2nd August
From Angus Wilson
On the OceanWanderers Bookshelf Blog, I've posted a detailed review of 'Petrels Night and Day: A Sound Approach Guide', a remarkable new book by Magnus Robb, Killian Mullarney and others.
http://oceanwanderersbooks.blogspot.com/2008/07/petrels-night-and-day-sound-approach.html
Using numerous sound recordings, color photographs, painted plates and maps, the authors take us on an extraordinary journey through the natural history of all of the gadfly petrels, shearwaters, fulmar and storm-petrels that nest or visit the Western Palearctic region on a regular basis. A number of new or recent splits are discussed and illustrated in considerable detail. Some may spark lively debate - hopefully on Seabird-News - and certainly cause pelagic veterans to look again at some familiar offshore species. With some glaring exceptions, all of the tubenoses found regularly off the east coast of North American are treated in full and readers on both sides of the pond, if not beyond, will find much of value in this book.
2nd Augus
The Fiji Petrel Expedition 2008 by Tony Pym
Most birders will know the story behind the enigmatic and near-mythical Fiji Petrel. Unrecorded from the type specimen taken in 1855 until 1984 when Dick Watling had the extraordinary experience, when spotlighting, of a bird crash-landing into his head! Breeding is suspected on the small island of Gau but detailed searching there has not found any birds. Some 10 though, mainly juveniles, have since crashed onto roofs and grounded in a local village there. One of these last year, 2007, having died, is now preserved as a study skin (the 1855 skin is at the BMNH and this second in Fiji). The biology of the species is completely unknown.
The voyage had three main goals:
1. To learn the at-sea identification of the Fiji Petrel, observe behaviour if possible, and hopefully get an understanding of the likely numbers in the area.
2. To try to obtain photos of Fiji Petrel at sea, for use in both scientific and conservation/education publications to protect native Fijian birds.
3. To survey other species of petrels in this area, on which limited information is currently available.
The proposed expedition dates, at sea, were 17th-26th July.
The seabird team aboard consisted of Hadoram Shirihai (Israel), Dick Watling (Fiji), Tony Pym (England),
Patric Blomquist (Sweden), J örg Kretzschmar (Germany), Geoff Jones (Australia) and Dick Newell (England)
2008 report
This year's mission to try and observe the Fiji Petrel at sea unfortunately had to be aborted after three days due to mechanical problems with the boat. Two chumming sessions on the journey to Gau, the island where birds have been grounded in the past, produced four Kermadec Petrels (only the second record for Fiji waters), a White-necked Petrel (though possibly a Vanuatu Petrel), 20+ Tahiti Petrels, four Collared Petrels and one probable, though brief, Providence Petrel. Of special note was a small 'Cookilaria-sized' dark petrel seen by three of the team, which flew under the Kermadec's giving a direct size comparison.
On the second day at sea we chummed some 16 miles southeast of Gau. Two Polynesian Storm-petrels (the first confirmed in the Fiji and Samoa biogeographical region for 132 years) were observed plus two more Kermadecs. Tahiti Petrels numbered about 16 over a three-hour period and two Collared Petrels were distant. Once more, a small dark petrel was seen momentarily, only to fly into the sun's glare.
Following the boat's technical problems the group decided to fly to Taveuni in the Fiji Islands and try for seabirds there (and the endemic landbirds in any spare time). We could charter only a high-speed sports boat and chummed the first day 18 miles offshore and the second day at the Vuna seamount. The highlight was a White-bellied Storm-petrel (a species never reliably confirmed from Fiji waters) on the first day and three Gould's Petrels on the second. Day totals were 50+ Tahiti Petrels, one Collared Petrel on the first day and 30+ Tahiti Petrels on the second - on our return to the quay at dusk we had a gathering of an additional 50+ Tahiti Petrels, waiting to return to their breeding burrows ashore.
Supplementary species seen during sailings were many Red-footed Boobies and Crested Terns, flocks of both Brown and Black Noddies, Lesser Frigatebirds, a couple of Black-naped Terns and a lone Bridled Tern.
We had two cetacean species; a pod of about 10 Pantropical Spotted Dolphins off Viti Levu and a Dwarf Minke Whale, feeding in the chum off Taveuni.
It is evident, from the records above, the real possibilities for groundbreaking research in this marine area and it was most frustrating for us to have to leave the region prematurely. Indeed, for some species of seabirds our research, and discussions aboard - for example, on identification and taxonomic issues - raised many more questions than answers.
