Sections
CalendarBoat: M.V. Argonaut, skippered by Ray Horsfield
CONDITIONS
A rather uncomfortable and very disappointing trip with stiff west/south-west winds for virtually the entire day pushing up steep, short wind waves that rocked us around considerably. That would have been ok had there been more birds to keep us occupied, but that wasn’t the case for most of the day. Winds were generally 20 knots or greater, dropping off only when close to port in the late afternoon. We commenced our drift at -32.9014 / 152.6039 and spent just 2 hours drifting in deep water, turning back for port at -32.968 / 152.634 (drifting a remarkable 4.5 miles south in that time, against the stiff south-west winds). It took us nearly an hour to make it back to our drift starting point (which always makes for a long ride home!). Water temperature was not taken.
Campbell Albatross. Photo: Mick Roderick
ACTIVITY
Departed wharf at 7:04am returning at 4:58pm. Activity was low except for out wide where two species (Solander’s Petrels and Wilson’s Storm-petrels) were in reasonable numbers, the former being the most numerous bird of the day (discounting Silver Gulls around a trawler close-in). With Wedge-tailed Shearwaters having departed the area it was a fairly lonely trip out to the shelf, except for singles of Campbell and Black-browed Albatrosses and 2 or 3 Indian Yellow-nosed that followed the boat. It was an even lonelier trip on the way home with not a single bird following the boat for close to the entire 4+ hours it took us to punch home into the westerly winds that refused to die off despite the forecasts predicting that they would. Not a single sea mammal seen all day.
Sooty Shearwater. Photo: Allan Richardson
BIRDS
14 species were recorded outside the heads, representing a less than average diversity of birds, though with only 9 tubenoses it was a pretty poor day. Counts are totals for birds seen outside the heads (with the maximum number visible from the boat at one time in brackets) – many are estimates. Taxonomy follows the BirdLife Australia Working List V2.1.
Wilson’s Storm-petrel: 20 (16). All pelagic.
Sooty Shearwater: 1. Single bird at the shelf that reappeared once or twice in the distance on the way back in.
Fluttering Shearwater: 4 (1). All inshore, mostly typical fly-bys except for one bird that seemed to follow the boat. All Fluttering-types identified as Fluttering.
Indian Yellow-nosed Albatross: 5 (4). Three birds followed the boat for most of the outward leg, with other birds arriving at the shelf.
Black-browed Albatross: 1. An adult bird with a rather scruffy/uneven trailing edge to the wing that followed the boat for much of the outward leg and stayed with the boat during part of the drift.
Black-browed type Albatross: 1. A young bird that was possibly a young Campbell arrived during the drift.
Campbell Albatross: 2 (2). Both adults. One bird was with the boat most of the outward leg, the other arriving not long before arriving in deep water.
Solander’s Petrel: 35 (15). Good numbers and plenty of interest shown in the boat with the odd bird landing to feed in the slick. One rather unusual looking “piebald” bird had us checking our images for a bit.
Fairy Prion: 3 (1). All seen whilst in transit and all able to be confirmed as Fairy.
Australasian Gannet: 30 (3). Mostly inshore; majority were adults.
Caspian Tern: 1. Close to the heads.
Crested Tern: 15 (8). Mostly close to port but a couple of birds followed the boat for the entire day.
Silver Gull: 60 (50). Most were behind a trawler a few miles from the heads.
MAMMALS:
None seen