I'm currently in South Australia with my very good friends Dave and Sue Harper who are 3/4 of their way through a Big Year across the huge state of South Australia. I've spent the last two weeks and a bit here and we did an awesome Outback trip - will post on that soon, we got some MEGA birds!
This weekend just gone I was meant to be on a Pelagic trip, but as fate would have it for the 3rd time in the last 4 years it got cancelled, not because of the wind, or the swell (as in the two previous cancellations), but due to the boat getting 'broken' when it was having its boat-MOT-type-thing.... so no pelagic trip for me this year AGAIN....
BUT, as I'm still playing catch-up from the back end of 2016 on my blog I can finally share some photos with you of my November 2016 South Australia Pelagic out from Port Macdonnell. This is the only time I've managed to get out here and it was incredible! We saw so many birds and got photos of most of them too.
The birds seen during this awesome pelagic trip (voted as in the Top 2/3 trips of all time off here by people on the boat who had done c50+ trips over the years....) included the following...
Albatrosses: Shy, Salvin's, Black-browed, Campbell's, Indian Yellow-nosed, Antipodean Wandering, Gibson's Wandering, and Grey-headed.
Petrels: Gould's, White-headed, Soft-plumaged, Grey-faced, Great-winged, and White-chinned (unidentified Giant Petrel was too distant to confirm unfortunately).
Shearwaters: Short-tailed and Sooty.
Storm Petrels: Grey-backed and Wilson's.
Other species: Australasian Gannet, Greater Crested Tern, Silver Gull, Australian Pelican, and Black-faced Cormorant.
Here are the pics...
White-headed Petrel
This weekend just gone I was meant to be on a Pelagic trip, but as fate would have it for the 3rd time in the last 4 years it got cancelled, not because of the wind, or the swell (as in the two previous cancellations), but due to the boat getting 'broken' when it was having its boat-MOT-type-thing.... so no pelagic trip for me this year AGAIN....
BUT, as I'm still playing catch-up from the back end of 2016 on my blog I can finally share some photos with you of my November 2016 South Australia Pelagic out from Port Macdonnell. This is the only time I've managed to get out here and it was incredible! We saw so many birds and got photos of most of them too.
The birds seen during this awesome pelagic trip (voted as in the Top 2/3 trips of all time off here by people on the boat who had done c50+ trips over the years....) included the following...
Albatrosses: Shy, Salvin's, Black-browed, Campbell's, Indian Yellow-nosed, Antipodean Wandering, Gibson's Wandering, and Grey-headed.
Petrels: Gould's, White-headed, Soft-plumaged, Grey-faced, Great-winged, and White-chinned (unidentified Giant Petrel was too distant to confirm unfortunately).
Shearwaters: Short-tailed and Sooty.
Storm Petrels: Grey-backed and Wilson's.
Other species: Australasian Gannet, Greater Crested Tern, Silver Gull, Australian Pelican, and Black-faced Cormorant.
Here are the pics...
Black-browed Albatross
Black-browed Albatross
Campbell's Albatross
Campbell's Albatross
Grey-headed Albatross
Grey-headed Albatross
Indian Yellow-nosed Albatross
Salvin's Albatross
Salvin's Albatross
Shy Albatross
Shy Albatross
Wandering Albatross
Wandering Albatross
Wandering Albatross
Wandering Albatross and Blue Shark
Great-winged Petrel
Grey-faced Petrel
Soft-plumaged Petrel
White-chinned Petrel
White-headed Petrel
White-headed Petrel
Grey-backed Storm Petrel
Wilson's Storm Petrel
Huge thank you to Dave and Sue for getting my on to this trip, and for driving me all the way there and back. Hopefully I'll get on another one of these trips someday... maybe next year...!
