Eden pelagics

Two one-day pelagic trips will leave from Eden.  The boat will leave Eden at 7am each day, travel to the edge of the shelf, and return at approximately 3pm.  There should still be some albatrosses around and a good range of shearwaters and petrels, as well as storm petrels and jaegers, and whales. Participants will need to arrange their own accommodation nearby.  A day at sea is quite tiring so, if you go on the Sunday trip, it is recommended that you do not drive back to Canberra that same day.  The cost of each trip will be approximately $137.  You must be a COG member to register (so don’t forget to renew your membership for 2022-23).

Both trips are full but there are often late cancellations so you may wish to be added to he waiting list.

tTo register, send your name, mobile number and the name and number of an emergency contact to smlashko@gmail.com.  Please also advise whether you wish to go on Saturday 29, Sunday 30 or either day. To give as many people as possible the opportunity to go on a pelagic, initially you can book for one day only.

Further details and arrangements for payments will be sent to participants once numbers are finalised.

The weather forecast for the pelagics weekend wasn’t the best, but we were rewarded with some good sightings.

On Saturday the most interesting birds included a Kelp Gull, a Pomarine Jaeger, four species of albatross (Buller’s, Yellow-nosed, Shy and Black-browed Albatrosses), Wilson’s and White-faced Storm-Petrels, Grey-faced, White-chinned and Providence Petrels, a Northern Giant-Petrel, and four species of shearwaters.

The Sunday trip yielded a South Polar Skua (a new bird for many of us), three Sooty Shearwaters, and a Brown Skua, in addition to many of the species seen the previous day.

Many thanks to Julian Teh for expert ID skills and Bonnie for keeping the eBird lists.