View Full Version : Golden boys on the East Coast
Oscar just SMS'd me: UAE's 2nd ever Flesh-footed Shearwater from a boat off Khor Kalba. Caught on a line & apparently helped & released by the boys.
Well done!!!
Photos, chaps??
happy for them really nice to find something there
waiting for the photos and the report
I missed this chance today
and i hope i can find it later
Phew! What a day! I'll post the mornings activitiesin a separate post, but here's the full gen on this afternoon's maiden voyage.....
Able seamen Smiles, Talbot, Campbell, Rogan, Lloyd and Wilby boarded the boat in Kalba at 3pm and headed south to the southern limit of UAE waters about 1km offshore, heading immediately to any visible flocks of terns. We were soon in the thick of the action, with Bridled Terns and Persian Shearwaters just metres from the boat, diving into shoals of fish. Motordrives sounded like machine gun fire for the first 5 minutes!
We carried on with this strategy for the next hour and a half , circling around towards Fujairah, until we saw a distant dark bird sitting on the sea. Initially expecting it to be a skua, it soon became apparent that the bird had a pink bill and pink legs & feet - FLESH-FOOTED SHEARWATER? Not only that, but the bird was reluctant to fly as we closed in to almost touching distance. We then saw it had something in it's mouth - about 2 feet of fishing line.:mad:
We managed to catch it in a landing net, but couldn't remove the line fully- cutting it to about 1inch was the best we could do. the bird then swallowed the rest. In the hand, we were able to closely examine the bird - many photos have been taken from almost every conceivable angle to document the find and hopefully prove the bird's identity.
We eventually released the bird and it immediately looked happier(or was it relief?) and began preening energetically. Amazingly, we refound the bird almost 2 hours later, not too far from where we had released it - just outside Kalba harbour.
The rest of the trip was pretty much periods of very little, interspersed with flocks of feeding terns & Persians, but one huge feeding frenzy was really awesome. Probably over 1000 birds were about 3km out, diving into a frothing pool of fish. The sea was fizzing loudly as the fish jumped to escape the pods of Tuna hunting them - and the birds were taking advantage. Probably 300+ Persians were amongst the predominantly Bridled Tern melee.
Final tally:
1500+ Bridled Tern
700+ Persian Shearwater
ca 5 Lesser Crested Tern
1 Crested Tern
1 White-cheeked Tern
30+ Common Tern
1 Red-necked Phalarope
1 Striated Heron (harbour)
20+ Sooty Gull
... oh, and one ungrateful shearwater that left a few bloody bite marks on my hand!
Thanks again to Graham for flashing his wad around the harbour these last few weeks. Rumour has it it elicited some unusual offers, most of which we believe were refused,:p but eventually yielded a boat!
Great story Mark.
In your view, what are the chances of picking up the bird from the Kalba Harbour Breakwater with a scope tomorrow morning, before my son's birthday party?
Tommy,
It's hard to say. It was probably about 1Km offshore when we found it at first, but didn't seem that far from the end of the breakwater later on. Depends on how the bird drifts, how choppy the sea is and how lucky you are. I can say one thing - you are unlikely to see it from your bed!
I'm off to Kalba in an hour (severely jetlagged from Houston & Hong Kong).
For those that has not seen one yet, this is it
http://www.oceanwanderers.com/FleshfootedShear.CC.1433.jpg
Yep, the perpetually optimistic and indefatigable Tommy suffered what is normal for any AD birders (a 3 am start for the East Coast) and before dawn was perched on the north breakwater at Kaikoura. And not long afterwards he locked onto the Flesh-foot! He says it was a bit distant (although not by normal UAE seawatching standards) but certainly discernible, pale-based bill and all and it even flew a bit, indicating that the manhandling it got from Mark and me did not have any long-term traumatic effects.
Way to go, Tommy!:p
He then added Wilson Storm-Petrel :mad:for good measure, at which point I put the phone down on him.
I got all the above from Tommy at 8am; at that point he reckoned seeing this bird was still feasible so if you are game, give him a call.
OSCAR
......(a 3 am start for the East Coast) and before dawn was perched on the north breakwater at Kaikoura.
2 hours from Dubai to Kaikoura is very good - even for Tommy in his 777 on rocket boost!
Photos as demanded.
Incidentally, maybe we were lucky, but this was a great trip even without a mega. I don't think I have ever enjoyed watching feeding Persian Shearwaters or terns so much. Views and the spectacle when we hit that monster flock were totally memorable. Just look at the pics that even I managed to get; imagine what Huw, Mike or Ahmed would have achieved out there!
This trip would be well worth making a regular event. Abdullah, the skipper Graham found was totally easy going and nothing was too much trouble. Thanks to Graham for sticking to this and marshalling us all.
OSCAR
simonpeterlloyd
12-06-2010, 19:15
Nice!
does look a lot happier in the top photo when we found it later on.
Nice one Oscar :-)
Kaikoura II rocked this morning. No wind, light swell and hot. Very hot walk to the end of the northern Khor Kalba breakwater & a long 2 hours before the bird fluttered past and landed at the point seen on the attached map.
The Wilson's Storm Petrel was seen first thing from the car parking place, in the bay to the north of the breakwater.
A Pom Skua completed the picture.
Rafts of Persian Shearwaters on the water off Fujairah Port Beach before I joined Ahmed & Mike in Masafi Wadi for a few minutes. The rest of the day was spent with hordes of screaming 3-year olds in Aki's birthday party.
All in all a good day
Yep, the perpetually optimistic and indefatigable Tommy suffered what is normal for any AD birders (a 3 am start for the East Coast) and before dawn was perched on the north breakwater at Kaikoura. And not long afterwards he locked onto the Flesh-foot! He says it was a bit distant (although not by normal UAE seawatching standards) but certainly discernible, pale-based bill and all and it even flew a bit, indicating that the manhandling it got from Mark and me did not have any long-term traumatic effects.
Way to go, Tommy!:p
He then added Wilson Storm-Petrel :mad:for good measure, at which point I put the phone down on him.
I got all the above from Tommy at 8am; at that point he reckoned seeing this bird was still feasible so if you are game, give him a call.
OSCAR
Powered by vBulletin® Version 4.1.7 Copyright © 2012 vBulletin Solutions, Inc. All rights reserved.