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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Larry Sweetland" data-source="post: 1223929" data-attributes="member: 27337">At seaAds - thanks for the map mate :t:We squeezed in a Sunda Woodpecker near the docks as the last SE Asian addition to the trip list, and boarded the cargo vessel on June 5th with the crew. Unfortunately we were then stuck there for 3 days before we set sail around dawn on the 8th.Having bought Pizzey and Knight, and googled a few things, I've had a stab at identifying the seabirds we saw between Singapore and Sydney, but the following report may well not be the last word, as the field guide appears a bit sketchy, and I may well have got some things wrong. I'd greatly appreciate any corrective suggestions from anyone more au fait with what I should have been seeing, or even anyone with a decent seabird id book to hand! I'd especially like to know what the thousands of noddies were that I was seeing, that I could barely tell from Bigears.Day 1 : calm weather and small numbers of Bridled Terns and 2 smaller dark birds (Swinhoe's Petrel?) seen not far out of Singapore, then nothing else all day.Day 2: calm weather. No land in sight all day. Not a single bird seem, but then didn't spend much time lookingDay 3: started with us being north of Sumbawa. Looked out of cabin window after breakfast to see birds ahead! Ran out on deck to discover they were Red-footed Boobies. Over the next hour saw about 50, mostly white phase adults, and about 15 frigatebirds. At one point a group of 8 frigatebirds circled low over the ship, providing much better views than at Phi Phi, and comprising all 3 likely species, Great, Lesser and Christmas Island.. No further action till just after lunch when big brown and white shearwaters started appearing. I saw about 200 of these by the end of the day, but none close enough to id confidently. The afternoon also produced more Bridled Terns and Red-footed Boobies, an Arctic Skua, a Brown Booby and a tropicbird sp.Day 4: wolk up with Timor to the south of us and discovered we could watch from the bow where we could see the birds much closer as the ship is huge. Felt a bit like a ship's figurehead and spent most of the day seawatching.Saw 3 big brown and white shearwaters, and id'ed 2 of them as Streaked Shearwater. Whether the majority of birds seen yesterday were likely to be this species or Wedge-tailed S I don't know (any ideas?). The only other bird that morning was a Red-footed Booby. In the afternoon the sea got choppier and I only saw 7 birds, but they were goodies. Fantastic views of 3 Wilson's Petrels, 2 Red-tailed Tropicbirds and towards the evening 2 excitingly immediately alien beings that were my first ever Tahiti Petrels.Day 5: No land all day as we passed between Northern Territory and New Guinea. Only 3 birds. A Red-tailed Tropicbird, a Brown Booby and a Hutton's Shearwater.Day 6: we approached the Torres Strait at dawn and were close enough to the tip of Oz to see our first non-seabirds, some distant egrets. Other birds seen on this stretch were Lesser Frigatebirds, Great Crested and Bridled Terns, 7 Brown Boobies, 3 Silver Gulls and many (1000's even) noddies. Now can someone PLEASE tell me what these infuriating birds were. They appeared shortly after we rounded the tip and were in big packs all day.  We passed close to the coast with reefs and islets to the east of us. I actually saw themk pretty well, so it's quite embarrassing that I couldn't work out which one they were. They all appeared the same, much as I was desperately searching them all for a smaller blacker one or a larger browner one to give the game away! In bright direct light they looked really brown (too brown for BN?), but they pretty much totally lacked contrast between the upperwing coverts and flight feathers. It was hard to see the underwings from our height, but they appeared uniformly dark except for a narrow indistinct greyish band at the interface between coverts and flight feathers. (is this what Brown Noddies look like, or can BN show this effect in some lights?). They were capable of looking totally black too in some lights then pretty pale brown on turning etc. Crown looked extensively white (good for BN?). On close birds in bright light, ie. when they looked brown, the tail appeared very slightly greyer than