G'Day John & Birding Ausers
Matthew Island has a large colony of Sooty Terns (10,000) fide Barritt,
R.H. 1976. A visit to Matthew and Hunter Islands, two little known islands in
the Hunter Island Ridge, south-east by east of the New Hebrides chain, by HMS
Hydra, surveying
ship, 26th June 1974. Sea Swallow 25: 13-15.
Matthew Island is a disputed island with both New Caledonia and Vanuatu
claiming it - but presumably that problem has not chased the birds away since
1974.
Immature birds have been observed on Shortland Island in the Western Solomon
Islands so there is probably a breeding colony near there. Greensmith, A.
1975. Some notes on Melanesian seabirds. Sunbird 6: 77-89.
So both Doughty and Garnett are wrong. Actually there are many errors in
Doughty's book. I have worked up checklists for 370 Melanesian islands with
annotations and references and they are supposed to go onto our University home
page this week. If Sooty Terns nested throughout Melanesia I think I would
have found more references than these.
I have seen immatures just South of Tench Island in PNG but I do not think you
are including PNG in your question. I also found a large colony in Fiji but
that is also a bit far away.
Cheers
Mike
Dr Mike Tarburton
Dean: School of Science and Technology
Pacific Adventist University
PMB, Boroko
Papua New Guinea
> ----------
> From: on behalf of John
> Penhallurick
> Sent: 22 May 2005 21:38
> To: Birding Aus
> Subject: [BIRDING-AUS] Sooty Tern in New Caledonia,Solomons & Vanuatu
>
> Hi all,
> Can anyone resolve an apparent contradiction in two sources re the Sooty Tern.
> Doughty,Day & Plant, Birds of the Solomons,Vanuata and New Caledonia say on
> p.98 "common breeder throughout the region"
> But Martin Garnett,in "Conservation of Seabirds in the South Pacific Region:
> A Review" in Status and Conservation of the Worlds Seabirds,p.550 in Table 4
> shows them as not breeding in these islands.
> Can anyone clarify?
> Thanks,
> John
>
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