BirdLife Victoria – Portland Pelagic, Victoria, 14 June 2015

I am re-posting this trip report because it did not make it successfully into the Birding-Aus Archives. Given our observations, I think it should be available in the Archives. This report has been amended slightly from the original posting to reflect the further analysis of our tern photos. BirdLife Victoria Pelagic off Portland, Victoria, 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 at 7.00 and headed southwest to the shelf. Went straight past the shelf to our first stop at 38 degrees 41.828 minutes S, 141 degrees 17.303 minutes E in 106 fathoms of water where we stayed from 9.40 until 11.40. We moved to the southeast to 38 45.269 S, 141 24.417 E in 240 fathoms and stayed there from 12.10 until 13.20 noon. 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 northeast 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 groups on the way in. Australian Fur Seal: the normal number (around 30) loafing at Lawrence Rocks. Birds: (Total number of birds with the maximum seen at one time in brackets) Wilson’s Storm-Petrel: 3 (1). Pelagic. Grey-backed Storm-Petrel: 10 (2). Pelagic. Black-browed Albatross: 15 (6). Mostly melanophrys but 2 impavada. Pelagic with a few inshore. Shy Albatross: 30 (15). All nominate except one SALVIN’S ALBATROSS. Pelagic with a few inshore. Yellow-nosed Albatross: 1. Pelagic. Northern Giant-Petrel: 2 (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: about 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): Up to 5 (1). See below. ANTARCTIC TERN: At least 3 (3). Commic 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. 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. From our observations and photos, we had three Antarctics in the first lot of four (two juveniles and a second year bird) and one (the same second year bird as the one in the first flock) in the second lot, with one definite WFT in the second lot. 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). All the close single terns were WFTs. We saw a couple of distant WFTs in transit and a brief view of perhaps a different Antarctic at the second stop. So, in summary, we saw a minimum of 3 Antarctics. (This section has been amended after further review of our photos.) 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 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/