Sections
CalendarBoat: M.V. Contagious, skippered by Dale Wellham.
CONDITIONS Gentle north-north-westerly breeze with occasional bouts of white-capping occurring on the ocean surface, but overall quite pleasant. Seas and swell 1-1.5m. We commenced our drift at -32.87395, 152.631935 drifting a rate of knots to be about 8nm south in under two hours at -32.99002, 152.6103. We then headed back towards our starting point for another drift south. Water temperature 24 degrees at the shelf.
Soft-plumaged Petrel
ACTIVITY
Departed Nelson Bay public wharf at 7:06am returning at 4:04pm. Activity was extremely slow early on, with just a few marauding Wedge-tailed Shearwaters and the odd gannet and Fluttering-type seen on the run out. Fortunately, once in deep water after the proper berleying started, many Wedgies came into the boat, followed by some White-faced Storm-petrels (which grew to double figures after about an hour or so) and the odd Solander’s Petrel. But the initial burst of excitement on the boat came after the arrival of a Cape Petrel. Once a regular bird on cold water pelagics off the Hunter, this is now more of a novelty up here. A Common Tern came into the boat, creating a flurry of photographs in the hope that it was something more interesting. Nonetheless an early bird and we don’t get many commic terns on our pelagics.
The highlight of the day though came not long after we repositioned to start our second drift when Michael Kearns spotted a pale-bellied Pterodroma off the starboard side. It was a very pale Soft-plumaged Petrel with a lot of white in the underwing, resembling the illustration in the Australian Bird Guide labelled as appearing almost like a Cookilaria, which this bird did to some extent. The trip back to port was largely uneventful until the boat was called to stop about 5 miles from the head as a Bar-tailed Godwit was seen flying west. Just as we stopped a Southern Giant-petrel appeared from nowhere but disappeared as soon as it had shown itself. Most unusual for September was the total lack of albatross of any kind.
White-faced Storm-petrel
BIRDS
13 species were recorded outside the heads which is below average, probably on account of the lack of albatross.
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.
White-faced Storm-petrel: 14 (11). Birds were constantly with the boat after first appearing, though only on the first drift.
Wedge-tailed Shearwater: 2500 (1800). Mostly marauding birds except for some very large flocks inshore and smaller gatherings of birds out wide.
Fluttering Shearwater: 2 (1). One wide, one inshore.
Hutton’s Shearwater: 3 (1). One wide, two inshore.
Fluttering-type Shearwater: 4.
Solander’s Petrel: 6 (2). All in deep water. Some birds with very pale bellies.
SOFT-PLUMAGED PETREL: 1. A very pale individual with much white in the underwing, that appeared off the starboard side and flew rather languidly around for around a minute or so before disappearing.
Cape Petrel: 1. Appeared early in the first drift. Seen again whilst relocating to the second drift point.
Southern Giant-petrel: 1. Juvenile seen about 5nm from shore after we stopped to photograph the Barwit.
Common Tern:1. Came into the boat during the first drift and fed in the slick for a few minutes before moving on.
Australasian Gannet: 50 (7). Even spread of birds in deep water and inshore. Mostly adults.
Crested Tern: 3 (1). Conspicuously few.
Silver Gull: 3 (3). Near the heads on the return leg.
Bar-tailed Godwit: 1. Bird flying towards the shore about 5 miles out.
MAMMALS
Pantropical Spotted Dolphin: – a couple of small pods seen (<10 individuals)
Humpback Whale: About a dozen individuals seen during the day, including some distant spectacular breaching animals.