BirdLife Victoria Pelagic off Portland, Victoria, Sunday 14 June 2015 Participants: Scott Baker, Tim Bawden, Robin Bradbear, Paul Dodd, Christian Doerig, Graham Harkom, Rosemary Lester, Rohan and Alan Mott, Robyn Slattery, Ruth Woodrow, Chris Lester (organiser). Crew: Peter and Neville. Activity: Departed Portland Harbour aboard the Southern Pride boat at 07.00 heading south-west to the shelf. Went straight past the shelf to our first stop at 38°41.828’S, 141°17.303’E in 230 fathoms of water, where we berleyed from 09.40 till 11.40. We moved to the south-east to 38°45.796’S, 141°24.417’E in 240 fathoms and stayed there from 12.10 until 13.20. We moved further east and berleyed at 38°45.135’S, 141°30.582’E in 150 fathoms from 13.50 until 14.30. We then headed back to the north-east passing Lawrence Rocks, where we had a good look, before returning to Portland Harbour and docking at 17.15. Conditions: Initially, it was very overcast (95% cloud cover) and cool. There was a light wind of less than 5 knots from the NW. There was no sea and a swell of about 0.5 m. In the middle of the day, the wind increased only slightly to 5-10 knots but then decreased again quite soon after. The swell decreased slightly over the course of the day. It stayed overcast and cool. Summary: Quite good diversity with 22 identified species of seabird recorded during the trip. The highlights were the amazing number of ANTARCTIC TERNS, the WHITE-FRONTED TERNS and the SALVIN’S ALBATROSS. We had excellent views of all of them. Mammals: Common Dolphin: small group on the way in. Australian Fur Seal: the normal numbers (about 30) loafing at Lawrence Rocks. Birds: Wilson’s Storm-Petrel 3 (1). Pelagic. Grey-backed Storm-Petrel 10 (2). Pelagic. Black-browed Albatross: 15 (6). Mostly cauta but 2 impavida. Pelagic with a few inshore. Shy Albatross: 60 (35). All nominate, except for one Salvin’s. Pelagic with a few inshore. Yellow-nosed Albatross: 1. Pelagic. Northern Giant-Petrel: 1. At Lawrence Rocks. Cape Petrel: 2 (1). Pelagic. Fairy Prion: 80 (20). A few inshore but mostly pelagic. Sooty Shearwater: 2 (1). Pelagic. Short-tailed Shearwater: 5 (3). Pelagic. Great-winged Petrel: 20 (10). Pelagic. Common Diving-Petrel: 1. On the way out. Little Penguin: 10. On the way out. Australasian Gannet: 300. A few on the way out and in with most on Lawrence Rocks. Black-faced Cormorant: 50. All on or near Lawrence Rocks. Brown Skua: 1. At Lawrence Rocks. White-fronted Tern (WFT): 5 (1). See below. ANTARCTIC TERN: Up to 6 (3). Comic terns throw up some interesting and difficult identification challenges, especially for species that you don’t see very often. It gets easier if you have photographs and can investigate after the trip. Antarctic Terns are at the difficult end and we have spent lots of time on the many photos taken. Work continues but here are our initial conclusions. There were two flocks each of four terns at the first berley stop about 20 minutes apart. They approached very closely and turned out to be a mixture of Antarctics and WFTs. There were also three close single bird sightings, one at the second stop and two at the third stop (which was probably the same bird). We saw a couple of distant WFTs in transit and a brief view of perhaps a different Antarctic at the second stop. From our photos, we had three Antarctics in the first lot of four and two in the second lot, with one definite WFT in the second lot. All the close single terns were WFTs. We think all the birds in the first flock were probably Antarctics but are not sure of the others in the second flock. So, in summary, we saw at least 3 and up to 7 Antarctics. Crested Tern: 100. A few inshore with nearly all the rest in Portland Harbour. Pacific Gull: 2. 1 adult and 1 immature. In Portland Harbour. Kelp Gull: 20. 5 at Lawrence Rocks and 15 in Portland Harbour. About 50:50 adults and immatures. Silver Gull: 10 at Lawrence Rocks and a few pelagic with 100 in Portland Harbour. There were also 1 Little Pied Cormorant and 2 Australian Pied Oystercatchers in Portland Harbour and 4 Sooty Oystercatchers and 10 Welcome Swallows at Lawrence Rocks. Regards Chris Lester For details of future Portland trips, go to the BirdLife Australia web site at the bottom of the relevant Birdlife Victoria page at http://www.birdlife.org.au/locations/all-victoria-statewide/activities-vic For reports of past BA-Vic and BirdLife Victoria trips from Portland and Port Fairy, search the Birding-Aus archives for the trip reports at http://bioacoustics.cse.unsw.edu.au/archives/html/birding-aus/
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