I agree John, and in that vein, this article is a great reminder not to
anthropomorphise birds or any other animal!
http://www.slate.com/blogs/wild_things/2013/10/28/sea_otter_dolphin_and_penguin_behavior_your_favorite_animals_are_jerks.html
Cheers,
Chris
On Tue, Nov 5, 2013 at 5:41 PM, John Harris
<>wrote:
> Hi All,
> I'm not sure nasty is the right word to use, how about "just doing what
> nature requires to stay alive" Northern Giant Petrels??
>
> If they are so nasty, have you thought of removing them from your life
> lists?? Along with all of the Butcherbirds, Skuas, Birds of Prey etc.......
> I guess not as your lists would be 20+ less than they are now.
>
> Give them a break, besides most of you are probably meat-eaters unless you
> have made the conscious choice to be a vegan.
>
> That's my 50c worth.
>
> *Yours in all things* "*GREEN"*
>
> *John Harris*
> *Croydon, Vic*
> * Director - Wildlife Experiences Pty LtdPrincipal Ecologist/Zoologist*
> *Nature Photographer*
> *Wildlife Guide*
> <>*
> *0409090955*
>
> *President, Field Naturalists Club of Victoria*
> *(www.fncv.org.au <http://www.fncv.org.au/>)*
>
>
> On 5 November 2013 12:06, Mick Roderick <> wrote:
>
> > In 4 years of pelagics and other seabird surveys off Port Stephens (and 2
> > off Swansea) that I have been running / involved in, we have only
> recorded
> > SGP on one trip (Sept 2012, when we had 2 birds). Mind you, we've only
> had
> > NGP 5 or 6 times. Any seawatched GP's that I have been able to confirm to
> > species level off Nobby's have all been Northerns too.
> >
> > I'm sure the SGP's were the more commonly encountered of the two when the
> > trips were being run by Baxter/Hansbro (from about 2000-2006?) but I
> don't
> > have that info in front of me.
> >
> > Also, if you checked the SOSSA Monthly Guide before it was given a
> welcome
> > refreshing recently you would have seen that SGP's were more commonly
> > recorded off W'gong up to 1999. The guide shows a different story now
> > though (see link below, which uses data collected between 2000-2013).
> >
> >
> >
> http://www.sossa-international.org/forum/content.php?185-Month-by-Month-Birding-Guide-Wollongong
> >
> > Mick
> >
> >
> >
> >
> >
> > On Monday, 4 November 2013 11:20 PM, martin cachard <
> >
> > wrote:
> >
> > hey kev & nik,
> > going through my (limited compared to u guys) records, Nik's ratio
> between
> > spp is about the same for me too.
> > maybe this has always been the case??
> > cheers Martin Cachard, Cairns 0428 782 808
> >
> > > Date: Mon, 4 Nov 2013 03:15:56 -0800
> > > From:
> > > To: ;
> > > Subject: Re: [Birding-Aus] Nasty Northern Giant Petrels
> > >
> > > Hi Kev,
> > >
> > > Over the last 6 years I had 3 x more NGPs than SGPs along the East
> coast
> > (mainly Sydney & Wollongong).
> > >
> > > Cheers,
> > >
> > > Nikolas
> > >
> > > ----------------
> > > Nikolas Haass
> > >
> > > Brisbane, QLD
> > >
> > >
> > > ________________________________
> > > From: Kev Lobotomi <>
> > > To: "" <>
> > > Sent: Monday, November 4, 2013 4:22 PM
> > > Subject: [Birding-Aus] Nasty Northern Giant Petrels
> > >
> > >
> > > On a few occasions lately I have witnessed how nasty the Northern Giant
> > Petrel can be. Firstly off Port Fairy on shelf on the 27th people aboard
> > the boat had 4 GPs (3 definite Northerns, perhaps 1 Southern) attacking a
> > Short-tailed Shearwater and drowning it. We later went over to check out
> > the corpse floating on the sea.
> > > In addition to this I spotted a Northern GP off Cape Nelson yesterday
> > (3/11/13) about 10AM. There were heaps of Short-tailed Shearwaters
> > offshore, some sitting on the ocean. This of course is not unusual at the
> > moment with big wrecks about everywhere in SE Aust. The GP kept flying up
> > to a STS sitting on the water & jumping on it. The STS would either dive
> > under the water & evade that way, or fly off. This it did about 6 times
> > before the NGP actually jumped on a bird which was probably too weak to
> get
> > away. It then grabbed it and took off with it, then landed and attacked
> > it's belly. The poor shearwater was flaying it's legs and wings around.
> > Eventually you'd expect the NGP to start eating the thing. It did peck at
> > it a bit, but then abandoned the bird (not sure if it was dead, but it
> > would have been mortally wounded) & then proceeded to have a go at
> several
> > other shearwaters on the water. I got the feeling the NGP was acting like
> > the Grim Reaper &
> > > selecting the shearwaters th
> > > at were ready to die!
> > > I have noticed that there have been Northern Giant Petrels hanging
> > around southern Australia (Cape Nelson, Port Fairy, Port MacDonnell &
> > Eaglehawk Neck) & perhaps taking advantage of the plight that the STS are
> > in at the moment. It's also interesting that there have only been a few
> > Southern Giant Petrels the whole year. I remember Southerns being more
> > common than Northern, particularly in the mid and later part of winter.
> > Northerns seem to outnumber them lately. Has anyone noticed a decline in
> > SGP numbers, as opposed to NGP numbers?-Kevin Bartram
> > >
> > > ===============================
> > >
> > > To unsubscribe from this mailing list,
> > > send the message:
> > > unsubscribe
> > > (in the body of the message, with no Subject line)
> > > to:
> > >
> > > http://birding-aus.org/
> >
> > > ===============================
> > > ===============================
> > >
> > > To unsubscribe from this mailing list,
> > > send the message:
> > > unsubscribe
> > > (in the body of the message, with no Subject line)
> > > to:
> > >
> > > http://birding-aus.org/
> > > ===============================
> >
> > ===============================
> >
> > To unsubscribe from this mailing list,
> > send the message:
> > unsubscribe
> > (in the body of the message, with no Subject line)
> > to:
> >
> > http://birding-aus.org/
> > ===============================
> > ===============================
> >
> > To unsubscribe from this mailing list,
> > send the message:
> > unsubscribe
> > (in the body of the message, with no Subject line)
> > to:
> >
> > http://birding-aus.org
> > ===============================
> >
> ===============================
>
> To unsubscribe from this mailing list,
> send the message:
> unsubscribe
> (in the body of the message, with no Subject line)
> to:
>
> http://birding-aus.org
> ===============================
>
--
Check out our site: http://www.bird-o.com
Follow us on Facebook (Bird-O) and Twitter
===============================
To unsubscribe from this mailing list,
send the message:
unsubscribe
(in the body of the message, with no Subject line)
to:
http://birding-aus.org
===============================
|
