Southern Oceans Seabird Study Association Inc. (SOSSA) | Non-profit organisation

Southern Oceans Seabird Study Association Inc. (SOSSA)

Phone: +61 2 4272 4626

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25.01.2022 1 last minute spot available now for a trip off Kiama, tomorrow Friday 16 August 2019. 0730 - 1430, $100. For booking call 02 4272 4626 ASAP. Conditions are potentially very interesting. We had a big southerly push last weekend, which might have brought up interesting birds from down south. After a few pretty much windless days since, tomorrow the wind will pick up, which should put the birds on the wings.

24.01.2022 We are excited to share a recovery of a banded bird. On our most recent pelagic off Kiama (see recent post) we sighted two banded Wandering type Albatrosses. One of these came almost within catching distance, but just escaped the net. Fortunately, however, Jodi could decipher the band number from her photographs. This bird, a Wandering Albatross Diomedea exulans, was banded by SOSSA off Wollongong August 2014. It was already in adult plumage and aged 4 years or older back t...hen. An interesting detail is visible in close up of the bird's bill. The upper mandible appears to be pierced. This is likely damage caused by a fishhook, illustrating the continuous danger these beautiful creatures face from long-line fishing. Luckily, this one is still with us and we look forward to meeting (most likely) her again! We thank Jodi Osgood and Rich Everett for allowing us to share their photographs.

24.01.2022 The SOSSA pelagic was characterised by good conditions, good numbers of Albatrosses, but low species diversity. On the way out we came across a large flock of migrating Fluttering Shearwaters. We picked up Black-browed (50+), Indian Yellow-nosed (20+), Campbell (3+) and Shy Albatross (3+) on the way out and during the day. Also good numbers of Fairy Prion during the day. A single Northern Giant and a single Providence were the only Petrels observed. Undoubtedly the highlight ...came around midday while out at the shelf edge, when a small tern initially taught to be White-fronted turned out to be ARCTIC. To all our delight we managed to catch and band it, take morphometric measures and close up photographs after which it got safely released. The bird was in fully fresh non-breeding plumage with remnants of a dark carpal bar. Likely the bird is a first (northern) summer overwintering here. See full trip report at http://www.sossa-international.org/forum/content.php?894 . We thank Rob Morris for allowing us to share his excellent photographs.

24.01.2022 We are sharing a few interesting records from the North coast of NSW. On Friday 28th, Sat 29th and Sun 30th of June, several beach washed birds were found. It is always sad to find death birds, however, the species concerned were highly interesting. A single Light-mantled Sooty Albatross was found, a very rare bird off NSW, hardly ever seen when out at sea. This species breeds on the subantarctic islands, and is seen sometimes off Tasmania, but rarely ever further north. Ind...eed in recent weeks there have been several sightings of Tasmania and an influx of southern ocean species has been observed in those waters, and we speculate that this record might be related to those sightings. Furthermore, a total of 6 Little Shearwaters was found. Little Shearwaters are rare birds off NSW, with maybe a few sightings per year, pretty much spread throughout the year. To find 6 over the scope of three days in the same general area is suggestive of some strange unfortunate event happening to these birds. Maybe they got somehow blown over from their breeding grounds at Lord Howe Island, and got in trouble near the NSW coast? These specimens are preserved for further analysis at a natural history museum, illustrating the importance of patrolling beaches and collecting deceased birds. We thank Steve McBride for allowing us to share his pictures.

23.01.2022 This Saturday's Kiama pelagic (28 March 2020) has been cancelled, unfortunately, due to the COVID-19 outbreak. We cannot comply with safe distancing regulations on the boat. We will review the situation again in April. Please stay safe!