the ups. Does that help? Looking at all the photos I've seen on the internet hasn't helped at all because pics of both species look just as brown or as black depending on the light. What I really need is an Aussie to tell me what they are at that spot. It's driving me potty:-ODay 7: passed Cairns at 10am. Only birds seen that day were 7 Brown Boobies, 5 Great Crested Terns and a Hutton's Shearwater .Day 8: Morning kicked off with a magnificent adult Masked Booby alongside the boat. Ace! This along with my single Hordle Cliff Glanville Frit sighting means I might not have to go to the Isle of Wight. The day also produced a Great Crested Tern, a dozen or so birds I was calling Short-tailed Shearwaters but as from today think they must have been Providence Petrels!(doh!) (am I right here?), and best of all, 2 storm-petrels with white underparts, one of which I saw clearly enough to identify as a White-bellied Storm-Petrel. P&K has this species down as a vagrant, so am I overlooking something here and talking bollox or what?). I reckon we must have been about level with Brisbane.Day 9: Descended the stairs from our cabin with difficulty as the ship was pitching like crazy. Seawatching only possible fron the side of the ship to avoid being washed overboard. Greated outside by a truely mountainous seascape peppered with swooping Australian Gannets and Providence Petrels. This was really exciting. What else would appear? Actually in the end not a lot, and what there was was hard to get anything on with bins. I seawatched most of the day and managed 5 unidentified mollymawks, 2 Great-winged Petrels (if P and K's to be trusted!), 3 giant petrel sp, 6 unidentified prions, and near the end of the day the, icing on the cake, a Wandering Albatross. Now this was a very exciting moment having been at sea for all this time just thinking about distance, and the actual size of the world, and where we started this trip and stuff, so I'm stuffed if I'm not going to count it as something even though this magnificent beast will probably just be relegated to wandering albatross sp since the split!!! Can someone punch a taxonomist for me please <img src="data:image/gif;base64,R0lGODlhAQABAIAAAAAAAP///yH5BAEAAAAALAAAAAABAAEAAAIBRAA7" class="smilie smilie--sprite smilie--sprite2" alt=";)" title="Wink    ;)" loading="lazy" data-shortname=";)" />?Day 9: Luckily the rough sea meant we were behind scedule so we had the approach to Sydney in the light of morning. This produced some more birds, including close views of Indian Yellow-nosed, and Black-browed Albatrosses , a not-quite-sure-enough Campbell Albatross, a few other unidentified mollymawks, another Wandering Albatross (what sp do you reckon they should be there?), plenty of breathtakingly close cute little Fairy Prions, 8 Fluttering Shearwaters and lots of Silver Gulls. The first dinkum Aussie landbird was, fittingly enough, a lone Welcome Swallow as we neared the docks.So we've just been in Sydney trying to sort out a vehicle and pottering about for the last couple of days. Saw a few New Holland Honeyeaters before leaving the dock area, and have since also seen a few other common but gorgeous birds, eg Sulphur-crested Cockatoo (a couple even landed on me in a park), Rainbow Lorikeets, Pied Currawongs, Dusky Moorhens, Masked Lapwings, Magpie-Lark, Australian Magpie, Australian Raven etc. The fun's just started ! And we appear to have an outright winner....who did we see after the ship docked? a Little Egret. Well done that bird.783 Sunda Woodpecker784 RED-FOOTED BOOBY785 Great Frigatebird786 Streaked Shearwater787 Brown Booby788 Wilson's Storm-Petrel789 Red-tailed Tropicbird790 TAHITI PETREL791 HUTTON'S SHEARWATER792 Silver Gull793 MASKED BOOBY794 PROVIDENCE PETREL795 WHITE-BELLIED STORM-PETREL796 Australian Gannet797 Great-winged Petrel798 WANDERING ALBATROSS799 Black-browed Albatross800 Fairy Prion801 INDIAN YELLOW-NOSED ALBATROSS802 Fluttering Shearwater803 Welcome Swallow804 Australian Raven805 Pied Cormorant806 Little Black Cormorant807 New Holland Honeyeater808 Magpie-Lark809 Rainbow Lorikeet810 Noisy Miner811 Sulphur-crested Cockatoo812 Pied Currawong813 Australian Magpie814 Dusky Moorhen815 Masked Lapwing816 Little Pied Cormorant817 Australian White IbisPlease help add the noddy or correct any boobs !</blockquote>

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