SEAWATCHING!!! 22nd and 23rd June

Saturday 22nd June 2013

I headed out to Mistral Point, Maroubra in the hope of seeing some of the crazy influx of southern seabirds. I was not disappointed. I arrived at about 10 o'clock and braved it through the rain into a small rock overhang that sheltered me from the rain and provided me with a view of the water. A couple of Humpbacked Whales breached and puffed distantly, over the day I counted 7 individual whales, but I am sure there were more. Australasian Gannets and Silver Gulls were the most numerous birds throughout the day.

Poor shot - Australasian Gannet

A couple of Black Browed Albatross were amongst a feeding frenzy of the gulls and gannets miles out to see and I couldn't identify them down to species level - defaulted as melanophris Black Brows. A White Fronted Tern came in close proiding great views (a lifer!) and started feeding about 50m out, before eventualy moving on. A tight flock of around 15 Fluttering Type Shearwaters zipped past and slowly these flocks increased in size, all of them heading south all around 100-200m out, some very distant flocks kilometres out.

Fluttering-type Shearwaters

Slowly these flocks disappeared and the water was quiet. Then a seal popped up! Being lazy as all seals do, it stuck its fin in the air and lay on its back, submerging briefly with every wave. I didn't get to work out if it was a sea lion or seal, but I'd prefer it to be a seal, so a seal it was! A few Black Browed Albatross came in closer which allowed the option for better inspection to try find a Campbell's amongst them. The two came in close and immediately the trailing one caught my attention as it seemed generally darker on the underwing. The bird just kept coming closer. It must have only been 50m away by the time it was level with me, and through the binoculars I could make out what appeared to be a pale eye! I fired off the camera and zoomed in on the images. My first Campbell Island Albatross!!!

Distant Campbell Island Albatross!!!

Noisy, pixelated but a clearly white eyed and dark axillaried Campbell Island Albatross!!!!!

The day progressed with a nice view of an adult Kelp Gull passing right by me about five minutes after my excitement over this new albatross. After the gull has disappeared, things quietened down, a few Black Browed Albatross and Fluttering-type Shearwaters passing, occasionally in quite close, the shearwaters not close enough to photograph and identify. A seal or sea lion briefly surfaced a little way out making a nice change in fauna and a little later a pod of six Inshore Bottlenosed Dolphins came past.

Two of the six dolphins

Two of the six dolphins a frame later

The next round of excitement came at around quarter to 11 as a group of 10 Fairy Prion flew by, heading north against the Fluttering-types. These too were a new bird for me, but sadly they didn't stick around for long! This flock of 10 slowly turned into a steady stream, the further out I looked, the more glimpses of a slight grey/blue bird flying low on the water I saw! I would estimate there would have been a couple of hundred out there, sadly none would come in close enough for a photograph, much unlike the recent report of them 'in the surf'!

At around 11 I was joined in my little cave by Graham Buchan who I had met a few months ago who, along with David Mitford and Ray Gobbe pointed out numerous shearwaters, albatross, petrel (white necked!) and jaeger to me. Not only this, but all of them allowed me to use their scopes to view. True to form Graham had a scope - YES!!! He had also brought his plastic milk crate and cushion to make seawatching as comfy as possible. He set up, sat down, pulled up his binos and cried 'Diving Petrel!!!'
I scoured the sea with my binos but just could not find it! I suppose this is what birding is though, you may have camped out for ages looking for something, and someone else will turn up and the bird will appear straight away. Normally however, you see the damned bird! Not to be, and my frustration continued. He quickly found another Campbell Island Albatross and showed me the ways to pick them, without seeing the white eye, which essentially entailed a study of their armpits (axillaries)! Dark armpits - Campbell, Light armpits - Melanophris Black Browed Albatross. A few normal Black Brows decided to make their presence felt, coming right in close, sometimes I could have sworn they were the ones studying us!

A reasonably friendly Melanophris Black Browed Albatross

Graham allowed me to view these birds through the scope, although whenever an albatross came past that he couldn't identify immediately, he took over as his target for the day was a Buller's Albatross, a few of which had been seen at close quarters in the past few days. He found some Great Skua out far, which I could only just make out and so decided not to tick them. The day progressed and a few more Black Browed Albatross were seen some in close, some out far, a couple of Fluttering-type Shearwaters, one close in Fairy Prion and the usual suspects - Silver Gull, Crested Tern, Australasian Gannet and a very friendly Willy Wagtail all showing nicely. I called it quits, as did Graham and I headed back to the car. I detoured however as I found a very soggy looking Nankeen Kestrel sitting on an electricity pole and took a few shots. I greatly thanked Graham for pointing out many aspects of the birds that I had not previously known and also for allowing me to use his scope!
I was off to an orchestra rehearsal and that was the day!

