Yesterday I decided to walk along the beach south of Ballina to see if I
could find any dead birds. It hadn't occurred to me that I might be near the
site of the original SIPO (South Island Pied Oystercatcher) until I got
there, but I couldn't remember where the SIPO had been seen anyway. I
checked all Oystercatchers I saw, and eventually found the SIPO about 2 km
North of the Patch's Beach carpark.
Can someone tell me if this is the original site, and has it been seen there
lately?
I was also interested to note that while nearly all the OZPOs (Pied
Oystercatchers) were in active wing molt and therefore showed greatly
reduced and sometimes missing wingbars, the SIPO showed no sign of molt at
all. It did seem to me that the primaries and tertials looked old compared
to the wing coverts and scapulars, so maybe it just hasn't started yet.
There were a couple of OZPOs there showing no molt, but I couldn't see them
well enough to draw any conclusions about their ages.
I also noticed that every time I saw a pair of OZPOs, one had a markedly
longer, pointier bill than the other. Whcih sex has the longer bill?
All I found dead were three Wedge-tailed SHearwaters and two Fluttering
Shearwaters.
Chris Corben
www.hoarybat.com
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