birding-aus Antarctic Petrel off Mistral Point

[Rod Gardner <>]

Hi all,

Probably the highlight of a quite remarkable winter for seabirds off NSW so
far was an ANTARCTIC PETREL off Mistral Point, Maroubra, in Sydney's
eastern suburbs yesterday. The bird was a long way out, but I tracked it
for about a kilometer as it flew south, and had gripping views of the very
distinctive upperparts. I tried hard to make it into something less
unusual, but failed. The only remote possibility is that it was an aberrant
Cape Petrel, but it would be remarkable indeed if it was so like an
Antarctic Petrel as to be what would amount to a perfect copy.

This is, I think, the first record, live or dead, for NSW, and follows a
report off WA a few weeks ago.

Rod Gardner


To unsubscribe from this list, please send a message to

Include ONLY "unsubscribe birding-aus" in the message body (without the
quotes)