22.01.2022 Our first pelagic of the year 2020 on Saturday 25 January kicked the year off in style! We motored out under easy conditions, with light winds (but just enough to keep the birds going) and about 1.5 m swell. Out at the shelf, the ocean was warm at 24 Celsius. On our way out, we picked up the first of several Sooty Terns. Out at the shelf, while going out a little further, we picked up our first Streaked Shearwater of the day, a fairly rare bird locally. Bird numbers graduall...y build up and we soon started also catching and banding some birds. Well in our drift, the cry 'cookilaria' was heard. The bird gave us two passes and reasonable views, already leading us to think this was a Cook's Petrel, another rare bird for our waters. This got subsequently confirmed upon scrutinising the pictures. Over day, we kept on seeing the occasional Streaked Shearwater, totalling six separate sightings. Also about 8 Sooty Terns where seen over the course of the day, including a juvenile hanging around the boat for the better part of the day. Add to that some Jaegers (of all three species) and its easy to see we had a great day out! Banding wise we caught, banded and safely released 37 birds, a mixture of Flesh-footed and Wedge-tailed Shearwaters, Grey-faced Petrels and a single Pomarine Jaegers, a very good outcome. For the full trip report see http://www.sossa-international.org/forum/content.php?901

22.01.2022 An update on the highlights from our pelagic trip Saturday 14 December 2019. Conditions were calm, with light winds and 0.5 m swell. Once out at the shelf, numbers of Shy Albatross started building behind the boat, and soon we had a sizeable flock scattered around the boat, at some stage we counted at least 32 birds! Given the light winds, we didn't get many petrel species, however, a single White-chinned Petrel was a nice surprise, a single Grey-faced Petrel being the only ...other petrel species. We got a few Sooty Shearwaters in among the short-tailed and Wedge-tailed Shearwaters, and slowly a number of Flesh-footed Shearwaters appearead. Other highlights were seeing several Jaegers close-up, and a White-faced Storm Petrel, together with a couple of Wilson's. On the way back in we came across a small pod of False Killer Whales, and we saw several sunfish. Banding wise we caught and processed several of the Shy Albatrosses present, making for a successful day. Finally, please consider supporting SOSSA with a donation. As SOSSA is a charitable organisation, all donations over $2 are tax deductible. Please contact [email protected] for details.

22.01.2022 We are very excited to share the news of the publication of a scientific article based on our data and its coverage by the Sydney Morning Herald. The research was led by Simon Gorta, a honours student at the University of New South Wales, as part of his summer research project and carried out by him and his co-workers at the university. The article summarises an analysis and evaluation of the seabird population off the NSW coast, between Port Stephens and Kiama, in the 2000-2...016 period. We are very pleased to see that this research is based on the sightings data that were taken on the pelagic trips we organise from Port Stephens, Sydney and Wollongong/Kiama. This unique, long-term dataset could only be created by the voluntary effort of all those that participated in our pelagic trips contributing to establishing a bird count and species list for each trip. This research is an excellent example of how a group of dedicated enthusiasts can gather a quality dataset worthy of thorough scientific analysis and subsequent publication. We accolade Simon and his colleagues for taking this initiative and congratulate him with the excellent outcome of getting the article published in the internationally renowned journal Biological Conservation. Unfortunately, the outcomes of the research are worrying. A large fraction (43%) of the species regularly observed in our waters are in decline. Although the causes of this decline are complex, it appears that climate change, in the form of warming the oceans, is likely a driver in some of these trends. More worryingly, much of the cause behind the declines is unknown. The details of the research may be found in the original article, available on research gate or at Biological Conservation. This article and its findings serves as a motivation to all of us to keep going out at sea and observe the birds on the ocean. It demonstrates that the data gathered matters, as it can be used for scientific research purposes. Most importantly, it is the first thorough study in our area demonstrating trends we all feared were happening, and continuing gathering data is adamant in understanding and conserving our pelagic birds. Sydney Morning Herald coverage: https://www.smh.com.au//twitchers-have-a-treasure-trove-of Original article: https://www.sciencedirect.com//artic/pii/S0006320718318767 Article on research gate: https://www.researchgate.net//333311158_Pelagic_citizen_sc

