Britannia Seamounts pelagic 31 March-4 April 2023

Some of the most exciting pelagics in Australia at the moment are the Britannia/Queensland Seamounts trips run by Paul Walbridge and Craig Newton out of the Gold Coast. They are the only trips in Australia to regularly get both New Caledonian and Band-rumped Storm-Petrels and Magnificent/Collared Petrels, and have turned up other incredible seabirds such as Bulwer’s and Herald Petrels, Swinhoe’s, Polynesian and Matsudaira’s Storm-Petrels and many others.

Google Maps satellite imagery showing the Britannia Seamounts (arrow) situated about 200 km east of Byron Bay.

The Britannia seamount is about 200 km off the coast of Byron Bay/Ballina, too far for a regular day pelagic. So the trips are run as multi-day affairs, usually 2 full days (3 nights) at sea, although the trip I joined in early April 2023 was a 3 day/4 night one.

The boat is the 47 ft Grinner II, skippered by Craig Newton, with room to sleep 6 passengers. I can honestly say the Grinner II is the best pelagic birding boat I’ve been on, and with only 6 birders on board, the pelagic birding experience is one of the best in the country.

On Friday afternoon, we gathered at Southport (Gold Coast) for an early dinner before packing our gear on the boat and motoring out of port under a beautiful sunset sky. The sea was calm, and it was an awesome feeling having a few beers with mates with a full 3 days of sea birding ahead of us.

My first Tahiti Petrels, and they did not disappoint. Unique and beautiful birds!

Waking up at sea and watching the sun haul up is one of my favourite things. Walking on deck at dawn, it didn’t take more than 5 minutes before I’d seen my first ‘lifer’ for the trip, Tahiti Petrel. These awesome and rather unusual petrels are common off Southport, but I’d just never done a pelagic trip this far north in Australia.

Tahiti Petrels, along with a few other species, belong to the genus Pseudobulweria. These largely tropical petrels have deep, thickset beaks and long, straight wings that are held at right angles from the body, with minimal bend at the carpal joint. Owing to their straight wings, they look a little like miniature albatrosses in profile. According to Paul, the trips off Southport are one of the few places where Tahiti Petrels will regularly sit on the water at the back of the boat.

Close up view of a beautiful Tahiti Petrel on the water at the back of the boat.

After a few hours of chumming, the first target bird of the day appeared, initially at distance, but affording decent (if not close) views later on: Band-rumped Storm-Petrel. These guys are rare but seemingly regular autumn visitors to the Britannia seamounts, but have been recorded only once in Australia elsewhere. I’ve actually seen this species before in Japan, so it was nice to catch up with it down under too.

In many ways, the plumage of the Band-rumps is not overly dissimilar to the common Wilson’s Storm-Petrel, but they are a noticeably bigger bird and the flight style is very different. The long wings are held forward at the carpal joint and they look rather like a bat or a large butterfly with deep, loping wingbeats at half the frequency of the smaller stormies.

We didn’t have to wait long for our second target either - the recently rediscovered New Caledonian Storm-Petrel.

Band-rumped Storm-Petrel. Even from this angle, the wings are long and quite broad, particularly in the ‘hand’, giving the bird a paddle-wing shape.

Remarkably, the New Caledonian Storm-Petrel is not the only storm-petrel rediscovered around Australia, New Zealand and New Caledonia in the past 20 years. In 2003, small streaked storm-petrels seen off the Coromandel Peninsula and in the Hauraki Gulf in New Zealand turned out to be the New Zealand Storm-Petrel, thought to be extinct and previously known only from two specimens collected in 1827 and one donated in 1895 (collection date unknown).

New Caledonian Storm-Petrel. Compared to New Zealand Storm-Petrel, New Caledonian is bigger with longer, paddle-shaped wings, darker streaking on the belly, and more black in the underwing, particularly the secondary coverts.

New Caledonian Storm-Petrel and Grey-faced Petrel lined up together.

Not long after, in 2008, a larger streaked storm-petrel was seen off New Caledonia. Further sightings off New Caledonia and in the Coral Sea off eastern Australia confirmed that the birds were bigger, more heavily streaked and with darker underwings than New Zealand Storm-Petrel. Recently published research confirmed these birds are the same as a specimens collected in Samoa in 1839 and French Polynesia in 1922. The species was described in 1848 but remained elusive until 2008. Since the first Australian record off Ulladulla in 2010, it has been seen occasionally on trips off eastern Australia. But only place to get them regularly, and in numbers, is the Britannia Seamounts, particularly in autumn. We saw several dozen birds over three days - what a privilege!

In addition to the two rare storm-petrels, there were plenty of Wilson’s Storm-Petrels feeding on the slick and come close to the back of the boat.

One of the specialities from this part of the world are the Kermadec Petrels. At this time of the year, most of them were in various stages of moult, and we saw a range of different plumages from mostly white to completely dark. The dark morph bird was one of my favourite Kermadecs from the weekend.

Beautiful dark morph Kermadec Petrel, one of the few birds that weren’t moulting.

I was constantly looking for Collared/Magnificent Petrels throughout the weekend but unfortunately we had to make do with a couple of Gould’s Petrels. Nice birds, and surprisingly only the second time I’ve seen them, but not quite as magnificent!

I did, however, spot a White-tailed Tropicbird high above the boat, my fourth and final ‘lifer’ for the trip. And several Long-tailed Jaegers, including a breeding plumage bird, were compensation.

Breeding Long-tailed Jaeger, with Wilson’s Storm-Petrel dancing over the slick and a Grey-faced Petrel approaching the boat.

The final highlight came in the form of a stunning pale South Polar Skua, that hung around the boat for over an hour. It was a really big, chunky bird, and likely a juvenile based on the uniformly fresh plumage. It was quite interested in the Flesh-footed Shearwaters hanging around the boat, repeatedly chasing them and forcing them to dive to escape.

Pale juvenile South Polar Skua. Beautiful, and very big and chunky bird.

So, four new seabirds on one trip, can’t remember the last time that happened! Super trip, and some of the most fun I’ve had sea birding in Australia. Kudos to Paul Walbridge for organising these trips, and the skipper Craig for the great boat and running such a long trip. Can’t wait to get back!