Southport Pelagic

For those doing a Big Year, or similar, report your progress here.

Moderator: Mick Atzeni

Post Reply
gileas
Posts: 81
Joined: Mon Jan 18, 2010 10:31 pm
Location: Brisbane, QLD
Contact:

Southport Pelagic

Post by gileas »

Hi all. Continuing on from the Locker visit, Saturday was my second Southport Pelagic of the year. I missed a great trip in April, and was hoping to make up for it this month with a good haul of winter species. I wasn't disappointed.

The day started well with identifiable views of Fluttering Shearwater and Fairy Prion early on. From that great early start things slowed down til we reached the shelf. Straight away we started seeing Providence Petrels all around us. These turned out to be easily the most common pelagic species on the day. A few Humpback Whales and Bottlenose Dolphins did help make the trip out a bit less boring, plus a Marlin came half out of the water chasing some fish, which was pretty exciting (not sure if it was a blue or black one, but it was still great).

Once we started chumming, it took a while for things to catch onto our trail, but once they did, things got pretty interesting. Providence Petrels were there in number, and we got onto some more Fairy Prions. Soon we had our first Storm-petrels coming in - first a Wilson's, then a Black-bellied that for a minute had us thinking possible White-bellied. Photographs showed a very faint black smear on the belly, plus the projecting feet were a dead give-away.

In the distance we picked up an Albatross loafing around in the slick. When it failed to come close enough for ID, we headed over to it. Fortunately it stayed sitting on the water and allowed us to get quite close. It was a Black-browed Albatross, one I needed for the year and a great bird for QLD waters.

The day had two more surprises in store for us - a Yellow-nosed Albatross (though given recent sightings at Pt Lookout, not that surprising), and my personal bird of the day, a mongrel-looking immature Masked Booby. It was so weird I nearly wrote it off as a Gannet until Rob Morris queried the ID. And thank goodness he did!

All up the day delivered 7 new species for my year list, with an extra 3 from the Lockyer Valley/Daisy Hill the day before bringing me to a total of 330 for the year. Only 20 to go to reach my goal of 350 - I'm so close I can taste it!

Regards,
Chris
Post Reply

Return to “Solo efforts”