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Subject: [Oversea] Seawatching in Sydney, November 2022 [Print This Page]
Author: badesc    Time: 24/11/2022 17:01     Subject: Seawatching in Sydney, November 2022

After having done well over a thousand hours of seawatching from a rock at Po Toi in Hong Kong since April 2021, I thought it might be a good idea to look for other places in the world to do the same. Via Simon Gorta (Twitter: @GortaBirds) I found some remarkably similar places on the Australian east coast, near Sydney, but with a lot more seabirds. And to make things even better, David Mitford and Greg McLachlan have been organizing pelagic birding trips there for years as well (http://www.sydneypelagics.info/).

Gambling that most Covid measures would be reduced or gone by November, I booked the trip back in April, for a week of seawatching in Sydney. Covid measures in Sydney were indeed a thing of the past in November and were also greatly reduced in Hong Kong, the latter being important for making my way back home.

The trip would include the pelagic on 12 November, but just before I was ready to depart for Australia, the event was cancelled due to issues with the boat. By the way, Qantas Airways cancelled my flights in September, but I could re-book via Malaysia Airlines. There were no other pelagics during my stay. I booked a whale watching trip instead, but that was a disappointment for birds (see further).

I booked an Airbnb in Malabar, close to Magic Point, from where I would do most of the seawatching: https://www.airbnb.com/rooms/434 ... -80b7-02e8cc576239.

10 November

After an overnight flight, a super smooth entrance through the airport and a fairly short taxi ride, I arrived in Malabar by lunch time. First things first: enjoying lunch at The Heritage Café, right below my flat.



But, of course, I couldn’t really wait to start seawatching, and headed to the nearest watch point, Boora Point, a 20-minute walk. The point is actually too high and I did not find good shelter for the northerly winds either. Nevertheless, I seawatched for a couple of hours. Nothing special, but over 900 Wedge-tailed Shearwaters was a nice start for me. Like in all other days, you see seabirds off the coast as soon as you look through your scope. There’s an almost constant movement of birds. You basically can see seabirds whole day long.

I’ll mention only oceanic birds and terns. If no numbers are mentioned, then there was no count.

Seabirds:
7 jaegers spec.
911 Wedge-tailed Shearwaters
1 Hutton’s/Fluttering Shearwater
8 Australasian Gannets

Terns:
13 Greater Crested Terns

Checklist on eBird: https://ebird.org/checklist/S122210217

There’s a sizeable supermarket in Malabar, and I used the final hours of the day to unpack further, prepare breakfast and lunch for the next day, and had dinner.

11 November

Next day started with waking up at 04h25, but as there already were seabirds when I arrived at the watch point just before 06h00, I stood up earlier every day to try to be earlier for the seawatch as well.

I headed to Magic Point, a bit further (35-minute walk). This point is lower than Boora Point and has better possibilities for shelter from winds.



This was my first full day, as I seawatched from 05h50 until 16h45. Bird-wise it was okay, but I was struck by the lack of variety. Seabirds were Wedge-tailed Shearwater, Australian Gannet, jaeger spec., Parasitic Jaeger and Pomarine Jaeger.

However, this was not totally abnormal, as November is a good month for Wedge-tailed and also Short-tailed Shearwater, but not a month for a lot of other species. As David told me, February should be better in that regard.

Seabirds:
1 Pomarine Jaeger
8 Parasitic Jaegers
15 jaegers spec.
1,610 Wedge-tailed Shearwaters
18 Australasian Gannets

Terns:
1 Common Tern
46 Greater Crested Terns

Checklist on eBird: https://ebird.org/checklist/S122210335

12 November

So the next day, Saturday, I went on the whale watch tour. Okay, we did see a mother and calf Humpback Whales slowly moving south for a couple of hours, but for seabirds it was a big disappointment. I could not find anything else than only 8 – and mainly distant – Wedge-tailed Shearwaters.



Weather-wise, we would need southerlies for more seabirds, but winds where very light. So I headed back to the Malabar flat that afternoon. We could expect stronger northerly winds on Sunday, westerly winds on Monday, not much wind on Tuesday, but on Wednesday winds would finally come from the south. I was determined to continue seawatching, regardless of the wind anyway.

