Pelagic Birding - The Results

First a thanks to all the people wishing me well, and no I wasn't sick. The tablets, salty chips and bread stick worked a treat!

My wife Liz and everyone else are ready to go birding, but no boat! It was almost a non-event, due to the deckhand who had the boat keys and probably had a long wild night before and just wanted to sleep, but he was finally contacted and eventually turned up with the boat.

The weather was windy with a few showers and a 2 metre seas and swell. Not a bad day for a boat trip west of Rottnest towards the Rottnest trench.

The official pelagic list from the Western Australia Recent Bird Sightings was:

Streaked Shearwater (40+)

Flesh-footed Shearwater (50+)

Wedge-tailed Shearwater (10)

Hutton's Shearwater (12)

Indian Yellow-nosed Albatross (1)

Great-winged Petrel (15)

Soft-plumaged Petrel (1)

Wilson's Storm-petrel (12)

Brown Skua (4)

Arctic Skua (1)

Bridled Tern (4)
 
The most interesting birds sighted were the large numbers of Streaked Shearwaters, not usually known to occur in Perth waters, especially in such numbers. Were they pushed down by a recent cyclone or is this a regular event? Another pelagic trip in April next year is planned to find out.