Sections
CalendarBoat: M.V. Contagious, skippered by Dale Wellham.
CONDITIONS
'Wet' would be a good description. We motored out into a very confused sea, directly into a steady 15 knot easterly wind. The wind waves were sitting between very shortly-spaced swells and although not large, it made for a very bumpy ride out. The rain held off until about 11:30am when we got a good drenching from a rainband that came at us from the north. We got spats of rain throughout the remainder of the day, all the way back to port. We commenced our first drift at -32.8106,152.6798 at 1013 drifting south for about 7 miles ending at -32.859170, 152.662320 before basically retracing our steps and starting a second drift from the same starting location. Water temperature about 25 degrees at the shelf.
Long-tailed Jaeger. Photo: Mick Roderick
ACTIVITY
Departed Nelson Bay public wharf later than normal (at 7:23am) returning by 3:58pm. There were no inshore flocks and shearwaters were very few and far between. The conditions made berleying enroute a little tricky too. There were a couple of Wilson's Storm-petrels seen in neritic waters, both on the outward and inward journeys. Once at the shelf, the berley - which had some added pink salmon frames today - had immediate effect, with birds from 9 different species coming from all directions to join the boat, One of the first birds seen was a beautiful fresh Solander's Petrel and everyone on board was quite excited at the early activity. Alas, we then didn't have any additional species until an immature gannet flew in more than two hours later, followed by an adult Shy-type Albatross that we judged as being a White-capped.
Buller's Albatross. Photo: Mick Roderick
Pods of Offshore Bottlenose Dolphins put on some great displays while we waited for some more bird activity, which didn't really eventuate until we commenced the return leg. A few miles back in an albatross was seen approaching, which turned out to be a stunning Buller's Albatross always a crowd-pleaser! But the highlight for me was having two Long-tailed Jaegers fly in at that same time that the Buller's was with us; notably one of them being in almost full breeding plumage. This immaculate individual was watched by all on board as it did a close pass, followed by a non-breeding individual that may have been an immature bird.
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.
Wilson's Storm-petrel: 40 (25). About half a dozen birds seen inshore, including a couple within 6 miles of land, the rest pelagic.
Wedge-tailed Shearwater: 180 (60). No flocks of this species seen today. Highest count was not far from the heads on the return leg.
Flesh-footed Shearwater: 100 (60). Patchy, but good numbers behind the boat for the inward journey.
Short-tailed Shearwater: 5 (2). All inshore.
Hutton's Shearwater: 3 (1). All identified birds inshore.
Fluttering-type Shearwater: 4. One bird in pelagic waters.
White-capped Albatross: 1. Adult that flew in on our first drift-reposition and followed boat for half an hour.
Buller's Albatross: 1. Adult that appeared from the north about 40 minutes into our return leg.
Providence (Solander's) Petrel: 20 (4). First bird seen literally as we arrived at our drift start and there was a reasonable turnover of birds through the drifts.
Grey-faced Petrel: 4 (2). All pelagic.
Australasian Gannet: 1. Immature bird at the shelf.
Tropicbird sp.: 1. Very distant bird high over the water could not be identified.
Arctic Jaeger: 1. Inshore on inward leg.
Longtailed Jaeger: 2 (2). Flew in as the Buller's Albatross was picked up. One bird in stunning breeding plumage, the other possibly a young bird.
Crested Tern: 5 (2). Inshore.
Silver Gull: 2 (2). Inshore on way back in.
MAMMALS
Offshore Bottlenose Dolphin: 100+: A few pods seen in pelagic waters, including one of 50+ individuals and some very entertaining antics from some that came close to the boat.