car over to the island, it would make for a very expensive day, however there is a fast catamaran across that is quite cheap as a return ticket, and is met by a bus that takes you all the way to the lookout at the northern tip of the island. Using this method of transport, we had a very pleasant journey out and back, and from that side of things the day was highly successful.As I drove to the ferry in the morning, rain was pouring down nearly the whole way to the terminal. By the time I reached Cleveland, I was ready to turn around and go home, but as I pulled up the rain had cleared and the horizon was looking promising. I figured I should give it a go, as Colin, Rob Dougherty and Stuart Warren were all heading over. At least I'd have good company if it was miserable. By the time we stepped off the bus at the point, it wasn't raining at all, and in fact, apar
t from a brief shower, we didn't have any rain for the four hours we spent looking. Of course, as soon as we left the weather moved in and it started raining again. It was almost like someone was watching out for us!In terms of what we saw on the day, it was a huge success. I didn't really know what to expect in a morning, but we managed to find three year birds for me. The first was a pale morph Arctic Jaeger the cruised by at speed, and later in the day came in a little closer for some better views, along with a brief visit from an intermediate Pomarine Jaeger. We had a near-constant stream of Wedge-tailed Shearwaters going by all day, and at one point a Fluttering/Hutton's type Shearwater too, though the hoped-for Streaked Shearwaters didn't appear. At one point we had a Bridled/Sooty Tern cruise past about 500m offshore, but we couldn't see it well enough to confirm an ID. The stars of the day though were
the noddies. All through the hours we spent there we had a small but constant trickle of both Black and Common Noddies, both new for me for the year. It was great to get good looks at both as they cruised past flying against the wind, because it gave me a chance to really get to know the ID features. My previous experience with the two species was from snorkelling trips, where I got so close to the birds I never had to try hard to make an ID. From a distance, in windy conditions, it is a lot harder! Our final great birds of the day were a flock of seven Wandering Tattlers, including one in partial breeding plumage. They were calling near-constantly for a few hours, kicking up a fuss and flying between rocky pillars. A great, sustained view of a good bird.
On top of all the great birds we had hundreds of Bottlenose Dolphins cruising back and forth around the point, surfing waves and breaching, and quite a few Green Turtles and a few HUGE Loggerhead Turtles surfacing right off the rocks. Colin even had an eagle ray breaching at one point. The day was so successful we are going to have to go back in winter for another go. Another bonus of going back at that time of year is the Humback Whales will be back by then, playing around offshore and breaching. Something to look forward to!
Total birds to date: 291
Photo 1: Black Noddy
Photo 2: Common Noddy
Photo 3: Arctic Jaeger, courtesy of and (C) Rob Dougherty
Photo 4: Bottlenose Dolphins
No comments:
Post a Comment