• Friday, 24th January 2019, Crowdy Head, NSW, Australia

     
    Published on 30-01-2019 05:40 AM
    Crowdy Head Pelagic Trip Report- Friday 24h January 2019


    Skippered by Roger Edwards


    White-necked Petrel. Photo: Liam Murphy


    CONDITIONS
    There had been a blast of north-easterlies over the preceding weeks, cooling the sea surface temperature down significantly inshore, so much so that an algal bloom had occurred, affecting fish in the area (many dead fish on the beach near port). A weak southerly change had moved through the night before the trip and there was a gentle southerly influence over the course of the morning ranging from slightly onshore early on to offshore later in the morning, though never over 10 knots (barely any white-capping all day). We pulled up just at the head of the “Crowdy Canyon” and drifted south across its face. Water temperature 24.8 at the shelf break.


    Drift Start: -31 59 57, 153 6 57
    Drift End: -32 5 16, 153 4 16


    ACTIVITY
    Departed wharf at 6:34am returning at 1:29pm. Overall a fairly disappointing day after the results from the same location just 4 days earlier. Several Wedge-tailed Shearwaters and the odd Flesh-foot seen on the outward leg, but activity generally low apart from many Sooty Terns flying about. The White-necked Petrel was the first bird to appear from the south when we reached our drift location, but from that point for the next couple of hours it was largely only Wedgies and Sooty Terns that we brought to the boat. Another flurry came when we started our trip back home, when the Black Petrel and Common Noddy appeared behind the moving boat.


    Sooty Tern. Photo: Mick Roderick


    BIRDS
    12 species recorded outside the heads is a low diversity for January and several of those 12 species we only saw individual birds. Numbers represent total counts with the maximum number visible from the boat at one time in brackets – some are estimates. Taxonomy follows the BirdLife Australia Working List V2.1.


    Wedge-tailed Shearwater: 300 (40). Mostly marauding individuals, no real feeding flocks.
    Short-tailed Shearwater: 2 (1). Both inshore.
    Flesh-footed Shearwater: 7 (2). A couple of birds picked up about 5 miles out then some stragglers joined the boat in deep water. One bird had a very bleached bill and an extremely heavy chest giving a very petrel-like appearance.
    Fluttering Shearwater: 1. Single bird that sat in the slick for most of the drift.
    Fluttering-type Shearwater: 5. All inshore.
    Grey-faced Petrel: 1. Flew in to the boat towards the end of the drift.
    White-necked Petrel: 1. The bird literally was the first bird that came towards the boat when we decided to set up a drift on the shelf break. It came in and checked us out briefly before continuing on a southward trajectory.
    Black Petrel: 1. A bird arrived in the wake of the boat while we were slowly motoring away from the end of the drift.
    Australasian Gannet: 4 (1). All inshore.
    Pomarine Jaeger: 4 (2). Two birds at the shelf, two inshore.
    Jaeger sp: 2. Unidentifiable birds on the way out.
    Common Noddy: 1. Appeared in the wake just before we headed back for shore.
    Sooty Tern: 70 (10). Conspicuous and numerous (interestingly we only had half the count of the trip four days earlier) inshore and in deep water. Mostly adult birds with a juvenile in-tow.
    Crested Tern: 3 (2). All inshore.


    MAMMALS:


    Inshore Bottlenose Dolphin: One pod immediately outside the port.


    FISH


    Numerous flying-fish of all shapes and sizes seen today.