13 November

And Sunday was already a day with some more variety. I started at Magic Point and watched for about 4 and a half hours. Apart from Wedge-tailed Shearwaters, I counted 343 Short-tailed Shearwaters, 3 Sooty Shearwaters, 113 Hutton’s or Fluttering Shearwaters and 1 Streaked Shearwater. The latter was a good record for November, of a species I know well from Hong Kong. With some experience, I might have been able to ID some Hutton’s or Fluttering Shearwaters, but as that was lacking and most flew too far, I had to leave it at what the locals call ‘Flutton’s’.

Seabirds:
3 jaegers spec.
1 Streaked Shearwater
1,403 Wedge-tailed Shearwaters
3 Sooty Shearwaters
343 Short-tailed Shearwaters
4 Sooty/Short-tailed Shearwaters
113 Hutton’s/Fluttering Shearwaters
5 Australasian Gannets

Terns:
65 Greater Crested Terns

Checklist on eBird: https://ebird.org/checklist/S122702930

David and Robert Griffin would meet me at yet another watch point, a bit further north, called Mistral Point. It’s about a 45-minute walk from Magic Point.



Arriving there shortly after 11 AM, I could watch for about 6 and a half hours, in the last hours joined by David and Robert.

Hundreds of Wedge-tailed Shearwaters again, but two single close-by small shearwaters could be identified as Hutton’s. A single Buller’s Shearwater was a nice species to add to the list as well.

Seabirds:
4 Parasitic Jaegers
16 jaegers spec.
515 Wedge-tailed Shearwaters
1 Buller’s Shearwater
2 Hutton’s Shearwaters
84 Hutton’s/Fluttering Shearwaters
16 Australasian Gannets

Terns:
27 Greater Crested Terns

Checklist on eBird: https://ebird.org/checklist/S122761820

14 November

Monday would be Magic Point again. When walking to the point in early morning, when it was still dark, a Laughing Kookaburra landed on a light post. This is how I encounter landbirds ;-) .

A twelve-hours seawatch session, with westerly winds (theoretically blowing seabirds away from the coast), was not that bad, but probably quite average for Sydney norms. I did count 3,662 Wedge-tailed Shearwaters in the first half of the day, all flying north. A huge flock was seen in the afternoon, of which you’ll find the video clip here: https://youtu.be/q-02n_cncd4. About 175 Hutton’s or Fluttering Shearwater were within that group as well. Other good birds this day were 2 Little Terns.

Seabirds:
2 Pomarine Jaegers
3 Parasitic Jaegers
36 jaegers spec.
3,662 Wedge-tailed Shearwaters
1 Sooty/Short-tailed Shearwater
175 Hutton’s/Fluttering Shearwater
9 Australasian Gannets

Terns:
2 Little Terns
32 Greater Crested Terns

Checklist on eBird: https://ebird.org/checklist/S122756202

15 November

There was not much wind on Tuesday, until southerly winds in the evening. And secondly, it was very sunny, which means that from around 8 am or so and until 1 pm, the lighting for seawatching is far from ideal. So, I decided to seawatch for just 2 hours, then have a walk for some landbirds (really!) and return around noon to seawatch for the rest of the day.

Morning observations were as follows:

Seabirds:
4 Pomarine Jaegers
14 jaegers spec.
3,286 Wedge-tailed Shearwaters
100 Short-tailed Shearwaters
11 Hutton’s/Fluttering Shearwaters
1 Australasian Gannet

Terns:
27 Greater Crested Terns

Checklist on eBird: https://ebird.org/checklist/S122865643

The afternoon clearly saw increasing numbers of Short-tailed Shearwaters. The southerly winds were doing their job and this was just a small appetizer to what would come in the following days…

Seabirds:
2 Pomarine Jaegers
6 jaegers spec.
Wedge-tailed Shearwaters
6 Sooty Shearwaters
4,414 Short-tailed Shearwaters
16 Sooty/Short-tailed Shearwaters
218 Hutton’s/Fluttering Shearwaters
2 Australasian Gannets

Terns:
Greater Crested Terns
Checklist on eBird: https://ebird.org/checklist/S122450942

16 November

Winds were firmly blowing from the south now, and this was another day on which David would join me at Mistral Point in the afternoon. So I started at Magic Point in the morning and watched for about 4 hours.

Seabirds:
7 jaegers spec.
1,725 Wedge-tailed Shearwaters
2,055 Short-tailed Shearwaters
5 Sooty/Short-tailed Shearwaters
32 Hutton’s/Fluttering Shearwaters
7 Australasian Gannets

Terns:
Greater Crested Terns

Checklist on eBird: https://ebird.org/checklist/S122701087

Moving to Mistral Point later, I could watch from there for almost 8 hours, and it was quite productive.