Another sailing next year is already in the early planning stages, and most likely will be from mid to late July, with 10 days intended at sea – this time frame we believe the best for success with Fiji Petrel, based on ageing of the available specimens and grounded birds. We shall have the best type of boat for working these waters and have found a new chum mix that works extremely well with the tubenoses. Already Hadoram Shirihai and Dick Watling have confirmed they will again be on the voyage.
We shall announce more over the coming months for those interested in joining us in 2009. Please monitor the seabird newsgroups or contact me direct (Tony_Pym@hotmail.com). Participants will share equally all onboard costs and NatureFiji-MareqetiViti (www.naturefiji.org) will support the expedition. This continuing seabird survey we believe will confirm yet more exciting species in the local seas and provide further insight on the mysterious Fiji Petrel itself.
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| Tahiti Petrels |
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| Gould's Petrel |
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| White-bellied Storm Petrels |
18th June
‘Alarming’ Decline in Nesting Seabirds at Sandwood
This year’s count of nesting fulmars on John Muir Trust’s Sandwood Bay estate has raised fears that 2008 could be another dire year for Scotland’s seabirds. Only 261 nesting pairs were counted on the cliffs that once supported over 700 pairs, representing a decline of around 60% in ten years.(1) The Trust has been counting breeding Fulmars, a key indicator species for the health of North Sea, on the same three mile stretch of cliffs between Sandwood Bay and Sheigra since 1997.
“Our surveys in both 2008 and 2007 have recorded the lowest Fulmar counts since records began,” commented Cathel Morrison, Conservation Manager for Sandwood Estate. “It looks as though the Fulmar, one of our most common and resilient sea birds, is in as much trouble as other species such as puffins, kittiwakes, guillemots and arctic terns.”
Related to the Albatross, the Fulmar looks superficially like a gull but is in fact a member of the petrel family. Superb gliders, they live much of their life out to sea and are the constant companion to fishing boats in the North Sea and Atlantic. They eat discards from fishing boats, as well as zooplankton and small fish under the ocean’s surface and can live for up to fifty years.
The Trust’s Fulmar count mirrors annual research collated by the Joint Nature Conservation Committee (JNCC), the Government’s advisor on nature conservation, into seabird numbers in Britain and Ireland.(2) Latest available figures for surveys in 2005 and 2006 show a decrease in Fulmars in western regions of Britain, combined with poor breeding success in the North of Scotland. There has been a downward trend in numbers across Britain since the late 1990s.
Because Fulmars do not dive for sand eels like many other seabirds their population decline cannot be attributed to the disappearance - linked by many to climate change - of this single source of food. Fulmars could be suffering from a more general famine and are likely to have been affected by the dwindling whitefish fishing industry.
Before the mid 18th century, Fulmars only bred in one or two colonies in Iceland and St Kilda. They were essential to the islanders of St Kilda, who harvested them for food and oil which they used to burn in their lamps.(3) The last 350 years has seen a spectacular expansion of Fulmar populations throughout NW Europe and across the Atlantic to Canada.
“These survey results are alarming,” concluded Cathel. “If this rate of decline does not level off soon, we could be looking the collapse of our seabird breeding colony at Sandwood within the next few years.”
Contact
Communications Officer Jamie Grant, T: 01796 484 936, M: 07979 575803, email: communications@jmt.org.
Pictures of Fulmars and Cathel Morrison counting nesting Fulmars at Sandwood are available from Russel Cheyne, email: russel@russelcheyne.com
Notes:
Annual figures are a mean of between two and five counts carried out each breeding season
538, 000 pairs were counted in the last UK and Ireland wide census in 1998 – 2002.
Fulmars can vomit a foul smelling stomach oil up to two metres to repel unwanted visitors.
The John Muir Trust is the UK’s leading wild land conservation charity. The Trust owns and safeguards eight iconic areas of wild land including parts of Ben Nevis, the Red Cuillin in Skye, Schiehallion, Quinag and Sandwood Bay. The Trust works closely with the communities on its own land and with the community bodies that own and manage land in Knoydart, North Harris and Assynt. For more information go to www.jmt.org.
The John Muir Trust campaigns against threats to wild land and for wild places to be valued by society. The Trust believes that many of these areas are currently threatened by inappropriate development, particularly from badly sited, industrial scale wind power development proposals. The Trust believes that small-scale, sensitively sited energy projects with direct community benefits are the way forward in environmentally-sensitive areas.
The John Muir Trust encourages people to experience wild places and to ‘put something back’ through the John Muir Award. For more information go to http://www.johnmuiraward.org/.
The Trust takes its name from John Muir, the Scot who founded the modern conservation movement. Born in 1838 in Dunbar, East Lothian, John Muir emigrated as a child to America. He went on to find fame as a botanist, geologist, mountaineer and pioneer of what is now called ecology. During his explorations of the high Sierra and Alaska, Muir became aware of the threats to wild places and successfully campaigned for the establishment of National Parks to safeguard vast tracts of wild lands such as Yosemite Valley in California.
