BA-Vic Group Pelagic off Portland, Victoria, Sunday 14 August 2011
Participants: George Appleby, Scott Baker, Peter Barrand, Stuart Cooney, Paul Dodd, Rosemary Lester, Golo Maurer, Patrick Scully, Mark Stanley, Ruth Woodrow, Chris Lester (organiser).
Crew: Peter and Mick.
Activity: Departed Portland harbour aboard the Southern Pride boat at 07.05 passing Lawrence Rocks and heading south to the shelf. Went straight out to the shelf, passing quite a few Fairy Prions, to our first stop at 38°42.61’E, 141°25.23S in 108 fathoms of water. Berleyed here from 10.00 till 10.50, but there were few birds except the two common albatrosses. We moved out a fair bit to 38°46.23’E, 141°19.04S, 32 nm from Portland harbour, in more than 550 fathoms, looking for birds. We stayed there from 11.30 until 12.00 but again there we few birds other than the albatrosses. In fact, at the first two berleying spots, we did not see a new species that was different from those we saw on the trip out. From 12.30, we berleyed at 38°46.51E, 141°25.89S, 28 nm from Portland harbour, in 230 fathoms until 13.45. We stayed here a bit longer as some other pelagic species finally joined us. But, as you can see from the list, there were not many individuals. Headed back in passing Lawrence Rocks, where we had a quick look, before returning and docking at 16.35.
Conditions: The weather predictions on Friday did not look all that great (seas up to 1.5 – 2 m and swell of up to 2 m), but it turned out a very acceptable day with respect to conditions. There was an initial 5 knot NE wind, which stayed pretty constant all day, and was initially cool. The swell was less than 0.5 m with no sea. It was very foggy during the first part of the day. It gradually cleared up with some cloud cover and a few sunny breaks, then the weather cleared over the course of the afternoon with mostly sunny conditions and a quite warm temperature. Sea conditions stayed pretty much the same all day, with an occasional swell passing through but virtually no sea, resulting in a very pleasant trip. So much for the forecast.
Summary: Average diversity with 21 species of seabird recorded during the trip but the numbers of most regular species were very low. There were no rare birds with the highlights being a single Northern Royal Albatross and the two Brown Skuas in Portland harbour on our return.
Mammals:
Common Dolphin: a few inshore on the way out.
Australian Fur Seal: the normal numbers loafing at Lawrence Rocks.
Birds:
Grey-backed Storm-Petrel: 1. Pelagic.
White-faced Storm-Petrel: 1. Travelling out.
Wandering Albatross: 1. Pelagic.
ROYAL ALBATROSS: 1. Northern race. Pelagic.
Black-browed Albatross: 100 (40). All identified birds were race melanophrys, with no impavida. Mostly pelagic, but quite a few inshore.
Shy Albatross cauta: 150 (60). All race cauta, except one salvini on the way out. Mostly pelagic, but quite a few inshore.
Yellow-nosed Albatross: 5 (3). Pelagic.
Northern Giant-Petrel: 1. Pelagic.
Fairy Prion: 200 (50). Mostly on the way out and in. A few pelagic.
Short-tailed Shearwater: 2 (1). Pelagic.
Fluttering Shearwater: 20 (5). Inshore waters and pelagic.
Hutton’s Shearwater: 1. Pelagic.
Great-winged Petrel: 1. Race macroptera. Pelagic.
Australasian Gannet: 1000+. Most were on or near Lawrence Rocks and Point Danger but about 100 offshore and pelagic.
Black-faced Cormorant: 50 inshore, mostly on Lawrence Rocks.
BROWN SKUA: 2. In the harbour.
White-fronted Tern: 1. Pelagic.
Crested Tern: 20 inshore and pelagic.
Pacific Gull: 1. In the harbour.
Kelp Gull: 3. 1 at Lawrence Rocks and 2 in the harbour.
Silver Gull: 5. Inshore.
A White-faced Heron was seen on Lawrence Rocks on the way in.
For details of future Portland trips, go to the BA-Vic web site at the bottom of the page on http://www.birdsaustralia.com.au/the-organisation/vic-activities.html
For reports of past BA-Vic 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/
===============================
To unsubscribe from this mailing list, send the message: unsubscribe (in the body of the message, with no Subject line) to: birding-aus-request@vicnet.net.au
http://birding-aus.org ===============================
