Sections
CalendarHere's what was seen outside the harbour on a Kiama pelagic organised for the Illawarra Birders club on the MV Kato on Saturday 29 July 2023. The trip list uses the IOC Checklist v13.1 (Jan. 2023) for taxonomy, nomenclature & order of species. It gives fairly conservative numbers, which are estimates for the commoner species.
Leaving the harbour at 07.30 hrs we travelled straight out to the shelf edge, passing a few Humpback Whales and dolphins on the way. In the calm conditions we went out a little further than usual, stopping at the drop-off in 148 fathoms/271 m at 34 46 29 S; 151 10 41 E, 31 kms ESE of the harbour. Here we cut the engines at 09.25 hrs and began a steady drift south in the strong current.
Birds were scarce at first but gradually began to come in to the combination of chicken mince, beef fat and oil which we offered. Indian Yellow-nosed Albatrosses were the most numerous smaller albatross, but we also had adult and immature Black-browed Albatrosses, a couple of handsome Buller's Albatrosses and a fly by from a Shy Albatross. We looked in vain for the Atlantic Yellow-nosed Albatross seen off Sydney the week previously. Apart from the albatrosses, there were a few Solander's Petrels, currently breeding on Lord Howe Island, a couple of Hutton's Shearwaters visiting from New Zealand, and a single prion, thought to be a Fairy Prion.
After drifting for 8.6 km in a bit over two hours, we moved along the slick in search of the prion and a possible storm-petrel, which remained elusive. We stopped then in deep water (244 fathoms/446 m) past the edge of the shelf at 34 51 13 S; 151 10 06 E, 35 km SE of the harbour, at 11.45 hrs. Almost immediately we had a visit from a Wandering Albatross type, probably an Antipodean Albatross subsp. gibsoni. This bird eventually landed but didn't stay. After drifting a further 1.6 km S in 25 minutes, we turned back to the harbour.
Our return journey was notable for the large number of dolphins we encountered in the outer shelf waters - mainly Common Bottlenose, but with Common present as well - and a close encounter with a pod of three Humpback Whales which swam around the stationary boat for 10 minutes or more, giving everyone wonderful views as well as generous whiffs of whale breath. We arrived back at the jetty at 15.00 hrs.
Sea conditions were generally flat all day, making for a very comfortable ride. Sea temperature was 15.9 degrees inshore and 19.1 degrees at the shelf edge.
Species seen outside the harbour, maximum at any one time in brackets:
125 Silver Gull: 70+ (50+) these birds were mostly inshore but we had 6 at the shelf edge
115 Greater Crested Tern: 30+ (17) a number of birds rested on the boat s bow rail while we were chumming.
847 Antipodean Albatross gibsoni: 1 (1) adult bird thought to be this species.
088 Black-browed Albatross: 6+ (4) adults and immatures.
091/861 Shy Albatross: 1 (1) not possible to determine if this was subspecies cauta or steadi
860 Indian Yellow-nosed Albatross: 10+ (4)
931 Buller's Albatross: 2 (2) lores & crown colour suggested subsp. bulleri from southern NZ.
Giant Petrel sp.: 1 (1) flew by at some distance.
083 Fairy Prion: 1 (1)
971 Solander's Petrel: 4 (2)
913 Hutton's Shearwater: 2 (2)
104 Australasian Gannet: 20+ (13)
100 Little Pied Cormorant: 1 (1) on rocks just outside harbour entrance.
106 Australian Pelican: 2 (2) near the harbour entrance on our return.
We saw at least six Humpback Whales, numerous Common Bottlenose and Common Dolphins, many riding the boat s wake, and a small pod of Risso s Dolphins.
Report prepared by Graham Barwell