13th June
San Francisco Chronicle
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2008/06/15/SP1K118B94.DTL&hw=krill&sn=001&sc=1000
Krill, the small shrimp-like crustacean and a primary link in the marine food chain, have returned in huge numbers to the Bay Area coast and Farallones National Marine Sanctuary. This is also great news for marine birds, such as murres, and other fish that need krill to survive in large numbers.
"The ocean is just loaded with krill, first time in three years," said Craig Stone, owner of Emeryville Sportfishing, which runs a fleet of boats for the ocean, bay and lower delta. "Everybody on the water is talking about it," said Stone, who met with the Pacific Fisheries Management Council last week. "It's probably the most important thing right now for the return of the salmon. Krill is a key to ocean abundance. We're all pretty elated for what this could mean."
Three years ago, scientists identified a change in wind patterns across the ocean and predicted that a lack of krill would cause severe declines of salmon, along with other fish and marine birds that depend on krill for food in spring and early summer. That is exactly what transpired in the past two years and led to this year's complete shutdown of ocean salmon fishing.
But in the past three months, howling winds out of the northwest returned to the central and northern California coasts, occasionally hitting 30 mph, as last week. "It's kept a lot of boats off the water, but it's just what the ocean needs," Stone said.
The reason is, winds out of the northwest divert surface ocean currents by 90 degrees. In turn, deep, cold water rich in nutrients then rises to the surface to replace the surface water. This is called upwelling. When sunlight then penetrates the nutrient-rich water, it sets off plankton and krill, the foundation of the coast's marine food chain, and marine life can flourish.
12th June
Seawatch SW update from Dr Russel Wynn www.seawatch-sw.org
Send us your UK Balearic Shearwater sightings now!
One of the main aims of SeaWatch SW is to provide a central point for Balearic Shearwater recording in UK waters; this will allow us to put project results into a national context. The 2007 results are already feeding into ongoing conservation efforts led by RSPB and Birdlife International. We are grateful to all observers who provided us with 2007 records, and urge anyone who sees a Balearic Shearwater in the UK in 2008 to contact us with details of the sighting, and/or submit their record to Birdguides. We have already received over 130 records up to the end of May, roughly double the number received to this point in 2007.
NEW SeaWatch SW gears up for 2008 survey
Due to the continuing support of our sponsors and volunteer observers, SeaWatch SW will continue to run a full programme in 2008. As well as co-ordinating the recording of Balearic Shearwaters in UK waters throughout the year, we will again be surveying all marine wildlife offshore of the Gwennap Head watchpoint (near Land’s End in Cornwall) from 15 July to 15 October. Have a look at our 2007 annual report to see what we discovered last year, and volunteer to get involved this summer if you haven’t already!
NEW Volunteer observers still required in Cornwall this summer
Thanks to a great response from our volunteer observers, we have coverage for about 90% of the 93-day survey period by experienced Seabird Observers, with supporting Marine Wildlife Observers for about 75% of the period. This is therefore a final call for volunteer observers to fill the remaining slots. One or more Seabird Observers are required for the period 4-13 September only. Volunteers must have previous experience of Balearic Shearwaters and other migratory seabirds and, in return for recording all seabirds seen during a full day of observation, core seabird observers are provided with free ‘bed and brunch’ at Ardensawah Farm B&B, a short walk from the Gwennap Head watchpoint. Supporting Marine Wildlife observers need no prior experience and most available slots are in August and September. Although accommodation is not provided this is a great opportunity for students and conservationists who want to get experience of marine wildlife observation and recording. Further details and a provisional schedule can be found on the Get involved pages.
NEW Unprecedented Balearic Shearwater influx in early 2008
This year is already shaping up to be very interesting for Balearic Shearwaters, and it appears that the species is now essentially resident in small numbers off southern England. Unprecedented numbers lingered into January and February off southwest coasts, and small numbers continued to be seen throughout March and April. After a lull in early May, small numbers of ‘returning’ birds were again seen off southern England from 21 May onwards. The peak count this winter was up to 50 birds off Portland Bill on 13 Jan, a winter record count for the UK. Monthly summaries and distribution maps can be found on the Results page.
NEW SeaWatch SW data contribute to conservation planning
SeaWatch SW data are helping conservation organisations in the early stages of planning for Marine Protected Areas off southwest UK. Finding Sanctuary is a partnership charged with establishing a network of marine reserves in the region, following legislation laid out in the proposed Marine Bill. SeaWatch SW data are helping to establish key species and locations that are priorities for protection. Examples include concentrations of moulting Balearic Shearwaters off Portland Bill in mid-summer, and feeding Basking Sharks and cetaceans over the Runnelstone reef off Gwennap Head.
