Hi all,
Here is the latest update to the report:
Sydney pelagic, 12 June, 2010
Weather conditions: Wind SW, swell S; Water temp off shelf 18.4 deg C. Shelf position about 6NM north of the sea mount
1. Wilson’s Storm-Petrel: 1 (over the slick at the shelf) 2. White-faced Storm-Petrel: 1 (over the slick at the shelf; [seen only by one observer]) 3. Gibson’s (Wandering) Albatross: 1 4. Black-browed Albatross: common 5. Campbell (Black-browed) Albatross: common 6. Shy/White-capped Albatross: present 7. Indian Yellow-nosed Albatross: present 8. Buller’s Albatross: 2+ 9. Northern Giant-Petrel: 2+ 10. Cape Petrel (New Zealand ssp. australe): 2 11. ANTARCTIC PRION: common at the shelf 12. SLENDER-BILLED PRION: present at the shelf 13. Fairy Prion: less common and closer to shore than Antarctic 14. Short-tailed Shearwater: 2 15. Fluttering Shearwater: present 16. Great-winged Petrel (macroptera): 4 17. Providence Petrel: 2 18. Australasian Gannet: present 19. Pied Cormorant: 2 (in the harbour) 20. Brown Skua: 4 21. White-fronted Tern: 1 juv. 22. Crested Tern: present 23. Silver Gull: common
Mammals: 1. Humpback Whale: 2 2. Oceanic Bottlenose Dolphin: 5
Here is the link to some of Raja’s pictures of prions of the 12 June Sydney pelagic. Based on tail pattern, facial pattern, half-collar and M intensity, we tried to identify and to put them into their subfolders accordingly. Bill shape was a difficult task. At least we are quite confident that there were no typical Broad-billed Prions and no typical Fulmar Prions out there. Some of the Antarctic Prions look heavy-billed and therefore may be Salvin’s. Slender-billed Prion indeed is not an easy bird to identify. Therefore there may be some errors in our ID suggestions.The last subfolder “All Prions – chronological” contains all selected pictures again – but un-identified and in chronological order. You may have a look at this folder first and try to get to your own unbiased conclusion. Comments welcome!
http://www.adarman.com/Trips/Prions-ID
Further, there are some more pics of Black-browed, Campbell, Shy/White-capped and Buller’s Albatrosses, Northern Giant, Cape, Great-winged and Providence Petrels and White-fronted Tern. There is an interesting young Shy-type Albatross in the series. Its small size, slender bill and “innocent” face made us first think of young Buller’s.
http://www.adarman.com/Trips/Sydney-June-12-2010/12549996_8MfE9#910904791_KLcuS
Cheers,
Nikolas
—————- Nikolas Haass nhaass@yahoo.com Sydney, NSW
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