The Big Blue Paddock

Midweek we received the good news that the pelagic trip scheduled for the weekend was going to go ahead. Having missed out on the first trip scheduled in February due to bad weather we were pretty excited about the prospect of getting to grips with lots of truly pelagic seabirds. There are so many species out there, any Big Year attempt needs to include as many pelagic trips as possible, they can literally be game changing.

So Saturday morning we drove the 5 hours down to Port MacDonnell in the States south-east, but not before taking in a visit to Pick Swamp. Yes we'd been here several times already this year in search of the Australasian Bitterns that frequent this area but had drawn a blank up to this point in time. However, this time was going to be different because we came with a secret weapon in the form of local birder and south-east guru Bob Green. Bob spends a lot of time in this area doing extensive monitoring and survey work and so we felt confident we'd get one this time. Having driven around the boundary of the reserve and seeing a lot of birds including some nice Brolga but no Bittern, we came back around towards and past the main entrance gate where Bob showed us a good site for Olive Whistler. No doubt we'll look harder in Spring for this one when the birds are calling. Walking along the edge of the swamp and avoiding a large Copperhead Snake sunning itself on the track we put up an Australasian Bittern in close! Another bird foraging further out put in an appearance as well........nice!! We left Bob to go and catch up with the other participants and check in to the Caravan Park for the night

Scanning the horizon on the run out to the shelf 

Up early and down to the wharf for a 6:30am start. The day was forecast to be warm with light northerly winds and a 2-2.5m swell. Heading out in the predawn light it wasn't long before we started getting tantalising glimpses of birds cutting across the stern in our wake. Some of the pelagic species are more commonly found inshore and so it was that the first birds ID'd were several Fluttering Shearwaters heading out to feeding areas only they can detect. Somewhat surprisingly the next bird to turn up was a single Wilsons Storm-Petrel, allegedly the most numerous species of bird on earth but not normally seen inshore. A few Australasian Gannets were passing by, along with some distant Jaegers that could not be determined to species as well as some Short-tailed Shearwaters and the odd Flesh-footed Shearwater. It would take us just over an hour to reach the drop off on the edge of the continental shelf and in the zone of the truly deep water pelagic birds. It's here we stop the boat and start a Tuna oil slick and start chumming for birds. In a trackless ocean it never ceases to amaze me how the birds start appearing from over the horizon in search of this amazing smell!!! Where at first there were virtually no birds and an apparent empty sea, in a matter of twenty minutes we had multiple species of Albatross such as Shy Albatross, Yellow-nosed Albatross, Black-browed Albatross and the closely related Campbells Albatross.

The numerous Shy Albatrosses mostly included local breeders

Campbells Albatross

Other species attracted to the scrum forming at the back of the boat included both Great-winged and Grey-faced Petrels. Several  White-faced Storm-Petrels were dancing about on the slick as well as even more Wilsons Storm-Petrels.

The worlds most numerous bird? Wilsons Storm-Petrel

Nothing can prepare you for seeing one of the "Great Albatrosses" When one of these birds turn up at the back of the boat even the other species of Albatross make way. The first of four Wandering Albatross to turn up during the day made its presence felt, dwarfing all the other birds attending the back of the boat. Surprisingly shy at first but once it got interested in the food on offer the other birds just got out of its way!!

Wandering Albatross. One of the "Great Albatrosses"

By far the most attractive of the smaller Albatrosses at least in my opinion is the beautiful Bullers Albatross that made an appearance when peoples enthusiasm was starting to wane a little. Very dainty and delicate with soft pastel shades of grey they never fail to impress me

Bullers Albatross incoming

As lunch time was approaching conditions began to flatten out a bit which forces the birds to expend too much energy flying around. This makes them just sit on the water and makes attracting them to us a lot more difficult. This didn't stop a young Pomarine Jaeger from paying us a visit as he heavily flapped right up to and over the boat before sitting on the water gobbling food for a while. By now things had started to quieten down and so we contemplated the return journey. So we began the trek back on what had become glassy seas, but that didn't stop us picking up a Little Penguin loafing on the surface some twenty nautical miles still offshore!! Back on dry land it took an arduous 5 hours to get back home again but we had added another 15 species to our Big Year Lists finishing the weekend on 255. We're scheduled to go on another four trips in the next couple of months so it'll be interesting to see how many other species we can pick up!