Seabirds:
1 Pomarine Jaeger
1 Parasitic Jaeger
6 jaegers spec.
1 Flesh-footed Shearwater
Wedge-tailed Shearwaters
1 Sooty Shearwater
10,926 Short-tailed Shearwaters
6 Hutton’s/Fluttering Shearwaters
9 Australasian Gannets

Terns:
Greater Crested Terns

Checklist on eBird: https://ebird.org/checklist/S122701552

17 November

And then, 17 November. Oh boy…. The best seawatching day of my life, by far. An incredible day of over 11 hours seawatching for me. David joined me in the afternoon.



Seabirds:
5 Parasitic Jaegers
18 jaegers spec.
2 Shy Albatrosses
1 Black-browed/Campbell Albatross
3 Southern/Norther Giant Petrels
500-1,000 Wedge-tailed Shearwaters
10 Sooty Shearwaters
28,722 Short-tailed Shearwaters
114 Hutton’s/Fluttering Shearwaters
27 Australasian Gannets

Terns:
Greater Crested Terns

Checklist on eBird: https://ebird.org/checklist/S122702082

Remarks

It was obvious, as predicted by David, that southerly winds would bring more seabirds to Sydney. And you preferably need a few days of them. I was lucky that we had those winds on my last two days, as there had been northerly winds for three weeks before that.

The number of Short-tailed Shearwaters was amazing, 46,560 in total. And these are conservative counts and a lot more have passed, for sure. On the last day, there was a constant stream of them, especially in the afternoon. I could only count them per 10, with a hand tally.

Albatrosses are much more regular in the Australian winter, so seeing three individuals and two specie is not bad. Also, three single Southern/Northern Giant Petrels is a pretty good sighting for November. Here’s a video of one of them: https://youtu.be/WeRY-XewEEg.

Observing and studying Wedge-tailed Shearwaters was actually one of the main goals of this trip, as they are very common in this season. That goal was totally accomplished; many many thousands were seen in different light and wind conditions. Here’s a 6-minute video of several individuals: https://youtu.be/16GfZ4TljQ0.

Very interesting was also seeing Sooty Shearwaters and Short-tailed Shearwaters on the same days. Generally, I would compare both species as Short-tailed being a baby and Sooty a grown-up. Short-tailed flies fast with many swift wingbeats and short glides. Sooty flies in a more controlled manner, and in literature it is often referred to as “athletic”. Wingbeats are fewer, glides are longer. Just more mature. Wingtips are slightly bended upwards, though that’s not always easy to see. Also, Sooty tends to have a less contrasting plumage and more extended and more obvious silver on the underwings. Although there is overlap, the silver on the underwing of many Short-tailed was often mostly hard to see or just invisible, while it stood out more obvious in Sooty. Short-tailed often showed pale chin/breast and lighter inner primaries and secondaries on the upperwings. That’s all more uniformly dark in Sooty.

A video of a flock of Short-tailed Shearwaters can be found here: https://youtu.be/aJ-kWKOYflk. As you might notice, the light patterns on the upperwings is more obvious than that of the underwings in some individuals.

Seawatching in Sydney was great. Hope to go back in another month...

[ Last edited by badesc at 25/11/2022 20:02 ]

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Author: wgeoff    Time: 24/11/2022 18:50

Fantastic Bart!! Especially the shearwater flocks by video.
Will you just get bored sitting at Po Toi?

Looking forward to your next visit - hope for more Albatrosses!
Author: badesc    Time: 25/11/2022 07:09

Quote:
Original posted by wgeoff at 24/11/2022 18:50
Fantastic Bart!! Especially the shearwater flocks by video.
Will you just get bored sitting at Po Toi?

Looking forward to your next visit - hope for more Albatrosses!
Thanks, Geoff.

I don't think I will get more or less bored on Po Toi than before. These are just two very different places and you can't mix-up expectations. Po Toi has a lot to offer, as you know. You won't see 9 species of terns on a day in Sydney, for example.
Author: cywong    Time: 25/11/2022 22:34

Thank you for sharing your seawatching experience in Sydney, Bart. Very informative and interesting!
Author: Wellington    Time: 26/11/2022 12:39

Thank you for sharing the seawtaching report.   It is very instructive.
Author: John Holmes    Time: 27/11/2022 07:06     Subject: Seawatching

Spectacular seabird numbers, Bart !  Looks like you had fun.



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