21.01.2022 Friday 16 August 2019 we went on a pelagic trip with members of the Illawarra Birders. On the one hand, conditions were very promising, as we had strong southerly winds blowing less than a week before the trip. However, on the day there was a north-westerly blowing, a wind far from ideal off NSW, as it potentially drives birds further away from the coast. Conditions were easy with ~1 m southerly swell and ~15 knots north-westerly wind, the sea surface temperature at the shelf... was about 17 degrees. Unfortunately, no rare southerly species were observed during the day. However, we were very pleased with high numbers of Indian Yellow-Nosed Albatrosses over the course of the day. The highest count of birds present at one given moment was 28, and in total we likely observed 50+ birds of this species, all adult except for 1 juvenile bird. We got about 10 Black-browed Albatrosses (a mixture of juvenile, immature and adult birds), and 4 Buller's Albatrosses. 10+ Shy type Albatrosses were observed, with at least one adult likely of the Tasmanian ssp. cauta, as it was in heavy wing moult (too early yet for New Zealand ssp. steadi to be in such heavy moult). Furthermore, several juveniles were present, which must be ssp. cauta, as it is too early yet for New Zealand ssp. steadi to be fledged. We missed out on Campbell and any great Albatrosses. We did very poor again on the petrel front, with only 1 Providence Petrel and 1 Giant-Petrel sp. being observed. At least 2 Brown Skuas were seen, and on the way out and in we got several flocks of Fluttering type shearwaters of varying size, the largest consisting of at least 50 birds. It was nice to see the first few Wedge-tailed Shearwaters of the season, we observed about 10 birds throughout the day. 4 White-fronted Terns, a few tens of Greater Crested Terns, Australasian Gannets and Silver Gulls completed the bird list. We got nice views of a Dwarf Minky Whale circling the boat a few times, and several humpbacks were breaching. On the banding front, we managed to catch several Albatrosses, a number of Indian Yellow-nosed and two Buller's. A Black-browed was caught with fishing line tangled around its beak, which could be removed without much trouble, a very pleasing outcome and we will share pictures in a separate post later. The last bird we caught on the day was a banded Indian Yellow-nosed Albatross, which was banded under the French banding scheme. As it was banded with a readable colourband too, we suspect this is a bird banded as a chick that is now part of a breeding study in the colony. It will be very interesting to learn more about this bird and we will let you know the outcome of this in the future. We thank Martin Potter for allowing us to share his photographs. A full trip report be added later.

19.01.2022 Yesterday's pelagic from Kiama NSW (28-12-2019) was a fantastic trip. Conditions were ideal for birdwatching, with consistent winds for the past week or so blowing across the Tasman sea from north of New Zealand. So we had high expectations, and we got rewarded! It was a bit bumpy though, with a bit of spray on the way out and back in. There was very little activity until we reached the shelf edge. Out at the shelf edge, we started a drift, and slowly a sizeable flock of bir...ds was attracted, predominantly consisting of Flesh-footed Shearwater, Grey-faced Petrel and Wedge-tailed Shearwater. A Long-tailed Jaeger appeared, soon followed by a rather pale Kermadec Petrel, a rare bird off central NSW. We eventually picked up several Black Petrels, with three the largest number present at any one time, but a fourth bird was seen on the day. Two of these were captured, one was carrying a band from the New-Zealand scheme and it will be very interesting to learn the life history of this bird. Well in our drift, a cookilaria got spotted, which did a single fly-by and came close enough to be identified as a Black-winged Petrel. Just when heading inshore after checking the slick, we got another fly-by of a Black-winged Petrel, this could be the same bird, or another one. Although a Black-winged Petrel was seen earlier this year off Crowdy head, they are rare birds off the east coast. Another highlight was the amount of White-faced Stormpetrels, at some point 7 got counted on the slick, with a few more flying around the boat. A stop inshore at 45 fathoms produced many jaegers, several Pomarine and several Long-tailed, in among the shearwater flock. A full trip report will be prepared and posted on the SOSSA webpage soon.

