Hi all,
I got back from 7 weeks in the US yesterday. Headed down to
the beach here in Adelaide this morning and saw a large group
of Silver Gulls and dark-looking birds following what was presumably
a school of fish of some sort - about 300m offshore.
On closer examination through the binoculars the darker birds had pale
undersides & were clearly petrels. There must have been at least 300 of
them and they were cascading along - smalls groups of birds from the
back of the flock would fly towards the front and dive straight into the
water
from the air and disappear into the water. Then the next small group flew
along and dived in. So it went on.
HANZAB seems to say that Common Diving-Petrels are represented in S.A.
only by 7 records of beachwashed birds. I can't see what else they could
have
been. I've seen the species on several occasions from boats but never
flocks
of several hundred.
Any comments seabird experts and persons more knowledgeable than
I on S.A. seabird distributions?
Thanks
Philip Griffin
BTW, the US was interesting... lots of new birds and great to see some of
the less common and possible vagrant Australian waders like Yellowleg
spp.; Wandering Tattler; Pectoral, Baird's, Semipalmated, Western, Least &
White-rumped Sandpiper, Dowitcher spp. Less likely to be seen here but
nonetheless fascinating were Surfbird, Black Turnstone and an unexpected
favourite - the Willet.
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