Hi,
I was going to
put a posting on birding-aus about seeing Hutton’s Shearwater at the Western
Treatment Plant yesterday, but I see John Barkla and Fred Smith have beaten me
to it. However, perhaps an independent record of the same bird/s will be of
interest:
I visited the
Western Treatment Plant yesterday afternoon, and from about 2 to 3 pm spent an
hour enjoying a big flock of Fluttering Shearwaters. They were feeding about
half a km off the coast between Kirk Point and the end of Beach Road, some birds
sometimes coming to within 200m of the shore. They were close enough to make
telescope views very satisfying. I think they were picking up items from just
below the surface; most were swimming on the surface, and repeatedly sticking
their heads underwater to see what was below. They were reaching well down to
grab whatever it was they were eating, but seldom actually dived. It was a very
active flock. The general tendency was for birds to drift north-east from around
Kirk Point towards Beach Road (at which point they were closest to shore), and
then they would take off and head back towards Kirk Point. Different birds made
this flight at different times, so there were always lots of birds on the water,
some in the air. The movement made it difficult to count them accurately. I came
up with a count of 2000, but there
could easily have been several hundred more.
After an hour
of observation I had contented myself that there were at least three Hutton’s
Shearwater in the flock. I found each one on the water initially, picking them
out because they seemed longer-billed and blacker-backed than the surrounding
Flutterer’s, with more extensive dark grunging on the sides of the face and
neck; this extended onto the sides of the uppermost breast as an incomplete
gorget. I stuck with each bird until it had taken off, and had good views of the
underwing in each case. They all showed the classic underwing pattern of
Huttons: extensively darkish smoky grey, including the entire subhumerals (I
thought one had a small whitish smudge at the base of the subhumerals) and
broad, diffuse leading and trailing edges to the wing-coverts, including the
greater underprimary coverts.
I don’t know
if this near-shore visit by the shearwaters was a one-off or something they are
likely to continue doing for a while. But it is certainly worth keeping an eye
out for them in the near future – a spectacular sight, and a rare opportunity to
see Hutton’s Shearwater in Victoria without getting onto a boat.
Danny Rogers.
(not currently subscribed to
birding-aus).