18.01.2022 Due to some late cancellations, there are now three spots available for the pelagic trip departing from Kiama, 0730 this Saturday 28 September. Please contact sossa for booking, see post pinned on top of the page for details. September is a very interesting month where the first springbirds are back, such as shearwaters and jaegers, yet many winterbirds are still around.

18.01.2022 BUGGER-LUGS The lost juvenile Bulwer’s Petrel (Bulweria bulwerii) A small all dark petrel was found ashore on the 28th January 2020 at the Cronulla RSL (South Cronulla) by a Member of the Public, Zoe Siminis, who took it to the Summer Hill Vets for examination. The bird was x-rayed, given fluids, Anti-Biotics and pain relief by Dr. Lydia Brichta and Dr. Sandra Hodgins of Summer Hill Village Vet (29 Grosvenor Crescent, Summer Hill NSW 2130 Ph: 9797 2555) on 28/01/2020. The...Continue reading

17.01.2022 Fantastic news, the Bulwer's Petrel rescued at Cronulla RSL got released off Darwin earlier this week! The ABC news item is a great read about the release. Thanks to all involved! https://www.abc.net.au//buggerlugs-the-bulwars-p/11975440

15.01.2022 Still 3 places available for our Sunday 25 October 2020 pelagic trip from Kiama. It would be really great to fill the boat, as we're still operating under reduced numbers and filling the boat to the allowed number of participants is really important for our financial viability. October is a great month to see a wide variety of seabirds. The last of the 'winter' species are still around, while a lot of the summer migrants have already returned. And its the ocean, there's always the chance of a nice surprise! For details, see the post pinned to the top.

14.01.2022 Unfortunately our double header from Kiama (24/25 Oct) got cancelled due to the rough weather. A replacement trip from Kiama is scheduled for coming Sat 31 Oct 2020. We are contacting the original participants first, but stay tuned in case spots remain. The boat can only take 10 passengers max at the moment to follow the COVID19 4m2 / person rule. We decided to not increase the price/head for now, but this does mean we are losing money on these trips and as a consequence we'...re slowly depleting our small cash reserves. We don't know how long we can continue operating like this. Please consider supporting us through membership or a donation, it all helps. Also, its really important to get the 10 available spots filled up every trip to mitigate the losses, so please consider joining last minute if someone else cancels.

14.01.2022 There are three spots available for this Saturday's trip, 22 February, off Kiama. See post at top of the page for all the details. Could be very interesting after the storms from the past two weeks! Please consider joining, we need the numbers to break even!

13.01.2022 Update: 4 places available for the rescheduled upcoming trip, Saturday 29 June 2019, departure from Kiama 07:30. Please follow instructions as given in the post pinned to the top of this page to book.

12.01.2022 Wednesday 11 September 2019 we will run an additional pelagic trip off Kiama, there are 5 places left. The trip will be using MV Kiama, rather than the usual MV Kato, but other than that all details from the post on top of the page applies.

11.01.2022 Our 29-06-2019 pelagic trip from Kiama was successful. The conditions were interesting, with a turning wind to the North-East after last weekends strong southerlies which prevented us from going out back then. The swell was not very high, 1.5 m, and on departure the wind was fairly low. However, the wind would pick up over the day, and we ended with 25+ knots north-easterly wind on the way back in, making the sea a bit choppy. We had sunny conditions the whole day. We got a ...good selection of winter birds, without any major rarities. One of the multiple prions seen on the day is a good candidate for being Antarctic, all others appeared to be Fairy. We got a Cape Petrel, but the bird never came very close, so the views were a bit distant. We ended up with 6 species of albatross: Black-browed (many, mostly adults), Campbell (a number of individuals), Indian Yellow-Nosed (probably a few tens of them, with 5+ birds around the boat at times), and a singles of Buller's, Shy type (likely Tasmanian, based on primary moult) and Wandering type, D. exulans, likely female. We furthermore got a single Brown Skua, 3 Northern Giant Petrels (all juv), 10+ Providence Petrels and 4+ Grey-faced Petrels. Banding wise we struggled a little as the wind made the boat drift fast and the birds were mostly feeding behind the boat, out of reach.The Wandering type was banded but we failed to catch it, similarly, we didn't manage to get the Brown Skua (another target bird). We did, however, catch 4 Indian Yellow-nosed, a Campbell, and a Black-browed Albatross, and a Northern Giant Petrel. So overall an ok outcome, the low rate of catching allowed us to examine the primary moult in some detail. We thank Jodi Osgood for allowing usage of their photographs. We will update this post with the link to the official trip report, once it is available.

