Whilst Chris is not tongue in cheek, he is also right in his comments
about identifying various seabird species, perhaps more by jizz than
plumage.
However, unless one goes on lots and lots of pelagic trips it's nigh on
impossible to gain any sort of expertise in identifying seabirds. Most
people I know start from scratch every time they go out and still rely
on the credibility of the "experts" ( who incidentally and quite
frequently change their IDs once they get home and study their books
versus any pictures they've taken).
In desperation I also have bought Harrison and Onley & Scofield and they
are informative and nice to look at but unless one has a photographic
memory they don't help much whilst on a rocking wave swept boat. I've
even still got Enticott & Tipling.
It's tough enough trying to keep one's bins clean enough to see through
in between chuckups. It's easier to just rely on what other people say
flew past and hope they are right. It's how people increase their tick
lists without really knowing what birds they've seen.
When I was a kid in London, train spotting and collecting bus numbers
was a much easier game.
Tony.
-----Original Message-----
From:
On Behalf Of Chris Sanderson
Sent: Friday, June 27, 2008 9:51 AM
To: David Adams
Cc: Birding-Aus
Subject: Advice on identifying Albatrosses from shore
Hi David,
While Tony is being tongue in cheek, he is also right. Seeing the birds
in close quarters and asking the experts what features to use for ID
will help a lot. It took me several pelagics to start feeling
comfortable telling the various types of Shearwaters and of Albatross
apart even at close quarters. Petrels took longer still. Prions still
confuse me! And that is while on a boat, not on a headland with
telescopes. The best thing to do is be methodical, what is it about
that one species that makes it different from another, and what will you
be able to see at a distance. The under-wing pattern of most albatross
is unique, so you can often tell from a long way off what species you
are looking at, even if you can't see the bill. But, not all albatross,
and not all ages of albatross. You can tell Shearwaters and Petrels
apart at distance by the way the fly, but that takes time to learn.
A good book will help - I'm sure not everyone will agree but I quite
like the new Onley and Scofield "Albatross, Petrels and Shearwaters of
the World" book. The slightly older (and out of print) Harrison
"Seabirds: an identification guide" book is also very good for ID and
also covers gulls and terns but the taxonomy is way out of date and we
know a lot more about distribution too.
Eventually you also have to grapple with the current arguments about
taxonomy (i.e. was that a Salvin's Albatross or a Shy Albatross of the
subspecies savlini?) and whether you want to try and tell very difficult
subspecies/splits apart like Snowy/Gibson's/Wandering Albatross in case
they are split at some point. I take it as a personal challenge that I
should be able to ID all the species/subspecies on my seabird list,
rather than having been told what I am looking at.
The best advice is to spend time with people who already know how to ID
the birds.
Regards,
Chris
On Fri, Jun 27, 2008 at 9:30 AM, Tony Russell <>
wrote:
> Dear David, most of us are stumped by seabirds. The only way through
> the problem is to go on pelagic trips, get sick, then listen to what
> other people, who allege to know what they are talking about,
> identify the passing birds as . You then go home with a list of
> sightings which you hope have some credibility. But you won't be much
> the wiser, especially on some of the more difficult species.
>
> Tough ain't it. Tony.
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From:
> On Behalf Of David Adams
> Sent: Thursday, June 26, 2008 5:29 PM
> To: Birding-Aus
> Subject: [Birding-Aus] Advice on identifying Albatrosses from shore
>
>
> I'm writing in to ask for some advice on learning more about
> identifying Albatross from shore. I really never go on pelagics (too
> disorganized) so I haven't made a lot of progress. For years I've been
> staring off of headlands at large seabirds with binoculars wondering
> "are those Albatross or are they immature Gannets?" I bought a scope
> last year with a 20-60x zoom and have it mounted on a swivel head so
> that I can track birds in flight. I went out to Blue Point (Bermagui,
> Far South Coast NSW) this morning and end up staring at distant birds
> wondering "are those Albatross or are they immature Gannets?" ;-)
> Actually, with the scope I can tell that some of them aren't
> Gannets...but I have little idea how to go about sorting out which
> species they may be.
>
> I've had a look at the SOSSA (Southern Ocean Seabird Study
> Association) site which is a good start but am looking for more advice
> or references. (The month-by-month guide at SOSSA is very helpful, by
> the way.) I have lots of bird field guides but none devoted
> specifically to seabirds. Is there something I should be getting?
> Andrew Isles sent along a note just today that there's a new book out
> on the subject of albatrosses but it doesn't sound like a field guide.
>
> I regularly see reports on this list from people confidently
> identifying various sorts of Albatross they've spotted from shore so
> there must be a way to do it. Are there headlands where the birds come
> in close enough for clear identification or are there a series of
> distinguishing marks that let you sort out the species by process of
> elimination or some other means? Size is basically useless as a field
> characteristic for distant birds over water and some of the other
> field marks would require a close view (color of the bill, color of
> the tip of the bill, color behind the eye, etc.) so I'm a bit stumped.
>
> Suggestions much appreciated! I suspect others may have the same
> question I do so please post back answers to the list, if possible.
>
> ---------------------------------------------
> David Adams
>
> Wallaga Lake 2546 NSW
> ---------------------------------------------
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