• Saturday 6th January 2018 SOSSA PELAGIC TRIP, KIAMA, NSW, AUSTRALIA

     
    Published on 28-01-2018 07:04 AM
    Here's what was seen outside the harbour on the extra pelagic from Kiama on the MV Kato on Saturday 6 January 2018. The list uses the IOC Checklist v7.2 (2017) for taxonomy, nomenclature & order of species. It gives fairly conservative numbers, which are estimates for the commoner species. There's also a map from Google Earth showing our route.

    Leaving Kiama at 07.30 hrs AEDST, we travelled ESE out to 34° 43’ 32” S; 151° 07’ 46” E, 25.4 km from the harbour in 200 m (110 fathoms) shelf edge waters, where we stopped at 09.10 hrs, chummed and drifted 1.8 km south in the strong wind and current over the next hour. Having exhausted the birds there, we decided to try further out, so proceeded east to 34° 43’ 35” S; 151° 09’ 27” E, 27.9 km from the harbour in slightly deeper shelf edge waters (220 m/120 fathoms). Here we found a sweet spot indeed, as we drifted south 3.6 km for an hour and a half from 10.30 hrs. Good numbers of petrels and shearwaters built up behind the boat, and we were delighted to have several infrequently encountered species come in for a look. Several Grey-faced Petrels, Wedge-tailed Shearwaters and the White-chinned Petrel were caught and banded, giving those on board excellent close up views of these birds in the hand.

    We then turned back in at 12.00 hrs, but made a third chumming stop at 34° 43’ 05” S; 151° 00’ 16” E, 14.2 km from the harbour in 110 m/60 fathom shelf waters, for an hour and ten minutes from 13.05 hrs. The highlight here was a Black Petrel, though it didn’t stay round very long. We then continued back to the harbour arriving at dock at 15.35 hrs.

    Conditions were fairly comfortable early with a swell of <0.5 m, but becoming bumpier as the wind and seas rose during the morning to 1.5-2 m. Sea temperatures were warm, with 22.5° inshore and 24.5° out at the shelf edge.

    Highlights were the range of petrels seen, generally with good views.

    Species seen outside the harbour, maximum at any one time in brackets:

    Storm Petrel sp. - 1 (1) this bird, which wasn’t seen by all on board, was thought to be a Wilson’s, but may have been something much less common. Its ID is still being determined.
    065 White-faced Storm Petrel - 1 (1) seen by some observers
    091 Shy Albatross - 6 (3)several were Tasmanian breeding cauta judging from the yellowish tinge along the culminicorn
    088 Black-browed Albatross - 7 (3) subadults
    075 Grey-faced Petrel - 40 (30) these were the commonest pterodroma seen today; several caught & banded
    078 Gould’s Petrel - 1 (1)
    918 Cook’s Petrel - 2? (1) excellent views of 1 bird relatively close; a second more distant bird was probably this species
    915 White-chinned Petrel - 1 (1) caught & banded
    917 Black Petrel - 1 (1)
    069 Wedge-tailed Shearwater - 30+ (10+) a few caught & banded
    975 Buller’s Shearwater - 2 (1)
    071 Short-tailed Shearwater - 15+ (3)
    072 Flesh-footed Shearwater - 40+ (15)
    068 Fluttering Shearwater - 2 (1)
    125 Silver Gull - 10+ (6) mainly just outside the harbour
    115 Greater Crested Tern - 3 (1)
    945 Pomarine Skua - 8 (4)


    There were no cetaceans or seals seen.

    Graham Barwell