Chaos at Bastion Point

 After an enjoyable hour on the croquet lawn yesterday we dropped down to the tip of Bastion Point.  As we walked towards the breakwater I noticed it was well endowed with cormorants.  In fact there were 4 species there: Great, Little Black, Little Pied and these 3, which finally resolved to Black-faced. The problem I was having was that the black didn't seem to come far enough down the face: this was a memory issue for me, resolved by the Australian Bird Guide.

Frances had gone on to the beach towards the tip, and as I headed towards her I noticed some action out to sea.  At a quick glance this was a good flock of Gannets and Crested Terns: well worth looking at.

Then I noticed a lot of whitish birds on, and just above, the water about 300m offshore.  Crap photo but it gives an idea of the density of the birds.  (This is a small proportion of the flock.)  I posted the following photos of the flock to Australian Bird Identification Facebook Group and the gurus there promptly advised of the ID of the mass.

Disregard the gull, the others are Fluttering Shearwaters.

The two at the bottom right have been identified as Hutton's Shearwaters.  Quite rare in this area so rated a Bird A Day code 7.  Also my 500th Australian bird species.

More Fluttering Shearwaters.

Part of the flock on the water.  I ended up estimating 1,000 Fluttering Shearwaters: they just kept streaming in from the Gabo direction.

I estimated 50 Australasian Gannets of all ages.

I have since been told of other observations of smilar inshore flocks along the coast from Quarry Beach to the entrance.  A great sight!