NEW SeaWatch SW and Cornwall Wildlife Trust join forces for Basking Shark survey
Cornwall Wildlife Trust is joining forces with SeaWatch SW this year in a study of Basking Sharks off southwest Cornwall. In addition to the regular survey off Gwennap Head between mid-July and mid-September, we are hoping to specifically record Basking Sharks there from mid-June onwards, and also monitor one or two other sites in southwest Cornwall between 15-31 July at the same time as Gwennap Head is being monitored. The aim is to better understand how tide and seafloor topography affects the time and duration that Basking Sharks appear at the surface. The call for observers, including results from SeaWatch SW 2007, was recently featured on the BBC News website.
NEW Ken Shaw joins up with SeaWatch SW for unique pelagic trip
We recently advertised for an experienced marine wildlife observer to join us during a scientific expedition to the northeast Atlantic this autumn. From 1 September to 7 October the flagship of the UK research fleet, RRS James Cook, will be working offshore between the north Biscay margin and the Canary Islands as part of a geological research expedition. The marine wildlife observer will be responsible for recording all seabirds and cetaceans during the trip, and providing daily updates for the SeaWatch SW website. Of those who applied, two stood out as being particularly strong candidates. After some deliberation we were delighted to offer the place to Ken Shaw, one of the UK’s most experienced seabird observers and a previous supporter of SeaWatch SW. Well done to Ken, and thanks to all who applied. Watch this space to see what we discover!
NEW SeaWatch SW project attracts more high-quality students!
We are pleased to announce that Alice Jones will be joining the SeaWatch SW team this autumn as a NERC-funded PhD student, sponsored by SAHFOS. Alice will be using SeaWatch SW data to investigate how environmental and biological factors affect the distribution and occurrence of migratory marine apex predators off southwest England. We are also pleased to welcome Rachel Evans and Kathryn Driscoll, who are undertaking research projects this summer on Basking Sharks off Gwennap Head. Finally, thanks to Rafe Holmes, Leire Ordorika, Steph Hinder and Cecile Chauvel, who supported the project in 2007 as part of their Masters research projects.
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Balearic Shearwater by Kris Gillam
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Basking Shark by Gavin Parsons
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29th May
By Hiraoka Takashi [hiraoka@yamashina.or.jp]
On Mukojima Island, Ogasawara Islands, 350 km to the south of the
traditional breeding island of Torishima, all the ten chicks of the
Short-tailed Albatross that was transported in February from Torishima
successfully fledged.
See the following webpage;
http://www.yamashina.or.jp/english/whatsnew/2008_3_01.html
2nd June
Observations by Mike Prince
I have now put a gallery of skua photos from this trip online at
http://www.bubo.org/skuas
There are a variety of difficult immature and non-breeding plumages pictured
but they do appear to be virtually all Pomarine (as to be expected from my
field views). However one bird, an extremely pale and small-looking
immature, I find especially difficult. Direct links to this bird are:
http://www.bubo.org/skuas/content/200802135325E_large.html
http://www.bubo.org/skuas/content/200802135326E_large.html
http://www.bubo.org/skuas/content/200802135327E_large.html
At first glance this bird might suggest Long-tailed, but I feel it is
probably more likely an Arctic (Parasitic). I suspect that bleaching is the
cause of the extreme whiteness.
I'd value any comments from anyone who knows immature/non-breeding skuas
well (if there is such a thing).
23rd April
Seabird English Names by Bill Bourne
In his discussion of seabird English names on 27 April and in his blog (http://oceanwanderersnews.blogspot.com/2008/04/name-game-quick-look-at-some-of-more.html ) Angus Wilson cites a lot of recent authors who all quote each other but makes little attempt to go back to the origin of the names. In 1993 the Royal Naval Bird-watching Society, who have been collecting seabird observations for over half a century, attempted a reasoned justification for the names they preferred (Sea Swallow 42: 16-27), which seems to have passed unnoticed. The situation is now critical because the "Birds of the World- recommended English names" produced by Frank Gill (a good seabirder) and Minturn Wright for the International Ornithological Congress in 2006 is likely to be adopted by all sorts of editors who know nothing about the subject, and imposed on us, and it seems time those who do know something made their views known.
To go through some debatable cases in Gill & Wright:-
P. 8 and 25. We prefer Storm-petrel for the family Hydrobatidae and Diving-petrel for the Pelecanoididae to distinguish them from other petrels. We do not favour capitals after hyphens.
