10th February - Bass Straits, Australia

We left Hobart and started the journey to mainland Australia, when we woke up in the morning we were heading north along the eastern shore of Tasmania.  We would be at sea until early tomorrow morning.  It was a bright morning but with a very cool wind, so not a day to spend by the pool.

After breakfast I positioned myself on the ninth deck and set myself in to watch the sea as we cruised.  First significant sighting was a new bird for me, a Buller's Albatross, identified from the pattern on the bill, there being a definite stripe of yellow on the top and bottom of the bill, with dark in the middle.

Like the Shy Albatross there is grey below the eye and on the neck.

They were happy to sit on the sea until the ship came close.

Another of the Mollymawks, they have to come close to complete the identification.

We passed a Lighthouse as we approached the north of Tasmania.

A Short-tailed Shearwater, similar to the Sooty Shearwater we had seen the day before, but the underwing shows a silvery patch and lacks the streaks seen in the Sooty.

A Salvin's Albatross, again the bill helps clinch the identity, it has a full grey hood and a dark tip to the bill.

Short-tailed Shearwaters were very plentiful.

A Shy Shearwater on the sea.

A huge raft of Short-tailed Shearwaters.

Shy Albatross, the commonest Albatross we have seen on the cruise.

As seems to be the way, the birds dried up after 11:00am and we continued north into the Bass Straits, the water between mainland Australia and Tasmania.

Late afternoon I returned to watching as the birds started to reappear, I was watching from the suite balcony.  There were Short-tailed Shearwaters passing, but of more interest were these White-faced Storm Petrels.

Half the size of the Short-tailed Shearwaters and a third of the size of the Albatrosses, these tint sea birds pattered across the waves.

The feet are dangled from the body as it appeared to "kick off" the surface of the water.  In flight it would change direction frequently and abruptly, disappearing behind the waves.

It gets its name from the white stripe that goes around the head above the eye and the bill.

We had a dinner reservation in the La Dame restaurant tonight so I had to leave the birds and get myself ready.  The next day was a day ashore in Geelong on the mainland.