Participants:
Allan Benson, Ruth Brozek, Chris Darby,
Michael Duffy, Chris Escott, Andi Magnussen, Chris Sanderson, Peter Vaughan and
Paul Brooks (Inala guide and report compiler)
Boat:
The Pauletta, skippered by John Males, with
deckhand Hugh Smith.
Notes:
This was an action-packed trip, with good numbers of birds
all day and high diversity of species.
We recorded 7 taxa of albatross before we’d even reached the shelf-break
and many of these birds followed the boat until we stopped in deeper water and
stuck with us throughout the day. The
highlight was a Blue Petrel, a first October record for Eaglehawk pelagics,
that provided extremely close views as it fed in the slick right at the stern,
even following us right back in to around 55 fathoms as we headed for
home. Many other birds followed us a
considerable distance inshore as well; it was an unusual sight to see
Wandering, Gibson’s, Southern Royal and Northern Royal in the wake within thirty
minutes of reaching port. We had two
other birds which were first October records for Eaglehawk: a rather brief
showing of a young Light-mantled Albatross and a very early Mottled Petrel
which shot past in typical fashion.
Activity:
Left port at 0710 hrs and headed east to the
shelf-break, pulling up over 130 fathoms. We were drifting rapidly back into
the shelf so, after motoring back to our starting point the first time, we went
further out, to 250 fathoms, the second time.
We began to drift a little slower and more southerly from ~1100 hrs and
stayed on this drift until heading straight back to port at 1245 hrs, with a
stop over 65 fathoms for a Brown Skua, docking at 1445 hrs.
Conditions:
It was mainly cloudy with rain threatening in
Pirates Bay before we set out. Past the
heads, the 20-25 knot north-easterly was kicking seas up to 2 m in tight sets
and it was a bumpy, wet ride to the shelf.
Out wide, the wind was more like 15-20 knots with some stronger gusts,
but the waves were more widely spaced.
The sun began to break through the clouds and even though land was
obscured by cloud and a couple of squalls passed inside of us, we had no rain. Water temperature was 12.7 deg C inshore, rising
to 13.5 deg C out wide. One case of
seasickness was immediately cured when the call of “Light-mantled Sooty!” went
up.
Sharks: 1 A Shortfin Mako of around 4—5
feet cruised under the wanderers gathered behind the boat for over 10 minutes,
giving a couple of birds a bit of a bump.
Birds (IOC v 8.1 – max at one time in
brackets):
Wilson’s Storm Petrel: 17 (17) All pelagic
apart from 1 bird just inside the shelf-break.
Grey-backed Storm Petrel: 1 Pelagic.
White-faced Storm Petrel: 2 (2) Pelagic.
Wandering Albatross: 13 (12) 1 immature
offshore in the morning; 2 adult, including one very white bird, 9 immature and
1 juvenile in pelagic water. May have
been undercounted, there were several similar birds.
Antipodean Albatross: 8 (4) 1 adult male antipodensis offshore in the morning; 1
adult male gibsoni offshore in the
morning; 6 gibsoni pelagic (4 adult
males, 2 other).
Southern Royal Albatross: 8 (4) 2 juveniles,
2 young immatures and 2 older immatures and 2 adults in pelagic waters.
NORTHERN ROYAL ALBATROSS: 2 (1) An adult
and an immature in pelagic water; both birds gave excellent views and one
followed us back well onto the shelf.
Royal Albatross sp.: 1 A distant bird with
all dark upperwings seen offshore in the morning.
LIGHT-MANTLED ALBATROSS: 1 A young bird in
pelagic water; approached to about 100 m before turning and heading the other
way.
Black-browed Albatross: 2 (2) An adult and
an immature in pelagic water.
Campbell Albatross: 14 (10) 3 immatures and
1 adult offshore in the morning; 7 immatures and 3 adults in pelagic water.
Shy Albatross: c. 50 (24) 3 inshore in the
morning; 19 offshore in the morning; remainder pelagic. Mainly adults with a couple of immature birds
and 3 juveniles.
SALVIN’S ALBATROSS: 1 An adult gave close
and extended views in pelagic water.
Buller’s Albatross: 4 (3) 1 offshore in the
morning; 3 pelagic. One bird had an odd white
mantle and neck on one side of the body.
Southern Giant Petrel: 1 immature in
pelagic water.
Northern Giant Petrel: 5 (4) 5 immatures in
pelagic water.
Cape Petrel: 9 (6) 3 offshore in the
morning; 6 pelagic. All capense.
BLUE PETREL: 1 A very showy bird fed
voraciously in the slick and stayed with the boat for a long period, eventually
following us all the way in to ~55 fathoms.
Fairy Prion: c. 50 (6) 19 inshore in the
morning; 15 offshore in the morning; c. 15 pelagic.
Great-winged Petrel: 1 offshore (over 57
fathoms) in the afternoon.
WHITE-HEADED PETREL: 5 (1) 4 pelagic; 1
offshore in the afternoon. A couple of
birds gave good views but none hung around for long.
Grey-faced Petrel: 7 (1) 2 offshore in the
morning; 5 pelagic.
MOTTLED PETREL: 1 Seen well but briefly as
it shot past the stern and starboard side.
A very early record – first October record for Eaglehawk pelagics.
White-chinned Petrel: 10 (7) 3 offshore in
the morning; 7 pelagic.
Procellaria sp. 1 A bird with dark ungues passed the boat on our way out to the
shelf. Unfortunately, we didn’t get a
great look as we were being tossed about and the bird didn’t hang around.
Short-tailed Shearwater: c. 1,700 (c. 700) c.
1,200 inshore in the morning; c. 300 offshore in the morning; c. 200 pelagic.
Common Diving Petrel: 1 A single bird seen
by one observer offshore in the afternoon.
Australasian Gannet: 11 (1) 9 inshore in
the morning; 1 offshore in the morning; 1 pelagic.
Silver Gull: 9 (3) 9 inshore in the morning.
Pacific Gull: 1 adult inshore in the
morning.
Kelp Gull: c. 70 (c. 30) c. 70 inshore in
the morning; 3 offshore in the morning.
Greater Crested Tern: 13 (5) 2 inshore in
the morning; 1 offshore in the morning; 10 pelagic.
Brown Skua: 1 A bird sighted offshore in
the afternoon over just 65 fathoms.
Passed the port side but turned to check us out briefly before heading
further out to sea.
PB
