Sydney Pelagic Report - December 14, 2002
A memorable pelagic trip, one of the best out of Sydney in a long time, and a pity that there were only 12 on board the Halicat to enjoy a great day. We departed Rose Bay at 7.00am, had an extended stop at a location 3NM east of Brown's Mountain, another at Brown's mountain, and returned to Rose Bay at 3.15pm. Conditions were excellent with a 10 knot north-easterly, 1 metre sea on a 1 metre swell, and a water temperature of 20.5 deg C.
Highlights of the day were an early arriving Buller's Shearwater, a similar early arriving Tahiti Petrel, no less than 3 GOULD'S PETRELS, a single COOK'S PETREL and a single SOFT-PLUMAGED PETREL. All of these birds gave excellent views except for the Soft-plumaged Petrel which was sighted at a range of 150 metres and then departed quickly.
The species list for the day was:
Great-winged Petrel 120 (40)
Providence Petrel 8 (2)
SOFT-PLUMAGED PETREL 1 (1)
TAHITI PETREL 1 (1)
COOK'S PETREL 1 (1)
GOULD'S PETREL 3 (1)
BULLER'S SHEARWATER 1 (1)
Wedge-tailed Shearwater 60 (8)
Short-tailed Shearwater 100 (15)
Flesh-footed Shearwater 8 (3)
Fluttering Shearwater 15 (5)
Wandering Albatross 1 (1)
Black-browed Albatross 4 (1)
Yellow-nosed Albatross 3 (1)
Shy Albatross 7 (2) (all White-capped)
Wilson's Storm-petrel 10 (3)
White-faced Storm-petrel 6 (1)
Australasian Gannet 1 (1)
Arctic Jaeger 4 (2)
Pomarine Jaeger 4 (1)
Silver Gull 40 (20)
Common Tern 20 (20)
Season's Greetings to all birding-aussers.
Roger McGovern