P. 22. The Little Penguin is no fairy (and not blue either).
P. 23. We do not favour the political reclassification of albatrosses in an unrefereed work of uncertain date, which leads to a lot of vague reports of forms inseparable at sea.
P. 24. Beck's Petrel has now of course been resurrected.
Newell's Shearwater seems osteologically rather distinct, with a projecting keel of the sternum, and may deserve specific status. The Christmas Shearwater is osteologically similar to the Manx group of shearwaters. On the other hand the molecular differences between the small shearwaters seem greater than their physical ones, possibly due to the amount of isolation, and they may now be over-split. Some of the critical ones such as Heinroth's and Bannerman's were not included in the investigations.
P. 28. Current tropicbird names are unsatisfactory. They have traditionally been Red- and Yellow-billed in the Atlantic and Red- and White-tailed in the Indo-Pacific. Both lepturus and aethereus have more or less white tails, so Yellow-billed seems more distinct for the former. Both aethereus and rubricauda also have red bills, but there is no obvious way out of that.
P. 29-30. The shagmorants present a problem. We use cormorant for the more terrestrial and shag for the more marine species.
P. 41. We feel Yellow-billed Sheathbill is more distinctive- they are all snowy.
P. 45. Mew Gull is a tautomer (mew in English, mowe in German, meeuw in Dutch, mage in Danish, make in Norwegian, mas in Swedish, mafur in Icelandic, mews in Polish and mouette in French are general names for gull). We prefer Common Gull.
P. 46. The Yellow-legged Gull is now usually L. michahellis, the Caspian Gull L. cachinnans, Heuglin's Gull L. heuglini (possibly intergrading with armenicus?), which are rather distinct entities. We loathe "Common Black-headed Gull, never used where is common, and are not attached to "Great Black-headed Gull", for which "Pallas's Gull" seems to be coming into use. Is there any need for "Chinese Crested Tern" when "Chines Tern" would do?
P. 47. The names "Sooty Noddy" for the Lesser Noddy and "Angel Tern" for the White Tern seem no improvement. I prefer McCormick's to the South Polar Skua (after all, he found it), but this seems a lost cause. How did jaegers get among the skuas- it is a German word not even used in Germany? Murre like Loon is English while Guillemot is French. It is confusing to have the last alternating between Uria and Cepphus, where the NW European name for the latter is Tystie.
And some names discussed by Angus, who quotes a lot of recent authors who are all quoting each other, but few older ones:-
Personally I do not favour such extensive splitting of the great albatrosses (Gerfaut 79: l05-ll6); if it is accepted, antipodensis is not characteristic of New Zealand.
Steller had a hard time discovering his albatross among other things. He deserves to be remembered, "short-tailed" does not.
When John Warham and I originall separated the giant petrels (Ardea 54: 45- 67) we called them Northern and Southern. We do not consider the alternatives an improvement.
It has always proved an uphill struggle to get people to spell "Trindade" properly. Personally I can see little difference from the Herald Petrel and prefer that earlier name.
There were still hundreds of De Fillippi's petrels on the outliers of Robinson Crusoe, but none on the main island, 25 years ago.
When I first split the Soft-plumaged-type petrels (Bull. Brit. Orn. Cl. l03: 52-58) I followed Bob Murphy in preferring local names (Gon-gon is Portuguese Creole), but other people again knew better. After these I prefer the names of the people who discovered the northern ones, Fea and Zino, to Cape Verde and Madeira, devised in American arm-chairs and liable to lead to confusion with other species.
We have always referred to Great Shearwaters,
Storm-petrel names were fairly stable until about half a century ago other arm-chair Americans (perhaps especially Gene Eisenmann?) decided to replace eponyms often involving English admirals with more descriptive names- we started complaining ineffectually long ago (see below). These merely seem to have caused confusion, as in the Tower of Babel,
It is not clear who originally suggested the name British for what we once called the Storm Petrel (particularly annoying to the Irish, who have more of them)- it may have been W,B. Alexander. European does seem more appropriate.
The trouble with the long-eastablished name White-throated Storm-petrel is that some are dark (Bull. Brit. Orn. Cl. 77: 40-42). Polynesian Storm-petrel is another recent American innovation but also seems appropriate.
"Ringed" does not seem such an appropriate name for O. hornbyi, but as already remarked a protest has had no effect (Condor 70: 283).
It seems time it was accepted that it is not respectable to muck about with nomenclature, and more creditable to conserve it. People who do not know much about it should lay off it.
