Hi all,
Thought I would just direct the keen seabirders
amongst you to the latest page I have put up about the New
Zealand storm-petrel and
its rediscovery. On 18 January we took
a trip to the area that Bob Flood and Bryan Thomas visited on 17 November and
saw their ‘flock’ of birds.
Similarly, we encountered at least 11 birds at one time around the boat,
but there was possibly some turn over of birds during the 4 hours we drifted
and chummed.
What an amazing day!
Making it even more sensational was the fact the 3 News were onboard and
managed to get excellent footage during the day. It was then shown as the lead story on
Monday 19 Jan evening News – not often birds take first priority!!
I managed to get some pretty good photos of the birds, and
these show how variable the streaking on the breast and belly can be. Some birds were very lightly streaked
(making it hard to see any streaks even when viewed from 20-30m), whilst others
were very prominently streaked, almost to the extent of having black
flanks/axillaries. White-faced
storm-petrels were the only other stormie species
seen, and anything different would have stuck out a mile following excellent
extended views of both species. At
some stages during the day, NZSP were often the most common species!! Crazy stuff and an absolutely fantastic
trip!
Take a look at the photos and information at
http://www.wrybill-tours.com/idproblems/stormpet4.htm
Cheers,
Brent
http://www.eco-vista.com and http://www.wrybill-tours.com
