Eaglehawk Pelagic Trip Report – January 6th,
2019
Participants:
Ruth Brozek, Helen Cunningham, Sara Grealy,
Rob Hamilton, Mona Loofs-Samorzewski, Andi Magnussen, Paul Newman, Peter
Vaughan, Els Wakefield and Paul Brooks (organiser and report compiler)
Boat:
The Pauletta, skippered by John Males, with
deckhand Michael Males.
Notes:
A reasonable trip for diversity and numbers
with a couple of good sightings. A
Wedge-tailed Shearwater was a very good record for Eaglehawk and a
Soft-plumaged Petrel over 70 fathoms in the afternoon was interesting, but only
seen by a one observer. It was our only Pterodroma petrel for the day. We had good numbers of storm petrel in the
slick and were challenged with good numbers of jaegers; all that were
seen/photographed well enough turned out to be Parasitic.
Activity:
Left port at 0710 hrs and headed down to the
Hippolytes, checking the gannetries there before heading south-east past the
shelf-break, pulling up over 270 fathoms at 0915 hrs, drifting NW to 350
fathoms by 1255 hrs. Headed straight
back to port, docking at 1505 hrs.
Conditions:
It was partly cloudy and cool when we set out,
with a light breeze and a 1.5 m swell. After
we passed the Hippolytes, the south-westerly breeze picked up to 10-15 kn and
the swell rose to 2 m with seas of 1 m.
Conditions were similar out wide until ~ 1100 hrs, when the wind dropped
back to ~5 kn, the sea flattened, and skies cleared for the remainder of the
day. Water temperature was 17.4 deg C inshore,
rising to 18.9 deg C out wide. None seasick.
Mammals:
Brown/Long-nosed Fur Seal: 53 (34) On and
around Cheverton Rock and the Hippolytes in the morning.
Short-beaked Common Dolphin: c. 35 (5) A
few inshore in the morning, remainder offshore in the morning.
Fish:
Shortfin Mako Shark: 3 (2) Pelagic.
Blue Shark: 1 Pelagic.
Tuna sp.: 2 A couple of fish leapt from the
water near the boat in pelagic water – probably Southern Bluefin Tuna.
Insects:
Yellow Striped Hunter (Austrogomphus guerini): Flew over the back of the boat for a minute
or two in offshore water as we motored back to port (55 f).
Birds (IOC v 8.1 – max at one time in
brackets):
Little Penguin: 3 (3) Offshore in the
morning.
Wilson’s Storm Petrel: 3 (3) Pelagic.
White-faced Storm Petrel: 6 (6) Pelagic.
Grey-backed Storm Petrel: 16 (16) Pelagic.
Antipodean Albatross: 1 Adult male Gibson’s
Albatross in pelagic water.
Southern Royal Albatross: 3 (1) Immatures in
pelagic water.
Campbell Albatross: 1 An adult in pelagic water.
Shy Albatross: c. 40 (16) 10 inshore in the morning; 10
offshore in the morning; remainder pelagic.
Indian Yellow-nosed Albatross: 1 An
immature in pelagic water.
Buller’s Albatross: 2 (1) Pelagic.
Northern Giant Petrel: 2 (1) An immature on
the water next to the Hippolyte in the morning and an immature in pelagic
water.
Fairy Prion: 6 (5) 1 offshore in the
morning, remainder pelagic.
SOFT-PLUMAGED PETREL: 1 Seen offshore in
the afternoon by one observer (~70 f).
White-chinned Petrel: 9 (9) Pelagic.
WEDGE-TAILED SHEARWATER: 1 A bird was seen
by one observer just prior to reaching the shelf-break; either this, or a
second bird, made one close pass after we stopped to berley. Still a very rare bird in Tasmania, but there
have now been records off Eaglehawk every Jan/Feb since 2016.
Sooty Shearwater: 5 (2) Pelagic.
Short-tailed Shearwater: c. 9,900 (c. 1,000)
c. 2,400 offshore in the morning; remainder pelagic. Several thousand birds streamed by in the
distance for much of the afternoon – estimated at 200 birds per five minutes;
also big flocks passing the boat as we headed back to shore.
Fluttering Shearwater: 2 (1) Pelagic.
Hutton’s Shearwater: 3 (1) Pelagic.
‘Flutton’s’ Shearwater: 8 (2) 3 offshore in
the morning; 5 pelagic.
Common Diving Petrel: 4 (1) 2 offshore in
the morning; 2 pelagic.
Black-faced Cormorant: c. 700 (c. 500)
Inshore and on the Hippolytes in the morning.
Australasian Gannet: c. 100 (c. 30) c. 100
inshore in the morning, mainly at breeding colonies on the Hippolytes; 1 offshore
in the morning; 1 pelagic.
Silver Gull: c. 45 (c. 20) c. 40 inshore
and around the Hippolytes in the morning; 3 offshore in the morning; 2 pelagic.
Pacific Gull: 1 on Cheverton Rock in the morning.
Kelp Gull: c. 130 (c. 80) c. 130 inshore and
on the Hippolytes in the morning; 2 offshore in the morning.
Greater Crested Tern: 77 (7) 36 inshore and
around the Hippolytes in the morning; 32 offshore in the morning; 9 pelagic.
Parasitic Jaeger: 6 (2) 1 offshore in the
morning; remainder pelagic.
Jaeger sp.: 3 (1) 1 offshore in the
morning; 2 pelagic.
Tree Martin: 2 (2) Flying around cliffs
outside Pirates Bay in the morning.
PB
