• Saturday 28th March 2015 SOSSA PELAGIC TRIP, WOLLONGONG, NSW, AUSTRALIA.

    Here's a list of what was seen from the Sandra K outside the harbour on Saturday 28 March. It uses the BARC Australian Checklist (v2015 Jan. based on IOC v5.1) for taxonomy, nomenclature & order of species and gives fairly conservative numbers. For the commoner species the numbers are estimates.


    Juvenile Australasian Gannet

    We travelled out to 34° 33’ 30” S; 151° 15’ 59” E, 36.3 km ESE of Wollongong Harbour in 300m+ pelagic waters, where we stopped, chummed and made a slick to see what might come in, 11.10-12.11 hrs, drifting 1.33 km N to 34° 32’ 50’ S; 151° 15’ 37” E, then turned back in. We stopped again at 34° 29’ 00’ S; 151° 05’ 50” E, 18.7 km ESE of the harbour, where we chummed and made a slick, 13.30-14.25 hrs, drifting 2.25 km NNW to 34° 28’ 11” S; 151° 05’ 03” E. We then continued back in, arriving in the harbour at 16.00 hrs. On both the way out and the way back, good numbers of Wedge-tailed and Flesh-footed Shearwaters were caught, banded and released. In addition, at our first chumming spot we banded a Pomarine Skua, while at our second we banded a 3 year old (determined by moult and bill colour) Buller’s Albatross.


    Dark Phase Pomarine Jaeger

    Swell of 1-2 m from the SE with moderate winds, easing a little in the afternoon. Sea temperature 22° inshore, 24° out past the shelf edge.



    Sightings: maximum number seen at any one time in brackets

    Black Swan 2 (2)
    088 Black-browed Albatross 12 (9) adults or subadults
    859 Campbell Albatross 2 (1) adults
    Black-browed/Campbell Albatross 5+ (5) young birds
    091 Shy Albatross 12+ (8) mainly steadi, but several moulting cauta present
    864 Indian Yellow-nosed Albatross 2 (1)
    931 Buller’s Albatross 2 (2) 1 adult, 1 young (3 yo) bird
    075 Great-winged Petrel 1+ (1) NZ breeding gouldi
    069 Wedge-tailed Shearwater 200+ (100)
    070 Sooty Shearwater 1 (1)
    071 Short-tailed Shearwater 10+ (1)
    072 Flesh-footed Shearwater 15+ (5)
    068 Fluttering Shearwater 2 (1)
    913 Hutton’s Shearwater 5 (2)
    063 Wilson’s Storm Petrel 2 (2
    108 White-tailed Tropicbird 1+ (1+) distant birds identified by 2 experienced observers, but no photos showed this species so some uncertainty remains.
    Little Egret 1 1 some surprise at the presence of this bird at our first chumming spot, 36 km offshore
    104 Australasian Gannet 12+ (7) adults and immatures
    099 Australian Pied Cormorant 1 (1)
    125 Silver Gull 50+ (25+)
    981 Kelp Gull 2 (2) adult and immature
    115 Greater Crested Tern 20+ (8)
    945 Pomarine Skua 10+ (5)
    Australian Magpie 5 (5)
    Welcome Swallow 3 (3)



    We saw a pod of 20+ Common Dolphin out the way out, with a larger pod of 50+ seen on the way back.


    Cheers


    Graham Barwell