What was intended to be a 24 hour stay to watch for seabirds during Tropical Storm Nangka ended up at 48 hours when the sea in the harbour became too rough for any boats to land or pick up passengers.
5 hours sea-watching on Friday afternoon produced only one seabird, a Streaked Shearwater, but a 5.30am start on Saturday found a Frigatebird gliding over the harbour heading towards Lamma Island - not enough light for a photo but I reproduce my sketch which shows the very distinctive shape of this species. The tail was held tightly closed. The light was not good enough to see the underbelly pattern, but the size looked about right for a Lesser Frigatebird.
Sea-watching on Saturday morning found several of the local Bridled and Black-naped Terns feeding on the tideline created by the wind and the waves, with a Greater Crested Tern joining them briefly. The wind was too strong to hold the camera steady (my excuse for the blur)
Other birds on Po Toi this summer - a Blue Magpie seen on-and-off since the middle of May is a new coloniser. Avifauna mentions they wander in spring and this must be an example. Also spending the summer on Po Toi, a Little Egret and a Cattle Egret, up to 10 Pacific Swifts and a larger flock of Tree Sparrows than usual. Otherwise, not much of interest.
Waiting for August.
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Last edited by wgeoff at 15/12/2009 05:48 ]
