A number of Great Shearwaters were seen off Portland on Sunday 3rd April on the monthly BOCA pelagic. A full report will be coming out soon but I thought it worth alerting the birding community. Possibly 8 individuals were seen and up to 6 at one time. They approached and settled when burlying. The first bird was seen a few km south of Lawrence Rocks and the main group out at the continental shelf edge. Anecdotal evidence from the skipper is that similar birds have been seen recently just off Lawrence Rocks.
Mark Stanley +61 439 025 774 ===============================
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Comments
3 responses to “Great Shearwaters off Portland, Victoria”
Hi Sav, I understand there are only about 10 Australian records and just 3 Victorian ones so a pattern of significant influx of this species might be occurring. Given the recent European Storm-Petrel offshore Tasmania, it could be worth seawatchers keeping an eye out for other Atlantic species. So it’s very interesting to hear of Trans Tasman reports.
Mark Sent via BlackBerry® from Telstra
Perhaps it would be worth conducting an extra pelagic from Port MacDonnell? I do know that the next trip from there is scheduled for the 1st May but it is fully booked. Would anyone be interested in a trip on Sunday 17th April?
If so please contact me directly. In the mean time I will attempt to get some more information. If enough people are interested it would clearly be worth the effort.
Regards, Tony
Hi Mark,
Very interesting indeed! Although it is quite a long way from Portland, I had a Great Shearwater off Kaikoura (East coast of South Island NZ) on Friday 1 April, and it (or, in light of your report , maybe another) was seen again on Sunday 3 April. There are only 4 accepted records of Great Shearwater for New Zealand.
Sav Saville
Wrybill Birding Tours,NZ
“Great Birds, Real Birders”
http://www.wrybill-tours.com
sav@wrybill-tours.com
+64 27 680 3740
[mailto:birding-aus-bounces@lists.vicnet.net.au] On Behalf Of Mark Stanley Sent: Monday, 4 April 2011 7:52 p.m. Cc: Peter Lansley
A number of Great Shearwaters were seen off Portland on Sunday 3rd April on the monthly BOCA pelagic. A full report will be coming out soon but I thought it worth alerting the birding community. Possibly 8 individuals were seen and up to 6 at one time. They approached and settled when burlying. The first bird was seen a few km south of Lawrence Rocks and the main group out at the continental shelf edge. Anecdotal evidence from the skipper is that similar birds have been seen recently just off Lawrence Rocks.
Mark Stanley +61 439 025 774 ===============================
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