Another Swarm of Alabatrosses

You all know the drill by now - strong Easterly winds during winter gives Sydneysiders the possibility of seeing some of the most impressive seabirds on the planet. The only thing you have to do is to get your lazy ass out of bed and make it to a good positioned headland. Normally you are quite lucky if you get action happening within binocular range and it is recommended to bring a scope - my lens and camera combo gives me probably something in between, which means I can get the shot and it can be used for identification (if I am lucky), but it is not something you print in poster size and give your potential sweetheart for Christmas :-) This morning looked slightly less impressive than the morning of my previous pelagic excursion, windy alright but nowhere near as strong as last time, however it had been blowing for nearly 2 weeks - wonder if those birds were still there(?)

It was absolutely swarming with good seabirds and they were flying closer than I have ever seen before; Gannets hanging more or less above my head and terns actually choosing to fly behind(!) me instead of sticking to the water.

1100 pictures, 3 types of Albatrosses, a Giant Petrel cruising by, a White-bellied Sea Eagle! Crested and White-fronted terns galore and much more.

Birds were amazing, but hard work with the camera! Light was difficult shifting from being nearly dark during heavy rain to blistering sunshine when the sun broke through. Because of the amount of pictures I had to shoot a lot of jpg ... raw would have been better, but would also have given much more time editing in front of the computer :-)

Hopefully this will be enough to convince the rest of the gang to come along next time there is a bit of pelagic action - I am nearly getting afraid that some of the BWs are not taking their "sport" that seriously :-)

Pelagic, Long Bay 2