Sunday, November 19, 2006

Southport Pelagic and More

had the final pelagic of the trip off Southport (near brisbane) yesterday. The trip started off well with a near adult Maked Booby, only the 2nd recorded on these trips, which was an excellent unexpected lifer, the rest of the trip was pretty dull with waves up to 5m making birding difficult and the only other good bird was a pom skua that came in close on the slick. Other birds seen were Fleshy footed, Short tailed, Huttons and Wedge Tailed Shearwaters and a few wilsons petrels. Also seen were a few small pods of Offshore Bottlenose Doplhins (as opposed to Onshore Bottlenose Dolphins?) Pantropical Spotted Dolphins which were a nice cetacean tick There was no more excitement until the boat nearedland on the steam back and we caught the side of a huge wave that came pant soilingly close to tipping the boat wave.
The days before the trip were spent on Bribie Island which produced some nice waders in Greater and Lesser Sand Plover, Terek Sandpiper and Beach Stone Curlew, and Wandering Tattler and Sooty Oystercatcher just up the coast at Caloundra.
I'm heading off tomorrow on a 10 day trip to North Queensland with Duncan and Mish which should produce some good birding, then after that its down to South Australia and Victoria for the rest of the year.

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