Sections
CalendarBoat: M.V. Contagious, skippered by Dale Wellham.
CONDITIONS
There was some rather significant variation in the forecasts for today, with some models predicting smooth seas with little wind, whilst others had 15+ knots of south-west winds on a 2m southerly swell. Fortunately for us, the latter transpired and we had good conditions with white-capping seas for almost the entire day. At around midday the winds had also swung round to be from due south. We commenced our drift at -32.8420779, 152.6293430 at 0928 drifting parallel to the shelf, again in a north-easterly direction, ending at -32.793530, 152.679700 at 1338. Water temperature about 24 degrees at the shelf.
New Caledonian and White-faced Storm-petrels. Photo: Mick Roderick
ACTIVITY
Departed Nelson Bay public wharf at 7:11am returning at 4:14pm. The trip out was was reasonably uneventful with a few expected brown shearwaters and the odd Fluttering. The highlight was seeing a Microbat flying over the ocean which promptly made a beeline for the boat and latched onto one of the outriggers! It flew off about ten minutes later. About 3 miles short of the shelf break we started to encounter marauding individuals of Wedge-tailed Shearwaters, including a small flock of birds that appeared to be chasing small flying fish (which we saw many of). Before we’d even cut the engine a distant Cookilaria was seen off the bow, but it was lost and not seen again.
New Caledonian Storm-petrel. Photo: Allan Richardson.
Once the drift started and it didn’t take long before we had a throng of wedgies and a handful of Flesh-footed Shearwaters behind the boat. Some White-faced Storm-petrels joined in and a single Grey-faced Petrel. The first excitement came as a Gould’s Petrel flew in, staying for a good length of time but staying into the sun, so views weren't great. A storm-petrel with white underparts was then seen and initially thought to be a White-bellied/Black-bellied type, but then the distinctive streaking of a New Zealand/New Caledonian type was seen and the cameras on board went up a couple of gears. The bird was only marginally smaller than the accompanying White-faced, fed in a similar fashion to them, was quite broad-handed and had some dark feathering in the underwing coverts. It was obvious that we had a New Caledonian (‘Coral Sea’) Storm-petrel at the boat. Initially the bird disappeared a couple of times, but then it became fully faithful to the boat, making persistent passes into and around the slick, and was with us for over two hours. This is the second record of this undescribed species off Port Stephens (the first being 14th June 2015; still the only winter record off Australia). In between all this excitement there were a couple of White-capped Albatrosses and a young Black-browed type Albatross.
BIRDS
15 species were recorded outside of Port Stephens. 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: 10 (7). In the slick from about twenty minutes into the drift until we left.
NEW CALEDONIAN (‘CORAL SEA’) STORM-PETREL: 1. The bird arrived at about 1130, then was ‘lost’ on and off until about 1230 after which it was always in view of the stern of the boat, feeding in the slick. Feeding alongside the White-faced Stormies, with which the feeding style was found to be quite similar.
Wedge-tailed Shearwater: 1400 (1000). Good to see Wedgies back in good numbers. The count of 1000 birds was a combination of large inshore aggregations and birds following the boat.
Flesh-footed Shearwater: 35 (15). Rather scarce at the shelf, the majority of birds appeared to join the boat during the return leg.
Short-tailed Shearwater: 12 (5). Mostly in neritic waters.
Sooty Shearwater: 10 (3). Mostly in neritic waters, slightly fewer in number than Short-tailed.
Hutton’s Shearwater: 3 (1). Two of the birds at the shelf.
Fluttering Shearwater: 3 (1). All inshore.
Fluttering-type Shearwater: 2
Black-browed type Albatross: 1. Immature bird at the shelf. Some suggestion it could have been a young Campbell due to heavy darkness in front of the eye.
White-capped Albatross: 2 (2). Two adult birds, identified as White-capped due to the age of the birds, complete lack of yellow anywhere on the bill (overall ‘cold grey’).
Grey-faced Petrel: 2 (1). Surprised to have not seen more – both birds at the shelf and about 2 hours apart.
Gould’s Petrel: 1. Seen about an hour into the drift – poor views because of the light.
Cookilaria sp. 1. Seen at a distance as we arrived at our drift location. Size, ‘M’ upperwing all seen well by two observers but it never came close to the boat.
Pomarine Jaeger: 2 (2). Both inshore, assumed to have been seen on both legs of the journey (a pale and a dark bird).
Crested Tern: 6 (4). All inshore.
Silver Gull: 1. Inshore on way out (we are seeing very few Silver Gulls these past few trips).
MAMMALS
Pantropical Spotted Dolphin: A pod of about 15 strong seen at the shelf. At least one calf, possibly two, seen in the pod.
Microchiropteran Bat: About 10 miles out someone yelled out “bat!” and sure enough a Microbat was flying alongside the boat. It then came closer and closer until it seemed to “suck” onto one of the folded-up outrigger poles, where it clung on for about ten minutes before flying off again. There is not sufficient detail to identify the bat to species level and even assigning Genus might be tricky but it looks much like a broad-nosed type bat (Scotorepens sp.?)
FISH
Lots of small flying-fish seen throughout the day (probably close to ~70 seen)