Australia (Sydney)

Sep. 11, 2016 Sydney pelagic

We joined Sydney pelagic ( by SOSSA Inc. ).

We planed to join the pelagic trip at Sep. 10th at first, but it was delayed until 11th because of bad sea condition.
The weather and sea condition were very good on that day.
We departed from Rose Bay around 7:00 am.

In the shore, Fluttering and Hutton’s Shearwater fluttered !! But their ID were difficult for me …. As soon as we were on the open water, we could see a large number of Wedge-tailed shearwaters. Moreover, they were all dark phase !! ( In Japan, dark phase is rare except around Okinawa. ) After that, our boat was stopped and the chumming session was started. Black-browed Albatross, Indian Yellow-nosed Albatross and Buller’s Albatross were coming near the boat. They had vivid and beautiful colorful colors ! Wandering Albatross ( gibson ) came from the distance and landed close to the boat. We were moved !! The Albatross was large, long, heavy-built, cool and cute 🙂 White-faced Storm-Petrel and Willson’s Storm-Petrel were coming near the boat too. Storm-Petrels were dancing on the surface of water around the boat ! ( Willson’s Storm-petrels are observed in the pacific side of Japan.) We encountered a Giant Petrel and a Brown Skua on our way back to Rose Bay. It was a wonderful bonus. I love Giant Petrel very much and I felt very happy 🙂 !!

For details of this pelagic trip, please see below web site.
(11 September 2016 Report by Sydney Pelagics & Nature Watching Tours)

Australia (Southport)

Nov 21, 2015 Southport Pelagic Trip

06:00-16:10
Fine
Wave height : 1.5-2.0m
Wind condition : 8-10m (from the north-northeast)

I joined the pelagic trip by Mr. Paul Walbridge. I wanted to see Tahiti Petrel, because Tahiti Petrel which has mixed-karma of gadfly-petrels and shearwaters is a very attractive species for me. So, I joined this pelagic, because off Southport is famous place where Tahiti Petrel is seen in regularly. It was exciting that I could observe 16 Tahiti Petrels. In addition, I could observe many ‘dark morph’ Wedge-tailed Shearwaters.

Bird List

  • Wedge-tailed Shearwater
  • Short-tailed Shearwater
  • Tahiti Petrel
  • Wilson’s Storm-petrel
  • Brown Booby
  • Little Pied Cormorant
  • Pomarine Jaeger
  • Sooty Tern
  • Common Tern Tern
  • Little Tern
  • Crested Tern
  • Silver Gull