• Saturday 12th June 2010, Sydney, Pelagic Trip Report, Sydney, NSW, Australia

    SYDNEY PELAGIC REPORT - SATURDAY JUNE 12, 2010

    Hi all,
    Here is the latest update to the report:

    Weather conditions: Wind SW, swell S; Water temp off shelf 18.4 deg C. Shelf position about 6NM north of the sea mount
    1. Wilson’s Storm-Petrel: 1 (over the slick at the shelf)
    2. White-faced Storm-Petrel: 1 (over the slick at the shelf; [seen only by one observer])
    3. Gibson’s (Wandering) Albatross: 1
    4. Black-browed Albatross: common
    5. Campbell (Black-browed) Albatross: common
    6. Shy/White-capped Albatross: present
    7. Indian Yellow-nosed Albatross: present
    8. Buller’s Albatross: 2+
    9. Northern Giant-Petrel: 2+
    10. Cape Petrel (New Zealand ssp. australe): 2
    11. ANTARCTIC PRION: common at the shelf
    12. SLENDER-BILLED PRION: present at the shelf
    13. Fairy Prion: less common and closer to shore than Antarctic
    14. Short-tailed Shearwater: 2
    15. Fluttering Shearwater: present
    16. Great-winged Petrel (macroptera): 4
    17. Providence Petrel: 2
    18. Australasian Gannet: present
    19. Pied Cormorant: 2 (in the harbour)
    20. Brown Skua: 4
    21. White-fronted Tern: 1 juv.
    22. Crested Tern: present
    23. Silver Gull: common

    Mammals:

    1. Humpback Whale: 2
    2. Oceanic Bottlenose Dolphin: 5

    Here is the link to some of Raja's pictures of prions of the 12 June Sydney
    pelagic. Based on tail pattern, facial pattern, half-collar and M intensity, we tried to identify and to put them into their subfolders accordingly. Bill shape was a difficult task. At least we are quite confident that there were no typical Broad-billed Prions and no typical Fulmar Prions out there. Some of the Antarctic Prions look heavy-billed and therefore may be Salvin's. Slender-billed Prion indeed is not an easy bird to identify. Therefore there may be some errors in our ID suggestions. The last subfolder "All Prions - chronological" contains all selected pictures again - but un-identified and in chronological order. You may have a look at this folder first and try to get to your own unbiased conclusion. Comments welcome!

    http://www.adarman.com/Trips/Prions-ID

    Further, there are some more pics of Black-browed, Campbell, Shy/White-capped and Buller's Albatrosses, Northern Giant, Cape, Great-winged and Providence Petrels and White-fronted Tern. There is an interesting young Shy-type Albatross in the series. Its small size, slender bill and "innocent" face made us first think of young Buller's.

    http://www.adarman.com/Trips/Sydney-...10904791_KLcuS
    Cheers,
    Nikolas