Sections
CalendarBoat: M.V. Contagious, skippered by Dale Wellham
CONDITIONS
There was a very gentle northerly airstream as we motored out onto an ocean where a marine tsunami warning had been in place overnight. It was rather glassy until we reached our drift start (at -32.889120, 152.617770) where we had maybe 10 knots of northerly. That eventually swung around to be a sou-wester. It was frustratingly sunny and quite hot at times, we could see large cloud banks that never reached us. We drifted for a few miles south, then relocated a bit to the north-west and ended up at -32.961980, 152.534490, from where we departed at 1332. Water temperature at the shelf was around 21 degrees.
White-faced Storm-petrel - Photo: Allan Richardson
ACTIVITY
Departed Nelson Bay public wharf at 7:12am returning by 4:01pm. Very few birds followed us for the trip out but once in deep water we did seem to attract a few customers, almost entirely Wedge-tailed Shearwaters (overall Flesh-footeds were rather scarce). The day really belonged to two species - Sooty Terns and White-faced Storm-petrels. There was almost always a Sooty Tern visible at any given time, following on from a couple of beachcast birds noted in the previous few days (whether this is related to having 50+ birds at sea is unclear). White-faced Storm-petrels were in the slick for almost the entire drift, after having found two birds working a current line about 5 miles short of deep water. Highlights were almost certainly the Tahiti Petrel that gave good views to all on board, as well as the Gould's Petrel that wasn't quite as accommodating.
Tahiti Petrel - Photo: Mick Roderick
BIRDS
12 species were recorded outside of Port Stephens - another relatively disappointing day diversity-wise. 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 (1). All in the slick, mostly in the latter half of the day.
White-faced Storm-petrel: 30 (6). Good numbers and always visible in the click somewhere. The max count of 6 individuals is almost certainly not a true reflection (could have been a dozen at least at the one time).
Wedge-tailed Shearwater: 1000 (400). Plenty of attendant birds at the boat; the remainder marauding birds in deep water or inshore feeding flocks.
Flesh-footed Shearwater: 12 (4). Fewer in number than would normally be expected in January.
Short-tailed Shearwater: 5 (2). All inshore.
Hutton's Shearwater: 2 (1). One at the shelf, one on the return leg.
Fluttering-type Shearwater: Two unidentified birds.
Gould's Petrel: 1. This bird really snuck up on us, not being picked up til it was reasonably high in the air about 50m off the stern, from where it proceeded to fly away to the south rapidly.
Tahiti Petrel: 1. A crowd-pleaser, as many on board had not seen one previously. Appeared at around 11am and spent a good 5-10 minutes visible from the boat, including some close passes.
Australasian Gannet: 2 (1). Both adults and both inshore.
Sooty Tern. 55 (6). Ubiquitous and probably a very conservative estimate. All but four or five individuals confirmed were adults.
Crested Tern: 6 (4). Inshore except for two birds seen about 15 miles out.
MAMMALS
Offshore Bottlenose Dolphin: 15:
Pantropical Spotted Dolphin: 10 (includes a mother and a calf).
FISH
Large school of about 100 small flying-fish breached while we were on our drift.