Prions at Broulee

[Alan Cowan <>]

These are the first prions I have ever found at Broulee. Over 20 years I have regularly studied beachwrecked birds at Bangello beach, and I have identified many hundreds of Short-Tailed Shearwaters, one Fluttering Shearwater and one White-Faced Storm-Petrel.

The weather on July 21 and 22 was dramatic: torrential rain, high winds and huge seas, with tides coming up over the edge of the dunes. On 23 and 24, on a 750m stretch of Bangello beach, north of the "quarry" creek, we found at least a dozen beachwrecked prion cadavers, obviously quite freshly dead. Seven had the head still attached, allowing definitive diagnosis with the aid of Simpson and Day's bill diagrams.

Six were Fairy Prions, Pachyptila Turtur, and one was an Antarctic Prion, Pachyptila Desolata.