Western Pacific Odyssey 2008...... notes on the more interesting species

[John Brodie-Good]

Hi all,

Some further notes and comments of interest from Chris himself. His e-mail is ch...@cotinga.freeserve.co.uk

Regards JBG

 

Hi folks

 

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 !!! 

 

Regards

 

 

Chris Collins

WildWings

www.wildwings.co.uk