Some trips don't go quite as smoothly as one would want. For
example pelagic seabird trips are notorious for getting cancelled at the last
moment by bad weather. There is no point in getting upset, bad weather can make
a proposed trip anything from just too uncomfortable to see the birds to
downright dangerous. It was bad weather that took sea conditions off
Coolangatta from being dangerous, to downright suicidal that caused the
postponement of our February 2016 pelagic trip. Cyclone Tatiana was heading
right toward where we wanted to go.
 |
| Phoenix One at her dock |
The Britannia Seamounts are some 200 kms east of Coolangatta
in Queensland and the organisers had planned a three night trip starting on the
12th of Feb and getting back into port on the 15th. We watched the weather maps
all week and at first it looked promising with storms out over New Caledonian
promising steady winds from the east. Sadly, as the week went on the storms
grew into two cyclonic centres and moved toward Australia with winds exceeding
65 kph off Coolangatta and stronger toward their centres. Right up to Friday
morning there was a chance we would go out but by Friday afternoon, after I had
flown up from Melbourne, the trip was called off. We spent Friday night on the
boat and then caught the plane back to Melbourne.
 |
| Bureau weather map |
 |
The twin centres of cyclone Tatiana marked up by Rob Morris. We wanted
to go out to where the right hand corner of the mouth is. |
After negotiations with the boat's owners a second booking
was made for the weekend starting on the 8th of April. This time the weather
goddesses smiled on us and we got out. We boarded the Phoenix One and were
allocated our cabins and then went and had a very good meal at one of the
dock-side restaurants. The boat left harbour late at night and by morning, when
we got on deck before sunrise, we were over the south end of the seamount.
 |
| The cabin I shared |
 |
| and our en suite bathroom |
 |
| Course for the weekend |
The main purpose of the trip was to do research on the
unusual storm-petrel that has been found in the area. The organisers had the
required permits and the hope was one could be captured and have blood and
feather samples taken in the hope that an identification of the bird could be
made. As it turned out the birds did not co-operate and none were captured but
some were seen on the berley slick behind the boat.
 |
| Tahiti Petrel |
 |
| Arctic Jaeger |
 |
| Bridled Tern |
The trip was still a major success though with more than 20
species of seabirds being seen. Included in that total was the first confirmed
sighting for Australia of a Band-rumped Storm-Petrel.
 |
| Ventral view of storm-petrel |
 |
| Dorsal view of storm-petrel |
 |
| Our track as we tried to catch one of the storm-petrels |
 |
| Wedge-tailed Shearwater |
 |
| Gould's Petrel |
And besides the birds we also had the excitement of a rare
mammal. We had lowered the tender and were attempting to canon-net a storm
petrel when whales started rise near the boat. They turned out to be a pod of
the very rare Cuvier's Beaked Whale and we got good views and photos of both
adult and juvenile whales.
 |
| Tender with Cuvier's whale in the background |
 |
| Head of Cuvier's Whale |
 |
| Markings on back of whale |
 |
| Whale and young |
The next morning we were further north, over the Brisbane
Seamount, and the birding was fairly quiet. We had hoped for more of the
undescribed storm-petrels but none were in sight. Any bird approaching the boat
was carefully watched as other rare birds had been reported from this region on
past trips but all was quiet until Rohan suddenly called the Band-rumped
Storm-Petrel and the usual panic started to make sure all on board saw it and
that confirming photos were taken. It is not every day that a new bird for
Australia is seen.
 |
| Band-rumped Storm-Petrel |
 |
| Providence Petrel |
 |
| Flesh-footed Shearwater |
All images & text © Jenny Spry