10.01.2022 Friday 16 August 2019, when we were out at sea with the Illawarra Birders, we noticed an adult Black-browed Albatross with recreational fishing line tangled around its head, including a dangling broken hook. The bird was still looking healthy, as it could open its beak about half and feeding was still somewhat possible. However, although it managed to pinch a big piece from the berley, it was sad to see it couldn't open its beak enough to swallow it. We straightaway decided... to target this bird for capture such that we could assess and hopefully help it. As the bird was keen to feed behind the boat, we managed within 5 mins to capture it. Upon close inspection, it turned out that the bird didn't have any obvious injuries, but the fishing line was stuck behind its head and in its beak. After cutting the line and lifting a loop over the back of the head we could free to bird of this unwelcome baggage. We subsequently seized the opportunity to give it back a piece of jewellery, but this time in the form of safely attached metal lag band. It would be awesome if we learn more about this bird in the future, as we reckon we saved this bird from a very slow process of deteriorating condition and subsequent death. We call upon the community to please think twice before discarding fishing line in the ocean, as such actions may have bad consequence as illustrated by this example. We thank Martin Potter and Graham Barwell for allowing us to share their pictures here.

08.01.2022 Tomorrow's trip from Kiama is cancelled due to strong wind forecast, unfortunately. We will reschedule this trip to next week Saturday 29 June 2019, departure from Kiama 07:30. Please follow instructions as given in the post pinned to the top of this page to book.

07.01.2022 EDIT: THIS TRIP IS GOING AHEAD, ONLY 1 SPOT LEFT FOR GRABS! We are considering running an additional pelagic trip from Kiama on Sunday 23 February 2020, as many people are on the standby list for the Saturday trip. Please register your interest asap, once we have enough people, we go ahead.

07.01.2022 This is a white phase Southern Giant petrel, Macronectes giganteus. The bird was found ashore at Clovelly side of Gordon's Bay on the rocks exhausted, late on Saturday afternoon the 3rd August 2019 by local residents, Greg and Janine. Greg and his wife took the bird to Sydney Veterinary Emergency & Specialists in Rosebery. The veterinary staff on duty consulted Taronga Wildlife Hospital and administered necessary fluids to rehydrate the exhausted animal as first aid. The bird... was then picked up by local WIRES East branch volunteer Michaela Sukopova. It did not take long for the bird to start showing signs of feeling better. Michaela subsequently called SOSSA to properly identify the species and for consultation on how to best house and care for the bird overnight until it could be taken into rehabilitation. This Southern Giant Petrel was collected from Michaela by another WIRES volunteer Pauline Duncan who transported it to Wollongong on Sunday for assessment, as the Taronga Wildlife Hospital where SOSSA would normally send such birds for rehabilitation was closed due the late hour. Such birds need specialised care and housing. This bird is now in the care of another volunteer for Wildlife Rescue and SOSSA, Betty Spilsted, a very capable and experienced seabird rehabilitator who just loves anything unusual. Betty asked the SOSSA seabird expert Lindsay Smith OAM. for advice. On inspection Lindsay was confident that this magnificent white Southern Giant Petrel was at a good weight with no injuries and it will be fine to be released in the next couple of days. The white phase of the Southern Giant Petrel is very rare in our local waters. The nearest breeding grounds of this species is on Australia’s sub-Antarctic Macquarie Island at latitude 5430' South, longitude 158 56' East, approximately 2370 kilometres from Sydney. Only approximately 5% of the population are of this white phase, whereas the rest of the population is of the far more abundant dark brown phase. This young bird is most likely a juvenile, which would have fledged from the breeding grounds some time between late April and mid May. At approximately 115 days of age this would make it her maiden voyage! Most immature birds remain at sea for about four to five years before returning to land to breed at 6-8 years of age. Young birds from Macquarie Island have been recovered as far east as the west coast of South America, others may go on to circumnavigate the Antarctic continent. The local Water Police are happy to assist with the transport and release on Tuesday afternoon 6th August 2019 at 1.30 pm. Regards and thanks to all as this proves that working together and the networking really does pay off!

