Twenty members of Illawara Birders enjoyed a short boat trip from Wollongong Harbour today on board the Sandra Kay with SOSSA as our guide. The main purpose of the trip was to give members a chance to experience a pelagic trip without having to spend a full day being tossed about, and for some being sick for nine hours. We headed out of the harbour with a gathering flock of Silver Gulls, these were soon followed by several Black-browed Albatross and not long afterwards by White-fronted Terns. A single Brown Skua paid us a visit, the boat was stopped, so Lindsey Smith could catch and band the bird, two Black-browed Albatross were also caught and banded and not long after this, Shy and Yellow-nosed Albatross were flying pass the boat. After going 14km out we headed to Five Islands where we observed Australian Pelicans and White Ibis nesting on the top of the main island. Fur seals were observered swimming pass the boat or sunning themselves on the island, there was also large numbers of Flutting Shearwaters flying pass. After that we returned to harbour and a single Bottlenose Dolphin was seen swimming in the harbour, some members then had lunch at the local fish and chip shop. For such a short trip we were all happy with the species we observered. regards Terrill ===============================
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 ===============================
