Hi all, Several decent cold fronts clipped SW WA over the weekend and into this week, prompting me to head south for some seawatching around the capes on Monday arvo and this morning (Tues), with Dan Mantle providing a willing accomplice. There were no unexpected species, but the main highlight was good numbers of Soft-plumaged Petrels, including a few very close (for a seawatch) views at Cape Naturaliste on Monday arvo. We had decent variety on Monday at Cape Naturaliste and good views of all species. This morning was disappointing with not much action and what action there was being distant, though in hindsight we spent too much time driving between sites (it took longer than expected to get from Cape Leeuwin to Cape Naturaliste). Might’ve been better to start at Cape Naturaliste or stay at Cape Leeuwin all day. Conditions on Monday arvo were 20-25knt W’lies at Cape Naturaliste, today we had 25-30knt W’lies at Cape Leeuwin (30-35knts on Monday & overnight) & 15-20knt SW’li es at Cape Naturaliste CAPE NATURALISTEMonday arvo – c. 1400-1630Indian Yellow-nosed Albatross (6)Black-browed Albatross (3, all quite young)Shy Albatross (2)Northern Giant-Petrel (3)Giant-Petrel sp. (2)Great-winged Petrel (50+)Soft-plumaged Petrel (30+)At least some of all the species passed very close to shore, excellent views of all of them Tuesday middle of day – c. 1130-1245Indian Yellow-nosed Albatross (3)Shy Albatross (1)Giant-Petrel sp. (1)Soft-plumaged Petrel (1)All distant except one IYN CAPE LEEUWINTuesday morn – 0900-0940Indian Yellow-nosed Albatross (4)Soft-plumaged Petrel (8+)Everything fairly distant though Cheers,John
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