• Saturday 22nd October 2016 SOSSA PELAGIC TRIP, KIAMA, NSW, AUSTRALIA.

    Here's what was seen outside the harbour on the SOSSA pelagic from Kiama on the MV Kato on Saturday 22 October 2016. The list uses the IOC Checklist v6.3 for taxonomy, nomenclature & order of species. Note that v.6.3 has split what was previously Great-winged Petrel into Great-winged and Grey-faced Petrel. Today’s list gives fairly conservative numbers, which are estimates for the commoner species.

    Northern Giant-Petrel. Photo: Ákos Lumnitzer

    Leaving Kiama Harbour at 07.40 hrs AEDST we headed southeast, stopping briefly just outside the harbour entrance to watch a Humpback Whale, then continuing out to 34° 43’ 36” S; 150° 57’ 23” E, 10.8 km from the harbour in 100m+ shelf waters, where we stopped at 08.40, chummed and drifted 1.79 km south in the strong (4 knot) northerly current for 33 mins, before continuing to motor slowly south. The southerly wind meeting a northerly current meant that the swell was reaching 3 m, making it unsafe to attempt to reach the shelf edge.


    Campbell Albatross. Photo: Ákos Lumnitzer

    We continued south to 34° 51’ 24” S; 150° 57’ 39” E, where we turned east and went 3.5 km out into somewhat deeper shelf waters (120m+), before turning north, where we stopped and attempted to catch a banded immature albatross at 34° 51’ 18” S; 151° 00’ 07” E, 24.1 km SE of the harbour. With patience and skill the SOSSA team managed to net the bird, a young, less than 18 month old (based on wing moult), Black-browed Albatross from the Kerguelen Islands. After the band was read and the bird released, we turned further west and headed back for the harbour, arriving at 14.45 hrs.


    Buller's Albatross. Photo: Rob Hynson

    Seas were around 1m early but increased to around 3m as we got further offshore, the wind rose and we encountered the strong current. This made for a sometimes bumpy ride. Sea temperatures were c. 20° inshore and c. 23° offshore.

    Highlights were the large number of the smaller albatrosses, a good mix of winter and summer birds coupled with the usual species on migration (Wilson’s Storm Petrels and Short-tailed Shearwaters).

    Species seen, maximum at any one time in brackets:

    063 Wilson’s Storm Petrel - 10 (2)
    065 White-faced Storm Petrel - 1 (1)
    088 Black-browed Albatross - 6 (3) 5 adults & 1 immature with a French band from the Kerguelen Islands, south Indian Ocean
    Black-browed/Campbell Albatross - 100 (40) immatures, probably mainly Black-browed
    859 Campbell Albatross - 1 (1) adult
    091 Shy Albatross - 30 (8) 1 adult cauta, the rest adult and recently-fledged steadi
    931 Buller’s Albatross - 1 (1)
    937 Northern Giant Petrel - 1 (1)
    075 Grey-faced Petrel - 5 (1)
    971 Providence Petrel - 15 (2)
    069 Wedge-tailed Shearwater - 300 (200)
    071 Short-tailed Shearwater - 800 (50) flocks heading south passing regularly
    072 Flesh-footed Shearwater - 1 (1)
    068 Fluttering Shearwater - 1 (1)
    Fluttering/Hutton’s Shearwater - 2 (1)
    913 Hutton’s Shearwater - 1 (1)
    104 Australasian Gannet - 10 (4) adults and immatures
    125 Silver Gull - 12 (6)
    115 Greater Crested Tern - 10 (4)
    980 Brown Skua - 1 (1)
    128 Parasitic (Arctic) Jaeger - 1 (1) distant views of this bird harassing Silver Gulls; probably this species

    We also saw a Humpback Whale and 5 Bottlenose Dolphins.

    Graham Barwell