23rd April
By Russ Wanless
The latest round of the IUCN Red Listing has been completed. Bad news for the Tristan Albatross (essentially endemic to Gough Island, South
Atlantic) is that it has been upgraded from endangered to critically endangered. Numerous articles about this online - just google search for Tristan albatross Gough...Good news is that the new listing is being used to pressure the UK govt to step up to the plate and provide funding to eradicate the predatory mice.
Several other seabird spp have also been upgraded, including the Atlantic Petrel (also endemic to Gough).
22nd April
By Angus Wilson
I noticed a short note to the letter page of Birdwatch magazine (June
2008 issue) from Steve Wood (New Zealand) drawing attention to a gadfly petrel he'd photographed in March 2006 near the Kermadec Islands, New Zealand, that is suggestive of Vanuatu Petrel Pterodroma occulta. The photo is reproduced on the Wrybill Birding Tours web site <http://www.wrybill-tours.com/idproblems/pterodroma1.htm>. It is not clear if there is a series of photographs and whether the bird struck him as unusual (e.g. small) in the field.
This very poorly known seabird was first described by Imber and Tennyson in 2001. Six specimens were obtained by the American Museum of Natural History (AMNH) Whitney South Sea Expedition in January 1927, near the Banks Islands but until more recently, not recognized as different from the very similar White-necked Petrel P. cervicalis.
In 1983, an additional specimen was taken in northern New South Wales, Australia.
They are significantly smaller than White-necked and show a more expansive area of gray on the underside of the primaries and a broader dark leading edge to the underwing. White-necked Petrels typically show a less dark underprimaries (e.g. photo (Fig. 15) by Chris Collins on OceanWanderers <http://www.oceanwanderers.com/WPO.html> taken on the 2006 WPO recce).
However, a number of seasoned field observers have commented that the presence of darker primaries is not unique to the smaller form, a point that is also made from analysis of specimens in the Imber and Tennyson paper. Indeed, check out this wonderful shot <http:// www.aviceda.org/abid/birdimages.php?action=birdimage&bid=686&fid=56&p=7&pagesize=1>
taken by B Whylie on a Wollongong pelagic in March 2008.
One interesting but tangential point is the repeated occurrence of pairs of very similar looking seabirds (often found together at sea) that differ markedly in size (Tahiti/Beck's, Fea's/Zino, Greater/ Lesser Snow Petrel). What's up with that?
Some authors (e.g. Michael Brooke 2004) treat Vanuatu and White-necked as conspecific, at least until more is known, but the split has been acknowledged in the new Australian Checklist (Christidis and Boles 2008). An alternative name in the literature is Falla's Petrel in honor of the renowned ornithologist Sir Robert Alexander Falla.
Obviously, seabirders in Australia and New Zealand are looking carefully at 'White-necked/Vanuatu' Petrels and I imagine more information will emerge, especially from birders visiting the waters around the Vanuatu islands. A dedicated chumming expedition, mirroring Hadoram Shirihai's rediscovery of Beck's Petrel in the Bismark Archipelago off Papua New Guinea, may be highly rewarding. I've seen it rumored on the web that Hadoram has photographed candidate Vanuatu's Petrels but have no other information. Perhaps he can chime in here?
The location of Wood's new sighting seems puzzling. The Kermadec Islands (specifically Macauley Island) are the world stronghold for White-necked Petrel with 50,000 nesting pairs, and relatively distant from the locations of the Vanuatuan and Australian specimens. Onley and Scofield (2007) speculate that the birds might breed on Mera Lava (where the types were collected in 1927) and other islands in the northern part of the Vanuatu archipelago. Mere Lava (sometimes spelled Mera Lava) is a small volcanic island 52 km southeast of Gaua in the Banks Group (-14.4629°, 168.042°).
Literature Citations:
Christidis, L. and Walter E Boles (2008) Systematics and Taxonomy of Australian Birds. CSIRO Publishing.
Imber, M. J. and A.J.D. Tennyson (2001) A new petrel species
(Procellariidae) from the south-west Pacific. Emu 101 (2): 123-127.
Wood, S. (2008) Another 'lost' petrel found? Birdwatch June 2008 Issue 192, p21.
Cheers, Angus Wilson
New York City, USA
http://oceanwanderersnews.blogspot.com/
http://oceanwanderersnews.blogspot.com/
http://www.oceanwanderers.com/
22nd May
Wildwings trip report from Chris Collins www.wildwings.co.uk
Recently back home after leading the latest West Pacific Odyssey for Wildwings. As John Brodie-good has been posting regular updates to this newsgroup, I won't list all sightings but here are a few more details on some of our more significant sightings:
Beck's petrel: following inconclusive views off Bougainville of a bird believed to be this species on last year's voyage (and Hadoram Shirhai's subsequent paper in Bull BOC documenting his sightings), all the group enjoyed prolonged views of Beck's petrel this year.
