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CalendarLeaving the harbour at 07.30 hrs, we headed out into fairly rough seas produced by a 3 knot current from the north running against a moderate-strong southerly wind. These conditions were trying and it was initially thought that we wouldn't be able to get anywhere near the shelf edge. So at first we travelled SSE to a position off Gerroa, 20 kms from Kiama harbour, where we stopped, drifted and chummed in 59 fathoms/108 metres shelf waters for 35 mins, from 09.10 hrs. The highlight here was a juvenile Brown Noddy which wasn't always easy to pick out among the similarly coloured shearwaters attracted to the chum. There's a record of this species on a Wollongong pelagic, but this is the first for Kiama. In addition to the noddy, we had our first albatrosses of the day, three handsome Buller's Albatross, which we usually see from about April on, but had them last year in February as well.
We then moved further out to 34 47 24 S, 151 03 33 E, 22 km SE of the harbour in 78 fathoms/143 metres shelf waters, where we set up our second chumming session, 10.26-11.12 hrs. We had a fly by from a Shy Albatross here, giving us two albatross species for late summer.
With the wind and seas starting to diminish we headed for deeper waters at 34 48 11 S; 151 06 28 E, in 119 fathoms/218 metres, right at the point where the shelf first begins to dip. Again we drifted and chummed for 40 minutes or so, 11.30-12.10 hrs. Here we had a visit from a Long-tailed Jaeger with longish tail extensions visible to the naked eye and encountered our first and only petrels for the day, a couple of Grey-faced Petrels.
Time was against us, so we set out back for harbour making a couple of further stops on the way. At the second stop in 39 fathom/71 metre waters, conditions had eased so much from earlier in the morning that the banders were able to catch a few shearwaters, four each of Wedge-tailed and Flesh-footed, to given them at least something to show for the day.
Sea conditions were difficult for birding in the early part of the morning with a 2-2.5 m swell, but this gradually abated to about 1 m by early afternoon, though the light remained poor in the heavy overcast conditions. Sea temperature at the shelf edge was around 24 degrees.
Highlight of the day was the first record of Common Noddy, the less common summer visitors, Streaked Shearwater and Long-tailed Jaeger, and the early returning Buller's Albatrosses.
Species seen outside the harbour, maximum at any one time in brackets:
White-throated Needletail: c. 10 (c. 10) seen about 10 km offshore
122 Brown Noddy: 1 (1) brown-headed juvenile
125 Silver Gull: 50+ (30) mostly resting on the rocks round the harbour mouth on our return
115 Greater Crested Tern: 3 (1)
945 Pomarine Jaeger: 5 (1)
933 Long-tailed Jaeger: 1 (1)
091/861 Shy Albatross: 1 (1)
931 Buller's Albatross: 3 (3)
075 Grey-faced Petrel: 2 (2)
853 Streaked Shearwater: 3+ (1)
069 Wedge-tailed Shearwater: 50+ (15)
071 Short-tailed Shearwater: 10+ (2)
072 Flesh-footed Shearwater: 100+ (30+)
068 Fluttering Shearwater: 5 (1) one bird unusually came in close to the boat and was caught and released
913 Hutton's Shearwater: 1 (1)
104 Australasian Gannet: 2 (1) adult and juvenile
106 Australian Pelican: 1 (1) near harbour mouth
Nankeen Kestrel: 1 (1) near harbour mouth
The only cetaceans were two small pods of Common Dolphin which came in to the boat on the outward and return legs.
Report prepared by Graham Barwell