Sections
CalendarBoat: 45ft Randell, skippered by Brad Minors
CONDITIONS
Gentle seas for the entirety of the day, with winds slightly offshore for the journey out, turning to the north-east in the early afternoon (though never reaching the 15 knot mark). At our first berley point there was an obvious amount of ‘muck’ on the ocean surface and to a few metres beneath. After we repositioned the water was found to be much clearer and not surprisingly the activity was greater here.
Water temp ~24 degrees. Drift Start: -33.2343001 152.2318472, drifting south-east for about 45 minutes before repositioning a further mile and a half wider for another south-east drift.
ACTIVITY
Departed wharf at exactly 7:00am returning at 5:24pm. There was a complete lack of inshore flocks until we encountered the first Flesh-footed Shearwaters about 7 miles out (as often happens and indeed happened a year ago to the day!). Fleshies built to at least 35-birds-strong and were clearly the dominant bird behind the boat for the day. A Streaked Shearwater appeared down the wake and eventually overtook the boat before disappearing. Once in deep water it was a very quiet start to the drift, but after repositioning into clearer water things picked up slightly, with a few Grey-faced Petrels, a couple of Wilson’s Storm-petrels and a Solander’s Petrel just as we headed off. Highlight was probably a ‘flock’ of large (~1.8m breadth) Mobula rays, quite possibly Chilean Devil Rays, that swam directly under the boat. The journey home was very entertaining, with inshore shearwaters, jaegers and a sub-adult Campbell Albatross setting the scene.
Campbell Albatross. Photo: Mick Roderick
BIRDS
17 species recorded outside the heads was a deceptively productive day that otherwise felt pretty quiet (particularly until the last couple of hours). Take note of how many species were singletons in the list below (>50% of species seen). 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 V3.
Wilson’s Storm-petrel: 3 (2). All at the second drift. This species has been conspicuously low in numbers at this time of year in recent years off Swansea/Port Stephens. Wedge-tailed Shearwater: 300 (250). Deceiving numbers because the vast majority were in a single flock – they were way outnumbered by Fleshies at the boat the whole day. Flesh-footed Shearwater: 180 (40). Good numbers of Fleshies dominated the feeding at the rear of the boat for the day and with evidence of a turnover of birds (i.e. birds seen coming into the boat from the horizon often).
Short-tailed Shearwater: 1. One bird on the way back in. Did attempt to feed on berley. Sooty Shearwater: 1. A very distant bird seen by only a couple of people (though photographed) at the first drift.
Fluttering Shearwater: 1. Lone bird inshore on the way back in.
Hutton’s Shearwater: 1. Bird photographed on the way out.
Fluttering-type Shearwater: 2. Flybys unable to be identified.
Streaked Shearwater: 1. This bird appeared from a long way down the wake and disappeared for a few minutes before eventually catching up to, then overtaking, the boat before disappearing again.
Solander’s Petrel: 1. Seen at the shelf just moments after setting off for home. Grey-faced Petrel: 5 (2). All pelagic, one bird did follow us for the first few miles of the return leg.
Black-browed Albatross: 1. Adult bird that joined the throng at the rear of the boat for part of the outward journey.
Campbell Albatross: 1. A beautiful sub-adult that came into the boat late on the return leg and hung around for about half an hour.
Australasian Gannet: 30 (8). All immature birds and in all water depths (though mostly inshore).
Pomarine Jaeger: 9 (2). All inshore and some very smart-looking birds amongst them.
Arctic Jaeger: 1. A single dark morph bird that chased Crested Terns around at the rear of the boat not far from the heads at the end of the day.
Crested Tern: 20 (20). Mostly within a few miles of the heads.
Silver Gull: 1. Very surprising to only have seen one Silver Gull on a Swansea pelagic and the bird was literally the last bird to go on the day’s list, just minutes from the heads.
MAMMALS
Offshore Bottlenose Dolphin: 35. A few pods of medium size, some quite acrobatic, including one individual doing Seaworld-esque leaps in the wake.
Pantropical Spotted Dolphin: 50. One fast-moving pod encountered about half way back to port.
Fur Seals: 6. A few loafing around about 5 miles from the heads.
FISH
Shark sp. 1. A rather darkish brown-looking fish around 2m in length seen just off the wake on the journey out.
Mobula Rays (possibly Chilean Devil Ray): 6. It was a thrill for most on board to witness 6 huge (~1.8m across) Mobula rays swim directly under the boat at the second drift point. At the time of writing we are still working on an identification but there didn’t appear to be any obvious markings on the head (which would fit Japanese Devil Ray) and they appeared to have a yellowish-green hue through the water, not grey-blue.
Flying Fish in small numbers
Grey-faced Petrel. Photo: Mick Roderick