Thanks very much dad for driving me out there in the wet!

Species Count at Mistral Point - 22nd June : 28 (Lifers - 3)

Sunday 23rd June

After much pestering of parents, much maths homework and a nice spanish hot chocolate, my dad agreed to take me out to Mistral Point, Maroubra, AGAIN! My aim was to see one of the many Common Diving Petrels that had been reported in the last while, and that I had narrowly missed seeing yesterday with Graham. When I arrived, I noticed a man standing near the toilet block with a scope peering out to sea. I had a brief look in my cave and seeing noone there I decided to go check out this birder!
He turned out to be Ted Nixon, who I had seen a few reports by from Greenwich, Sydney on Birdline NSW. After introducing myself, we set about birding! The first bird I noticed which was out of the ordinary, was a small white tern, with a black cap and dark bill. This White Fronted Tern was fishing just in front of us, providing great views!

White Fronted Tern

A couple of Melanophris Black Brows came past, mostly at a distance, one coming in very close, they are just amazing bird to watch. Ted kindly offered me a go at the scope - SCORE!!! - and I quickly took up the opportunity. As I put my eye to the eyepiece and took my first look through the scope, a small lightly undersided bird with dark on top zipped through. I followed it with the scope and deduced it was smaller than the Fluttering-type Shearwaters the passed this bird going in the opposite direction. This bird was also flying totally differently. It would not stop flapping and was getting up great speed. COMMON DIVING-PETREL!!!!! In my excitement I knocked the scope and temporarily lost the bird, but I eventually relocated it and after a little more of a look, from whick I could note a small stubby build, rounded, squat wings and a generally heavy feel to the bird, I passed the scope over to Ted, who despite his best efforts, could not locate it! Sadly I couldn't photograph the bird, once I moved away from the scope, I couldn't even relocate it through my binoculars let alone find it through the camera.

One of the closer in Black Browed Albatross

A group of around 15 Inshore Bottlenosed Dolphin passed through which provided much enjoyment for us and the other whale watchers around, although the whales stayed quite distant, only a few puffs along the horizon. A distant darkly coloured Giant Petrel put in a brief performance along the horizon that I could view through the scope, but it kept well away which meant I couldn't identify it as Southern or Northern. Rain started to set it, so we all headed for my favourite cave, which proved to be a very good idea indeed. Once we arrived, we reset the scope and made sure it was out of the rain before resuming the seawatch. A couple of young Gannets provided a bit of excitement as they plunged into the water in a most uncoordinated way, unlike their more majestic parents further out.
A small grey/blue topped bird suddenly appeared on a wave no more than 30m out from the headland. My dad stated that that was what he had been watching a little earlier, but they were too far out for him to work out what they were. Fairy Prions!!! These were the views we were after, no more than 30m out, and from land, this was as good as I was going to get for a while as I am good at being very busy whenever pelagics are scheduled for. The birds were feeding right in front of us, alighting in the water, sometimes even diving under, sometimes walking on the water, not unlike storm petrels do. They were spectacular to watch, numbering in their hundreds the further out I looked, and although I did want some good photos, I decided it was far more worthwhile enjoying the moment, watching through the scope and through the binos and just bare eyed.

A bit noisy, I thought this prion's bill was a bit thicker than the norm

Same Prion

Prion feeding

Prion dive

A frame later

And a frame later

As you can see, I got a little carried away with the prions. We watched them for half an hour or so and for not one moment of the half hour did I get in the slightest bit bored as every time I saw one it woulddo something different. They would dive sometimes totally underwater, they would walk on the water, they would surf along the waves as the crashed, sometimes doubling back against the waves with such speed it was just incredible to watch. I could write about this for hours, but it is my bed time now, so I will stop!
If Ted ever reads this, thank you so much for the use of your scope and thank you very much Dad for again taking me out in the rain. Which reminds me, a shot of some prions in the rain to demonstrate the weather:

Two Prions in the rain, you should be able to make out the rain in this, it was pelting down!!!

Thanks Dad, Graham, Ted, the birds and the mammals!!!

Thanks for reading, I'll stop now otherwise Julian will accuse me of rubbing it in because I live on the coast and he is stuck inland... goodnight and thank you for reading!

Species Count overall: 29 (Lifers - 4; Common Diving Petrel, Fairy Prion, Campbell Island Albatross, White Fronted Tern)

Unidentified:
Giant Petrel sp.
Fluttering-type Shearwaters

Mammals:
Australian Fur Seal or Sea Lion
Humpbacked Whale
Inshore Bottlenosed Dolphin