26 January 2023 Report
OVERVIEW
27C, some cloud cover. Wind: Weaker than forecast. Barely reaching 15 knots later in the day. Sea surface temps: 24.5C. 1m seas. As we approached the shelf - some 0.5 NM to the west - we encountered a mixed pod of Spotted and Spinner dolphins creating a lot of excitement amongst us. We followed more pods as the birds appeared to be following the pods of cetaceans. This put us ~0.5NM south of the sea mount where we set up our first drift at 11am. Surprisingly, we drifted at 3 knots/hr to the SSE taking us probably the furtherest distance from the seamount we've ever achieved while drifting. We managed something like a >12km drift.
Excellent and prolonged views of both White-faced and Wilson's Storm-Petrels. Common dolphins, Common bottlenose, Spotted dolphins and Spinner dolphins were seen. All interacted with the boat coming into the bow to ride the waves. Mixed pods of Spotted and Spinner then Spotted and Common bottlenose. The sea birds were concentrating around the pods of feeding dolphins.
BIRD LIST
(Note that the numbers in parentheses represent the approximate maximum number of that species in view at one time)
Wilson's Storm Petrel | 12 | |
White-faced Storm Petrel | 9 | |
Grey-faced Petrel | 5 | |
Wedge-tailed Shearwater | 300 | |
Flesh-footed Shearwater | 20 | |
Short-tailed Shearwater | 60 | |
Fluttering Shearwater | 1 | |
Hutton's Shearwater | 1 | |
Fluttering-type Shearwaters | 4 | |
Pomarine Jaeger | 2 | |
Long-tailed Jaeger | 1 | (1) |
Arctic Jaeger | 1 | (1) |
Silver Gull | 70 | |
Sooty Tern | 1 | |
White Tern | 1 | |
Greater Crested Tern | 7 |
OTHER
Oceanic Bottlenose Dolphin | |
Common Dolphin | |
Spotted Dolphin | |
Spinner Dolphin |
The next Sydney pelagic trip is scheduled for Saturday 25th October 2023 departing from Mosman at 6.45am and Rose Bay at 7.00am.
All information on our trips including dates and contact details can be found on the website at sydneypelagics.info
Book at contact@sydneypelagics.info
You can also find us on Facebook and post photos at https://www.facebook.com/sydneypelagics
(Photographs Meysam Makvandi, Dave Irving, Martin Allen, Adam G and Greg McLachlan).
Martin Allen
Meysam Makvandi
Meysam Makvandi
Adam G
Dave Irving
Dave Irving
Dave Irving
Dave Irving
Dave Irving
Dave Irving
Dave Irving
Dave Irving
Greg McLachlan