| - 1 SOUTHERN ROYAL ALBATROSS
- 1 Manx Shearwater
- 1st Great Shearwater of the season
We ran back-to-back trips onboard the Obsession, on Friday
1 September and Saturday 2 September, the latter with Dalton
Gibbs co-guiding. The trips were very similar, so I have combined
the reports. On both days there were no active fishing vessels
in the area, despite going further than usual into the deep
on the Friday. Nevertheless there was a good diversity of
birds on both trips. On Friday we found a seal that had caught
a fish and was attracting a lot of attention from birds, and
on Saturday we chummed and had albatrosses, petrels, shearwaters
and skuas almost landing on the boat in their eagerness to
get to the food - too close for some of the photographers'
on board in fact!
A major highlight on the Friday was a SOUTHERN ROYAL ALBATROSS,
as well as a fabulously confiding MANX SHEARWATER, an unusual
winter species but possibly a really early migrant. I also
had a brief sighting of the first GREAT SHEARWATER for this
season - a couple of days ahead of schedule but not outrageously
early. The close encounters with Southern Right Whales on
Saturday were spectacular, as they popped up all around the
boat. We also got to see what appeared to be a very large
White Shark fin circling a whale calf, although nothing more
came of the interaction.
Despite the absence of fishing boats, we had excellent birds
and whales and two very enjoyable pelagic trips.
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