Jackwin 777: Campbells Albatross

Monday, 13 March 2017

Pelagic 04 -- Port Fairy

Last Sunday was another Port Fairy Pelagic. It was a different boat, bigger, faster and more comfortable than my previous voyage last year. The replaced boat came to an unfortunate end. Purchased by a drug syndicate, she didn't get far. Here is the newspaper report. Boat Runs Aground The new boat was a twin diesel V8 beauty. We motored out to the edge of the continental shelf, a distance of approximately 60km in just over 2 hours. There was a bit of a swell and a bit of a breeze. Several camera and lens combinations did protect their owners from becoming wetter! It was an excellent day for birds. Five albatross species [Buller's was new for me], two jaeger species [Arctic and Long-tailed were new for me], Sooty Shearwaters plus dolphins, seals and sharks. I did get sun/wind burnt.

Arctic Jaeger

Long-tailed Jaeger

Shearwater

Crested Tern

Indian Yellow-nosed Albatross

Buller's Albatross

Campbell's Albatross

White-faced Storm-Petrel

Tuesday, 4 October 2016

Pelagic 02 -- Port Fairy

What happened to Pelagic 01 you may ask? I decided my birding experience would not be complete without doing one pelagic cruise looking for those pelagic [of or pertaining to the open seas or oceans] bird species. Albatross immediately spring to mind. So I booked with the SOSSA [Southern Oceans Seabird Study Association Inc] folks on a trip out of Kiama. The Willy Weather app on my phone showed it was going to be a rough day so I took my seasickness medication the night before and then at a very plain and small breakfast prior, left the camera in the car and boarded at 7am with a good degree of trepidation. I had been pretty ill on a fishing trip at Albany many years prior so was not holding high hopes [or hopes high].

Well, it turned out that a 3metre swell at 12 second intervals did not mar a fantastic day, the highlight of which was the capture of a Black-browed Albatross and its subsequent banding. Hence my enthusiasm for further pelagic was fired up.

Pelagic 02 was from Port Fairy on a boat organised by Philip Peel through Birdswing Tours and Neil Macumber. Fifteen of us left port at 7am to return about 3.30pm. We went about 20 kms offshore to the edge of the continental shelf where the upwelling of food-rich water comes to the surface. When you reach this point after 2 to 3 hours of being underway, a deckhand/suitably attired person "baits" the area by throwing handfuls of burley out. This attracts the birds, especially albatrosses, and the birding begins. This particular pelagic had 17 species of birds. Indian Yellow-nosed, Shy, Black-browed, Campbells, Snowy and Gibsons Albatrosses, Northern Giant-petrel, Cape, Great-winged, White-chinned and Blue Petrels, Fairy Prion, Wilsons and Grey-backed Storm-petrel, White-Fronted and Arctic Tern and an Australian Gannet.

Here are the images. Most of the birds get to within a few metres of the boat, some stay a away a little and a few species stay well away. A big lens can get in the way!