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BLACK PETRELS IN NEW SOUTH
WALES WATERS 1991-2000
A number of contributors have commented about the
status in Australian waters and one commentator suggested that as there had only
been 4 reports of Black Petrels in the Birding Aust Archives since mid 2000,
that that would indicate that the bird was pretty rare. However, Birding-aus is
not the only place where people report records of unusual and or rare birds so
that one cannot draw too many conclusions from such a sorce..
For the ten year period 1991-2000, the following
number of Black Petrels were reported from NSW as recorded in the NSW Bird
Reports, published by the NSW Field Ornithlogists Club (now Birding NSW), all
seen offshore on pelagic trips.
1991 1 Wollongong
Nov
1992 1 Wollongong
Nov
1993 no reports
1994 1 Wollongong
Nov
1995 none
1996 8+ Sydney-Wollongong
Oct-Nov
1997 8 Sydney
Nov-Dec
1998 9 Sydney-Wollongong
Oct-Dec
1999 24+ Sydney, Wollongong,
Narooma, Batemans Bay & Eden Jan, Nov-Dec
2000 3+ Norah Head & Batemans
Bay Jan & Nov, (Note that the compiling of records for
2000 is not
complete).
55+ in 10 years.
Black Petrels have subsequently been reported in
2001 & 2002 from the Swansea, Sydney, Wollongong and Eden trips, and
possibly others too.
Alan Morris
Editor, New South Wales Bird Report
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