Cape Banks and Long Bay - Pelagic Excursion

Last year I was blessed with some seriously good winter storms, nothing better than a cold winter morning with a solid south easterly when you are out trying to get a photo of an albatross or two. This year has been very disappointing when it comes to albatross sightings, it seems I never really got the combination of weekend and strong onshore winds.


Back in the beginning of September, however, a single weekend seemed to be decent i.e. weather so rubbish that the birds would not expect any human being foolish enough to be standings exposed on the cliffs, so there was a chance those pelagic winter visitors would relax and drift close to shore hopefully getting inside Bigma range.

Cape Banks did not deliver any albatrosses this September weekend, but I managed to finally get decent views of a few Hutton's Shearwaters passing by, they were a first for me :-)

Conditions were pretty rough and I decided to retreat. Furthest out on the cliffs around Long Bay an abandoned military observation post gives good shelter when all other options are too extreme and with nothing else on I opted for a few hours out in the "shed".

The shearwaters were flying too far away from the coast to allow for identification, but quite a few terns came in literally flying straight above me and a nice surprise was a juvenile Pacific Gull hanging around. Earlier this year I saw my first ever Pacific Gull in Long Bay, few weeks before seeing hundreds of them down in Wilson's Promontory.

All good - after a day like that you feel proud to have been outside, just make sure to wash some of all that saltwater spray of the camera and it will all be fine :-)

Cape Banks - Australian Hobby in Flight

Went for another little quick afternoon visit to Cape Banks, where we had first seen the Australian Hobby. This time we not only saw it again, but we managed to get a fairly good BIF :-)

After all the excitement with the Pacific Gull at Long Bay, Gemma had been all fired up about finishing of all the (usual) gulls - so mission accomplished and lots of cheering(?) when the Kelp Gull above cruised by.

All good! Great little trip and all this running around after work keeps you fit :-)

Fish Photography with the Bigma? :-)

Before jumping in the water at Clovelly, we had seen a Black-browed Albatross passing probably less than 50 meters from the shore. So after our dip and a second breakfast we decided to test our luck at the cliffs around Long Bay.

It all started out very normal a steady stream of various feathered wildlife was passing by and little G had already started ticking.

Small fish are eaten by bigger fish ... and more or less everything else as well! In addition to the underwater dangers throw in a bit of peril from above; albatrosses, gannets and a few thousand gulls and you know how dangerous it is to be little fish :-) Moving towards the clifftops we could see at least two large collections of seabirds preying on bait balls, one of them a few hundred meters from shore, but the other in range for a few pictures.

The feast slowly moved closer to the coast and we were able to see the predators attacking from below.

We talked to a couple of spear fishers standing evaluating the situation. Apparently the waters just north of Long Bay is a superb spot for good size targets if you are equipped with a speargun ... and do not mind the odd shark measuring you up ;-)

Great guns! It seems that there is always something happening out there when you get your lazy bum of the sofa :-)

Have started considering buying a new lens! I obviously need something wider than 50mm at some stage ... I guess(?) But imagine how exciting it would be to do a bit of macro photography! :-) Tempted by the Tokina 11-16mm f/2.8 for the wide end and the Sigma 150mm f/2.8 macro for the small stuff.

Whales and Albatrosses Galore

After having gone through a couple of scary saltwater incidents with my camera at my usual albatross spotting site. I was very pleased when I received a tip about another site a little further South that apparently was much more camera friendly. Combined with the presence of hundreds of whales making their way North in the waters just of the Sydney coast, I reasoned that being at an elevated position overlooking the ocean, on a sunny crispy clear winter day, just the Bigma and I alone, would be an excellent way of recharging the capacitors.

It was action-packed! Before I had found a good seat on the rocks the first two whales had already started performing approximately 700 meters from the coast - when something has whale size, 700 meters is no problem for the Bigma and I got a picture or two ;-)

Starting to scan the water I realized there was an albatross sitting feeding on something "floaty" not that far from the coast, great having floaty stuff around, the entire time I used down there this spot was constantly being visited by seabirds flying in, eating and eventually leaving again, giving great bird in flight/landing/takeoff pictures (BIF, BIL and BIT).

I realized after my first two attempts that it is impossible to show pictures of albatrosses taken with a telelens and make the viewer realize how big these birds actually are ... except if you get something else into the frame. The attraction of the floaty stuff gave me the shot I wanted :-)

A seagull had been having a little go, but wisely decided to move when an albatross landed, luckily I managed to catch the situation while they were both there and the albatross still had its wings out.
All fired up about my luck with the birds I started focusing on the whales again and managed to get a pictures with a little (compared to the whale) boat close to the surfacing whale - some people just cannot get close enough.

All in all an absolute top spot! With birds flying so close that the 3 meter focusing distance of the Bigma (@500mm) nearly became a problem :-D

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