Pilot Whales off Portland

In the process of transitioning to a new blog site for various reasons but while setting it up I will split the limited posts I get to these days :)

Last Sunday 13/12/2015 a group of 10 birders were out on the “Timaru” from Portland in South-west Victoria. This is a new boat for us so we are still training the crew on what is required for a successful pelagic birding trip and they are learning fast. Unfortunately on this trip we had no shark liver and only fish frames for berley which may have affected our ability to attract and hold birds around the boat. However conditions were very calm, with very little swell or wind and on such days birds are often reluctant to feed anyway. After an uneventful trip out (aside from good numbers of Great-winged Petrel well inside the shelf) and first stop beyond the shelf it was decided to move out deeper looking for birds.

Great-winged Petrel

We were motoring to a second spot when the call went out for “Whales!” The boat quickly stopped and through binoculars I immediately saw the curved dorsal fin and bulbous black head of what I was sure were pilot whales. Over the next 15 minutes we observed many animals around the boat but all kept at least 100 meters away at all times. It was hard to estimate numbers but there was at least 20 animals but probably more. There was clearly a variety of sizes ranging from very small where the dorsal fin barely came above the water to very large with big hook backed fins. Many bad photos were taken due to the distance but zooming in we could see the distinctive white saddle behind the dorsal fin on some animals which combined with the bulbous head confirmed them as pilot whales. The next question was “what kind of pilot whale?”, as the two species, long-finned and short-finned are notoriously difficult to split in the field. it would seem that short-finned pilot whale has never been recorded in Victoria, being a largely sub-tropical and tropical species while there are many records of long-finned pilot whale, particularly in the Bonney Upwelling where we were. In addition experts who have looked at the photos agree they are long-finned, so long-finned they are! A new mammal for me and suddenly the pelagic was looking right up. The animals lingered for perhaps 15 minutes, mainly logging on the surface before quietly slipping from sight. Cetaceans aside from Common Dolphin are a special event on Portland pelagics and these pilot whales joined a list of others I have seen in recent years including Blue, Fin, Southern Right, Humpback and Killer whales.

Pilot whale showing saddle

Pilot whale pod

Once the pilot whales disappeared things did improve on the birding front. Across the whole day a highlight was the large numbers of Great-winged Petrels – conservatively we would have seen at least 250 including disturbing some large rafts but the number could easily be higher than that. Other highlights included three White-headed Petrels, only the second time I have seen these on a Victorian pelagic and a very nice Wandering Albatross with a nearly white tail. On the boat we decided this was an “exulans” or true Wanderer and was a very nice bird that made several passes. A good bit of time at Lawrence Rocks and we made it back to Portland. With the promise of shark liver on the next pelagic I am looking forward to January.

Wandering Albatross

An unexpected “tern” of events

Shy Albatross

Conditions looked good in the lead up to the monthly Portland Pelagic in June so it was no surprise when the boat was confirmed on Friday evening. Jagged a lift down with Paul and Ruth who were back in the saddle after a few months off. As we pulled into Portland, the bay looked eerily flat which we hoped wouldn’t put the birds off. Thought about the parma but ended up sticking with the usual porterhouse and a few beers which was a good choice.

Up early for the usual Macca’s breakfast – really the only thing it is good for is a pre pelagic muffin and a coffee then down to the Southern Pride for a 7am kick off in the darkness. As we headed out beyond Lawrence Rocks there was a truly spectacular sunrise with all shades of pink and orange. Bird numbers were quite low on the way out with a few Shy and Black-browed Albatross and the odd Fairy Prion. A loose raft of about 10 Fairy Penguins provided some brief excitement. Conditions were very gentle with just a slight swell and almost no wind which meant a lot of birds were just sitting on the water.

Sunrise over Lawrence Rocks

Sooty Shearwater

Things weren’t boding well when we arrived at the shelf and there was hardly a bird to be seen. The first few Shy’s hardly even looked at us as they cruised on by. Eventually a few birds settled and things began to build with reasonable numbers of Fairy Prions having us all looking for something more interesting. A couple of Sooty and Short-tailed Shearwaters joined in the feeding briefly and Great-winged petrels of both races flying through and around but not really feeding. Of interest a flight of around 4 terns flew through and circled the boat a couple of times. The two closest to the boat were clearly juvenile and their slight bill had me thinking Arctic but I decided being the Northern Summer it could not possibly be in this plumage so it must be a juvenile White-fronted tern which I am not particularly familiar with. Still I took plenty of pics of the close terns to examine later. Again some 20 minutes later another similar flight of terns came through and throughout the day we had single obvious adult White-fronted terns doing fly bys. It wasn’t til I posted some pictures on Facebook a couple of days later which I had speculatively titled “juvenile White-fronted Tern” than Rohan Clarke and Kevin Bartram both independently and rather urgently said Antarctic Tern which is a mega bird for a mainland pelagic in Australia. The ID was confirmed by the doyens and the subsequent discussion showed I have a hell of a lot to learn on the topic of “commic” terns which is something I had been avoiding for a long time. One issue we had on the boat is we did not have a field guide with any terns in it which is clearly an oversight although it may not have helped in this case. It looks like these birds – we seem to have had at least three and possibly as many as six birds are the 5^th mainland record with punters usually having to go to Macquarie Island. There were a number of very excited phone calls and text messages the night the ID was confirmed.

Antarctic Tern

Antarctic Tern

Antarctic Tern

We had two further stops and species numbers built slowly with Cape Petrel and Yellow-nosed Albatross paying us visits. There continued to be good numbers of prions and the odd storm-petrel in the slick but nothing rarer eventuated despite a lot of scanning. We had Antarctic, Salvin’s and Slender-billed Prion on the last trip but this time there was not a whalebird to be found.

Fairy Prion

Great-winged Petrel

We were getting close to leaving thinking at best this would be a pleasant but below average pelagic when Scott spotted a lovely adult Salvin’s Albatross sailing in which landed right behind the boat and began to feed. I can hardly remember my last Salvin’s Albatross so it was great to get plenty of good photos. It then even took off and followed the boat giving us some nice chances to get pics of the underwing. Adult Salvin’s have not been recorded often in recent years on SE Australian pelagics and many birds that were previously identified as juvenile Salvin’s have probably been misidentified so it was certainly thought to be the bird of the day at the time and put smiles on faces.

The trip back in was largely uneventful although things did pick up around Lawrence Rocks with a Brown Skua smashing a couple of gannets and the first Northern Giant-petrel sailing past as well as the usual Fur-seals, Kelp Gulls and Black-faced Cormorants. Despite the flat conditions and reports of Southern Right-whales and Humpbacks around we did not see any whales on the day and only a couple of Common Dolphins.

Salvin's Albatross

Salvin's Albatross

The Port Fairy pelagic went out the same day so there was a few anxious moments as we found out what birds they had – Soft-plumaged Petrel being their bird of the day which was probably shaded by our Salvin’s Albatross but ended up being blown out of the water by the Antarctic Terns! Unfortunately it turns out that the Southern Pride has been sold with the September trip being the last however the good news is that a new boat in Portland has been found so a new chapter of these trips can begin. Check out the BirdLife Victoria Activities Page on the BirdLife Australia website if you are interested in getting on one of these trips.

Ebird list of my observations