expectant in terms of getting good birds on such a windy day but were
surprised when we were unable to attract a following of Silver Gulls to our
berley trail as we were leaving the harbour. Even more surprising was that
the usual large numbers of inshore Wedge-tailed Shearwaters and albatross
failed to make an appearance and, in the first hour or so, we had seen only
two birds, both Wedge-tailed Shearwaters! In fact at 8.10am, we encountered
a group of four Humpback Whales (one of them breaching nicely for us) and
the comment was made that we had seen more whales than birds at that stage.
We began to see a few more Wedge-taileds with the odd Short-tailed,
Fluttering and Hutton's Shearwaters, a very nice pale morph Pomarine Jaeger
and the first of several Australasian Gannets. About halfway to the shelf,
some 12 NM off the Heads, we suddenly found out where all the shearwaters
had got to as we came across an enormous raft of Wedge-tailed Shearwaters
estimated at around 2000 individuals resting on the water. We attempted to
attract them to our berley but it was very obvious that they were not hungry
and had no interest in our offerings, so we continued on our way.
As we approached the shelf break, the first Shy Albatross of the day made an
appearance - it was a juvenile T.c. steadi or NZ White-capped Albatross and
we saw several more juvenile and adult birds of this sub species while
drifting at the shelf break. We started the drift with not many birds around
but the smell of the berley and the oily slick soon attracted the attention
of a number of birds but very few actually fed on the berley. A Grey-faced
Petrel passed close to the boat and a little later a couple of Providence
Petrels were well seen. Wilson's Storm Petrels were frequent visitors, a
couple of Black-browed Albatross added to the mix as did two more Pomarine
Jaegers. The best bird of the day was a briefly appearing Long-tailed Jaeger
which was well seen by all. A 'small' Mako Shark appeared on our berley
slick and stayed around the back of the boat for several minutes feeding on
the fish scraps to everyone's great interest and a Sothern Ocean Sunfish
came drifting by close to the boat also providing good views to all. Steve
spotted a small cookilaria petrel at some distance and it continued on its
way without an identification being possible - very frustrating!
On the way back to Sydney, we again encountered the huge numbers of
shearwaters at the 12 mile mark and, this time, we were able to locate a
single Flesh-footed Shearwater amongst the hordes of Wedge-taileds, our
final new species for the day. More Humpbacks were seen about ten miles
offshore but they were not very cooperative. It was not one of our better
days in terms of rarities and species diversity but it was, as always, great
to be out on the ocean!
BIRD LIST
(Note that the numbers in parentheses represent the approximate maximum
number of that species in view at any one time)
Wilson's Storm Petrel 10 (3)
Shy Albatross 10 (5) all of the New Zealand sub species steadi
Black-browed Albatross 2 (2)
Grey-faced Petrel 3 (1) (formerly the sub species gouldi of
Great-winged Petrel)
Providence Petrel 2 (1)
Wedge-tailed Shearwater 2000+ (2000)
Short-tailed Shearwater 4 (1)
Flesh-footed Shearwater 1 (1)
Hutton's Shearwater 11 (5)
Fluttering Shearwater 25 (6)
Fluttering-type shearwaters 30
Australasian Gannet 22 (8)
Pomarine Jaeger 5 (2)
Long-tailed Jaeger 1 (1)
Silver Gull 50 (30)
OTHER
Humpback Whale 7
Southern Ocean Sunfish 1
Mako Shark 1
The next Sydney trip is scheduled for Saturday 10 December 2016 and all
details of our trips and contact details are shown in the website at
www.sydneypelagic.info and you can also find us on Facebook and post photos
at https://www.facebook.com/sydneypelagics
Cheers
Roger McGovern
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