Eaglehawk Pelagic Trip Report, Jan 6th 2019

[Paul Brooks <>]

Eaglehawk Pelagic Trip Report - January 6^th, 2019

 

Participants:

Ruth Brozek, Helen Cunningham, Sara Grealy, Rob Hamilton, Mona Loofs-Samorzewski, Andi Magnussen, Paul Newman, Peter Vaughan, Els Wakefield and Paul Brooks (organiser and report compiler)

 

Boat:

The Pauletta, skippered by John Males, with deckhand Michael Males.

 

Notes:

A reasonable trip for diversity and numbers with a couple of good sightings.  A Wedge-tailed Shearwater was a very good record for Eaglehawk and a Soft-plumaged Petrel over 70 fathoms in the afternoon was interesting, but only seen by a one observer.  It was our only Pterodroma petrel for the day.  We had good numbers of storm petrel in the slick and were challenged with good numbers of jaegers; all that were seen/photographed well enough turned out to be Parasitic.

 

Activity:

Left port at 0710 hrs and headed down to the Hippolytes, checking the gannetries there before heading south-east past the shelf-break, pulling up over 270 fathoms at 0915 hrs, drifting NW to 350 fathoms by 1255 hrs.  Headed straight back to port, docking at 1505 hrs.

 

Conditions:

It was partly cloudy and cool when we set out, with a light breeze and a 1.5 m swell.  After we passed the Hippolytes, the south-westerly breeze picked up to 10-15 kn and the swell rose to 2 m with seas of 1 m.  Conditions were similar out wide until ~ 1100 hrs, when the wind dropped back to ~5 kn, the sea flattened, and skies cleared for the remainder of the day.  Water temperature was 17.4 deg C inshore, rising to 18.9 deg C out wide.  None seasick.

 

Mammals:

Brown/Long-nosed Fur Seal: 53 (34) On and around Cheverton Rock and the Hippolytes in the morning.

 

Short-beaked Common Dolphin: c. 35 (5) A few inshore in the morning, remainder offshore in the morning.

 

Fish:

Shortfin Mako Shark: 3 (2) Pelagic.

 

Blue Shark: 1 Pelagic.

 

Tuna sp.: 2 A couple of fish leapt from the water near the boat in pelagic water – probably Southern Bluefin Tuna.

 

Insects:

Yellow Striped Hunter (Austrogomphus guerini): Flew over the back of the boat for a minute or two in offshore water as we motored back to port (55 f).

 

Birds (IOC v 8.1 – max at one time in brackets):

Little Penguin: 3 (3) Offshore in the morning.

 

Wilson’s Storm Petrel: 3 (3) Pelagic.

 

White-faced Storm Petrel: 6 (6) Pelagic.

 

Grey-backed Storm Petrel: 16 (16) Pelagic.

 

Antipodean Albatross: 1 Adult male Gibson’s Albatross in pelagic water.

 

Southern Royal Albatross: 3 (1) Immatures in pelagic water.

 

Campbell Albatross: 1 An adult in pelagic water.

 

Shy Albatross:  c. 40 (16) 10 inshore in the morning; 10 offshore in the morning; remainder pelagic.

 

Indian Yellow-nosed Albatross: 1 An immature in pelagic water.

 

Buller’s Albatross: 2 (1) Pelagic.

 

Northern Giant Petrel: 2 (1) An immature on the water next to the Hippolyte in the morning and an immature in pelagic water.

 

Fairy Prion: 6 (5) 1 offshore in the morning, remainder pelagic.

 

SOFT-PLUMAGED PETREL: 1 Seen offshore in the afternoon by one observer (~70 f).

 

White-chinned Petrel: 9 (9) Pelagic.

 

WEDGE-TAILED SHEARWATER: 1 A bird was seen by one observer just prior to reaching the shelf-break; either this, or a second bird, made one close pass after we stopped to berley.  Still a very rare bird in Tasmania, but there have now been records off Eaglehawk every Jan/Feb since 2016.

 

Sooty Shearwater: 5 (2) Pelagic.

 

Short-tailed Shearwater: c. 9,900 (c. 1,000) c. 2,400 offshore in the morning; remainder pelagic.  Several thousand birds streamed by in the distance for much of the afternoon – estimated at 200 birds per five minutes; also big flocks passing the boat as we headed back to shore.

 

Fluttering Shearwater: 2 (1) Pelagic.

 

Hutton’s Shearwater: 3 (1) Pelagic.

 

‘Flutton’s’ Shearwater: 8 (2) 3 offshore in the morning; 5 pelagic.

 

Common Diving Petrel: 4 (1) 2 offshore in the morning; 2 pelagic.

 

Black-faced Cormorant: c. 700 (c. 500) Inshore and on the Hippolytes in the morning.

 

Australasian Gannet: c. 100 (c. 30) c. 100 inshore in the morning, mainly at breeding colonies on the Hippolytes; 1 offshore in the morning; 1 pelagic.

 

Silver Gull: c. 45 (c. 20) c. 40 inshore and around the Hippolytes in the morning; 3 offshore in the morning; 2 pelagic.

 

Pacific Gull: 1 on Cheverton Rock in the morning.

 

Kelp Gull: c. 130 (c. 80) c. 130 inshore and on the Hippolytes in the morning; 2 offshore in the morning.

 

Greater Crested Tern: 77 (7) 36 inshore and around the Hippolytes in the morning; 32 offshore in the morning; 9 pelagic.

 

Parasitic Jaeger: 6 (2) 1 offshore in the morning; remainder pelagic.

 

Jaeger sp.: 3 (1) 1 offshore in the morning; 2 pelagic.

 

Tree Martin: 2 (2) Flying around cliffs outside Pirates Bay in the morning.

 

PB

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