07.01.2022 This Friday, 28 August 2020, we run a pelagic for the Illawarra birders. There are currently 3 available positions. The SOSSA pelagics are at the moment going ahead with a reduced number of participants and it would therefore be great if all available spots can be taken. Bookings through:... [email protected] Phone +61 (02) 4272 4626 Mobile +61 (0)418 603 007 For further details, please refer to the post pinned on top of the facebook page.

05.01.2022 4 places available for our Sunday 25 October 2020 pelagic trip from Kiama. It would be really great to fill the boat, as we're still operating under reduced numbers and filling the boat to the allowed number of participants is really important for our financial viability. October is a great month to see a wide variety of seabirds. The last of the 'winter' species are still around, while a lot of the summer migrants have already returned. And its the ocean, there's always the chance of a nice surprise! For details, see the post pinned to the top.

02.01.2022 An update on the pelagic trips of the past month - your admin apologises for the delay, but hopes you'll enjoy this update nevertheless! The last weekend of August we ran a double-header off Kiama. On Saturday the 24th we were facing very calm conditions, which is usually bad for seabirding. Indeed we struggled that day with attracting good numbers of birds. However, we ended up with a pretty good species selection for the day, including 7 species of Albatross: Black-browed, ...Campbell, Indian Yellow-nosed, Shy, Buller's, Wandering and Antipodean. We got a single Northern Giant Petrel, several Fairy Prions, and good numbers of Brown Skua. However, highlight sightings wise was an Arctic Tern, the second for this winter, that did a brief flyby before travelling on. Banding wise, we managed to capture 2 Brown Skuas, and several Albatrosses, including a large male Wandering D. exulans. See the full trip report at: http://www.sossa-international.org/forum/content.php?897 On Sunday the 25th we went out again. This day the conditions were more favourable, as there was a southerly wind that kept the birds going. Out at the shelf we attracted a good selection of albatrosses (same species as the day before) and petrels (both Great-winged and Gray-faced, Providence, Southern Giant). Again, the banding team managed to catch several Albatrosses and skuas. Link to the full trip report will be added later. Perhaps the best day out this month was Wednesday the 11th of September. This was a private tour booked by Inala tours. Out just beyond the continental shelf, we attracted a good flock of birds, including a probable D. gibsoni with a readible colourband, we will further confirm this birds identiy. Here we got two uncommon birds for Kiama: a Cape Petrel and a White-headed Petrel. We subsequently moved in a little to the shelfbreak. Here we got another two very nice and uncommon birds off Kiama: a Northern Royal Albatross and a White-chinned Petrel. We finally moved closer inshore to watch what was going on with shearwater wise. A large flock of Wedge-tailed was attracted, together with the only Brown Skua for the day. Banding wise the highlight was a recapture of a female Wandering Albatross D. exulans, caught 10 years ago off Ulladula, then aged at least 10 years old, so now getting on well at at least 20 years of age. For the full trip report, see http://www.sossa-international.org/forum/content.php?898 Unfortunately, we can be very short about last Saturday's 28th of September trip, as it got cancelled due to strong winds offshore, a very disappointing but inevitable outcome. Finally, please consider supporting SOSSA with a donation. As SOSSA is a charitable organisation, all donations over $2 are tax deductible. Please contact [email protected] for details.