Sadly, the best days of seabirding may be behind us. Climate change, plastic pollution and overfishing have all conspired to reduce seabird numbers to a fraction of what they once were. But magic can still happen at sea (Poseidon has favoured me many times), and the chance of locking eyes with a species that I’ve never seen before is not yet utterly remote… particularly in summer.

Bulwer’s Petrel and Buller’s Shearwater are the only two ‘regular’ species I still need at sea in SEQ. Both are ‘present’ in the summer months… but Bulwer’s has been seen only three times in Queensland (ever – and each time I was not on the boat as I was away for work), and Buller’s hasn’t been seen regularly since the early 2010’s, and not since 2018 (when I saw one off Southport, but not well enough to tick). For once, I was actually going to be home for the traditional Christmas double-header; with conditions looking ok-ish would this be THE YEAR? Would I finally clean up my seabird summer bogeys? With some hope and a little trepidation I set my alarm for 0330 (groan) and entered the dream kingdom on Friday night.

SATURDAY

Christ almighty. Getting up an hour before dawn in summer is REALLY not that fun, especially when you’ve been doing frog surveys in the week. For once I was organised though and had only to nail a cup of the Earl before hopping in the red rocket. About halfway down to Southport a happy, gurning face emerged from the darkness next to me – Andy and Paul were hooting along in Andy’s ‘Cruiser. Shortly afterwards I saw a Peregrine carrying some poor wretch home for brekky. A good omen?

Upon arrival, I saw the gathered seabirders milling about the carpark before zooming off towards the Grinner II. Upon stowing my kit I discovered that Rich had been left behind in the mad rush and I ran back to collect him. A mix of regulars and blow-ins watched the sun come up over the sea in front of us as we headed out. Inshore, all the trawlers had cleaned up and we added just the usual dross through the abysmal plain. As soon as we hit the 40-fathom line I went below for a nap. I find it easy and pleasant to sleep on the Grinner and I needed some more zed’s if I was to pull a MEGA out of the hat later on. With no sign of Buller’s inshore and not much wind I reckoned I could get away with it. I awoke with a change in the engine note and rushed upstairs to eyeball two Red-tailed Tropicbirds that were sitting on the water. Dr F and Mr K also photo’d a distant White-tailed Tropicbird but I have to confess I did not lift my bins to that one. We were in deep water now, about a mile inside Jim’s. I went down to grab some brekky from my bag … and a cookilaria with a hell of a lot of white in the underwing ripped past and fucked off quick smart to the east, only really showing as a silhouette to most of us. Paul and Rich had seen it from the cabin approaching the boat and were pretty sure it was a Cook’s but it went through to the keeper.

While I was scanning for it I picked up a bird with a pale underbelly that was drifting slowly across the wake about 500m back… the adrenaline started pumping but I never got a good look at it. Shortly thereafter, with a couple of Tahiti’s following, we pulled up as a cookilaria headed up the slick towards us… a Black-winged Petrel! Not a bad start to the day! It was quickly followed by two more and Mr K photographed another distant bird which I had thought had a darker head… back of camera confirmed a Gould’s Petrel. Paul made the decision to begin the drift as the cookilaria show began. The light winds were affecting the Black-winged and they were often fluttering about low to the water. The dread that the pale bird I’d seen was a Buller’s was thankfully dispelled by this behaviour.