Phoebetria fusca (Sooty Albatross) IUCN Status: Endangered Behold a photo at least three years in the making!
Most folks who’ve tracked my recent photography will know that I’ve been utterly smitten with pelagic birds. There is something that aligns just right in my brain. I think it’s the intersection of the sea and boats, with photography and nature, mixed with the thrill of each day being full of unknown variables. Which species will come in? What will the weather be like? What will the seas be like? Who will be on the boat (including any of the folk I’ve got to know over the years)? Light and stability and subject and shared experience all fused into a unique moment each and every time. Sometimes it’s amazing. Sometimes not. I’ve never been a gambler, but the trill of the hoped for unknown is now much more relatable.
As your trip count increases, you see more and more species. Obviously, you see the common birds early, and then over time more and more of the rarer ones. I’ve done enough trips now, that I’ve seen basically all of the regular species, and now need to see the sort of birds that only occur very infrequently in Tasmania (where I’ve done all my trips so far from). However, there was one somewhat regular species, that I’d not seen yet: Sooty albatross. To make matters worse, for some reason, I’d decided they were the most handsome (sorry Buller’s albatross, you’re a close second), making my failure to photograph and witness them all the more vexing.
For the last three years, I’ve come down from Queensland in the Tassie winter in the hope of seeing and photographing these fantastic birds. Sometimes more than once in the same winter. This year, I happened to be down for family reasons, and my friend Karen Blake (a really good egg) reached out to see if I’d like a spot on the boat. Yes please!
I cannot overstate the joy of dreaming, thinking and planned for, working towards something for years and having it realised. On the 16th of May 2026 a Sooty albatross appeared out of the vast horizon and blessed a boatful of people with the privilege of shared experience for a few minutes.