The first confirmed sighting was very close to where last year's bird was seen and up to three definite Beck's petrels showed very well on our oil/chum slick for c1 hour on the morning of 19 April. We then sailed over to New Ireland and as we cruised north up the eastern side of the island in the late afternoon of the same day, we logged another eight birds. Not bad for a species which hadn’t been seen for so many years !!
As noted in my emails to John (which were summarised to this list), those on board felt that Beck’s petrel is even more distinctive than described in HS's paper with size, flight/manovarability and the way the bird holds its head being the three most significant features.
Whilst judging size at sea is never easy, Beck's petrel is noticeably smaller when compared with Tahiti petrel, although assessing this on a lone bird would inevitably be somewhat challenging. During the hour or so we watched the birds in the morning of 19 April, we had 1+ flying in close proximity to several Wilson's storm-petrels and whilst it was (obviously) considerably larger than the storm-petrels, comparing it size-wise to this species seemed almost valid (ie wingspan was c3 times greater), whereas this is a comparison one would not even consider making with a Tahiti petrel !! To see this for yourself, please visit www.wildwings.co.uk/wposhipsightings.html where we have posted a photograph of a Beck's petrel flying close to several Wilson's storm-petrels.
Being cookaleria size, Beck's petrel seems to be far more manoeuvrable than a Tahiti petrel and the birds we watched had a faster flight than the latter species. They also made far tighter turns (eg when ‘wheeling’ over a chum slick) than I have seen from any of many hundreds/thousands of Tahiti petrels I have watched over recent years.
Based on our observations, however, probably the key feature to focus on for anyone looking at/photographing a potential vagrant Beck's petrel is the head. A number of the group commented on how comparatively small this appeared (ie compared to a Tahiti) and the birds were variously described as 'chicken-headed' or 'like a [European] honey-buzzard'. Beck’s petrel can also appear disproportionately long necked (when compared with a Tahiti) and again this can be seen in some of the photos which have been posted on the Wildwings website.
Polynesian Storm-petrel - there was only one confirmed sighting of this species on this year's voyage compared with a minimum of eleven birds in 2007. What made this year's bird significant, however, was that it was found over a seamount just within Australian territorial waters north of Norfolk Island and as far as I am aware it will be the first record for Australia. An article on the sighting has been written by the finder, Bob Flood, for a forthcoming issue of Birding World, however, the record will also be submitted to the Birds Australia Records Committee (BARC). To see a photograph of this bird, again please refer to the Wildwings website at the address mentioned above.
Collared petrel - as on last year's voyage, a number of Collared petrels were seen including several birds which were observed within Australian territorial waters north of Norfolk Island. As with Polynesian Storm-petrel, it is my understanding that this species is not yet on the official Australian list, however, based on two voyages I have made through these waters, it would seem that this species is actually not uncommon at least in March/April. Again a submission will be made to BARC in due course, although there is clearly now a question mark as to whether this species should really be considered an Australian vagrant.
Heinroth's shearwater - another WPO speciality and this year we logged eleven individuals off Central Bougainville. Interestingly none were seen off Southern Bougainville and the most reliable area seems to be over some underwater features we have identified a little further north up the coast. Interestingly, Bob Flood and Bryan Thomas (WPO Wildwings tour participants) also saw this species off Kolombangara on a ‘mini-pelagic’ whilst the main group were ashore looking for land birds, although no shearwaters were seen as we cruised away from Kolombangara in the late afternoon of 17 April.
Short-tailed albatross – unlike last year, we were able to take the ship close in to Torishima and enjoyed a spectacular morning with 40+ STAs seen. Within three miles or so of the island, we found that this species was reasonably numerous and we had almost all plumages scrapping for squid a matter of metres off the ship – definitely one of the highlights of the voyage !!! Photos will shortly be posted on the Wildwings website.
New Zealand storm-petrel – great views of this species were enjoyed by the entire group in the Hauraki Gulf, New Zealand and as we cruised north on the afternoon of 3 April, a minimum of seven individuals were logged. By dripping oil from the back of the ship, we had NZSPs following the ship for most of the afternoon of that day with some of the birds well north of the ‘traditional’ areas where birders generally go to see this species.
As John mentioned in one of his postings to this newsgroup, we then encountered a bird which was presumably an NZSP on an oil slick not far off the coast of New Caledonia. An article by Steve Howell and myself about this sighting has been prepared for Birding World, although for now we are treating the records as possible/presumed NZSP. The reasons for this approach will be discussed in the article, although in all probability the bird was a wintering/wandering NZSP.
