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| Tahiti Petrel |
We departed at 6.35am on January 19,
2020 from the new Sunshine
Coast Afloat dock on the Mooloolah River, exiting the river mouth
20 minutes later. A mild northerly wind of 10-12 knots was blowing
but we were up against a pretty rough 1-2m swell as we headed east
due to unsettled weather offshore in recent days. We saw little on
the way out other than an unidentified jaeger and a smattering of
Wedge-tailed Shearwaters and Crested Terns.
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| Crested Tern |
This was the first BirdLife Australia
Sunshine Coast outing for the year so quite a few on board were new
to the joys of pelagic birding. After crossing the shelf we stopped
at 9.25am 36 nautical miles offshore in 500m (26.3639S, 153.4472E)
and began laying a trail of burley. We soon had a fine slick behind
the boat but birds did not appear to be hungry. We'd seen a couple of
Tahiti Petrels just before the shelf and they proved to the most
common bird out wide, with as many as five at once around the boat.
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| Tahiti Petrel |
Later in the morning a single
Red-tailed Tropicbird was seen distantly; the poor images we managed led us to believe this bird initially was a White Tern. We also saw a handful of Sooty Terns out wide.
 |
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| Sooty Tern |
A Brown Booby, normally a species we see closer
in, put in an appearance. Another was seen later perched on a trawler. A
Risso's Dolphin was the only cetacean of the day. Birds and mammals aside, a Convolvulus Hawk-moth made a highly unusal appearance, loanding on the boat before succumbing to the elements.
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| Brown Booby |
Wedge-tailed Shearwaters and
Crested Terns were about but in small numbers; we saw many more on
the way back.
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| Wedge-tailed Shearwater |
The wind freshened up to 12-15
knots late-morning but unfortunately it
was from the wrong direction – north.
It dropped off sharply around lunchtime and with little around we
pulled up stumps at 12.30pm to try our luck further in. A few
nautical miles to the west
of our last drifting point
we had a distant pair of Lesser Frigatebirds. Then much further in,
about 15nm offshore, a fine Masked Booby offered good views to all.
We arrived back at the berth at 3.45pm. So
notwithstanding the wind direction, a good day all round.
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| Masked Booby |
OBSERVERS: Greg Roberts
(organiser and leader), Eric
Anderson, Tyde Bands, Luke Bennett, Judith Coles, Patrick Colley,
Michael Dawson, Jan England, Hans Erken, Alex Ferguson, Richard
Fuller, Brian Gatfield, Marie Gittins, Nikolas Haass, Merri
Kuerschner, Helen Leonard, James Martin, Gillie Matthew, Maggie
Overend, Karen Rose, Jamie Walker, Paul Zellerer.
SPECIES (Maximum at one time)
Tahiti Petrel 30 (5)
Wedge-tailed Shearwater 120 (15)
Brown Booby 2 (1)
Masked Booby 1
Lesser Frigatebird 2 (2)
Crested Tern 80 (10)
Little Tern 2 (1)
Common Tern 2 (1)
Sooty Tern 3 (2)
White Tern 1
Risso's Dolphin (1)
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