Tristram’s storm-petrel – another wanted species for many seabirders and on the afternoon of 30 April we had several hundred off the Bonin Islands (Japan). Small numbers were then seen on the following two days, with large numbers then encountered again off Miyake-jima on 3 May, a island about 80 nautical miles south of Tokyo/Yokohama.
Matsudaira’s storm-petrel – frequently encountered from four days south of the Bonin Islands with birds regularly following the ship.
Japanese murrelet – having struggled to find this species off Ko-jima (albeit we were in a force 8-9 storm all day !!!), all onboard enjoyed great views of this rare alcide around some islets which are c5 nautical miles off Miyake-jima. A new seabird for just about everyone on the ship and a great end to a fantastic voyage !!
A full report and species list will be available shortly and this will details of all the species (seabirds and landbirds) seen which also included Laysan albatross, Bannerman’s shearwater, Kermadec petrel, White-necked petrel, Gould’s petrel, Bonin petrel, Black-winged petrel, Bulwer’s petrel, Streaked shearwater, Flesh-footed shearwater, Wedge-tailed shearwater, Short-tailed shearwater, Little shearwater, Tropical shearwater, White-faced storm-petrel, Leach’s storm-petrel, Red-tailed and White-tailed tropicbirds, Black-naped tern, Grey-backed tern, Grey ternlet etc !!!
25th April
Alaska to New Zealand—A Non-Stop Journey
A female Bar-tailed Godwit, a large, streamlined shorebird, has touched down in New Zealand following an epic, 18,000-mile-long (29,000 km) series of flights tracked by satellite, including the longest non-stop flight recorded for a land bird.
The U.S. Geological Survey's Alaska Science Center tracked the odyssey of the bird as part of an ongoing collaborative effort with colleagues in California and New Zealand. The scientists were hoping to better understand potential transmission of avian influenza by migratory birds.
The bird, dubbed "E7" after the tag on its upper leg, was captured along with 15 other godwits in New Zealand in early February 2007. There each bird was fitted with a small, battery-powered satellite transmitter. USGS scientists hoped the transmitters' batteries would last long enough to track the birds' northward migration to Alaska.
On March 17, E7 departed Miranda on the North Island of New Zealand and flew non-stop to Yalu Jiang, China, completing the 6,300-mile-long flight in about eight days. There she settled in for a 5-week-long layover before departing for the breeding grounds.
On the evening of May 1, she headed east out over the Sea of Japan and the North Pacific, eventually turning northeast towards Alaska, crossing the end of the Alaska Peninsula en route to her eventual nesting area on the Yukon-Kuskokwim River Delta in western Alaska. This flight was also accomplished non-stop, covering some 4,500 miles in five days.
E7 was then tracked to the coast of the Yukon Delta where she joined other godwits preparing for their return flight to New Zealand.
On the early morning of August 29, she took off southeast back across the Alaska Peninsula, went out over the vast North Pacific and headed towards the Hawaiian Islands. When less than a day's flight from the main Hawaiian Islands, she turned southwest, crossing the Hawaiian Archipelago over open ocean 125 miles west of Kauai, heading towards Fiji. She crossed the dateline about 300 miles north-northeast of Fiji, and then appeared to fly directly over or slightly west of Fiji, continuing south towards New Zealand.
 In the early afternoon of September 7th she passed just offshore of North Cape, New Zealand, and then turned back southeast, making landfall in the late evening at the mouth of a small river, eight miles east of where she had been captured seven months earlier.
The last leg of E7's journey is the most extraordinary, entailing a non-stop flight of more than eight days and a distance of 7,200 miles, the equivalent of making a roundtrip flight between New York and San Francisco, and then flying back again to San Francisco without ever touching down.
Since they are land birds, godwits like E7 can't stop to eat or drink while flying over open-ocean. The constant flight speeds at which E7 was tracked by satellite indicate that she did not stop on land.
Godwits do not become adults until their 3rd or 4th year and many live beyond 20 years of age. If 18,000 miles is an average annual flight distance, then an adult godwit would fly some 288,000 miles in a lifetime.
The study that recorded E7's epic flight is a collaborative effort led jointly by USGS and Point Reyes Conservation Science, with cooperators from Massey University and Miranda Shorebird Centre, New Zealand, and The Global Flyway Network. The project is funded by the David and Lucile Packard Foundation, the USGS, Alaska Science Center, and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service.
For more information, or to track E7, the Bar-tailed Godwit, visit the Shorebird Research Web site.
Illustration of Earth showing the 18,000 mile round-trip flight path from New Zealand of the Bar-tailed Godwait dubbed "E7."
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