G'day Tim,
I'm not sure that common is the right description for the Pacific gull in
Sth Australia and Western Australia. I have tried to get a handle on
population size for both of those states and the upper figures for each that
I came up with based on available published sources was approximately 187
breeding pairs for all of WA and a measly 142 breeding pairs in SA. The
total population size for WA maybe less than a thousand birds and in SA half
that.
They may be easy to see at Monkey Mia, the Esperance tip, or on the
foreshore at Tumby Bay, but they are very localized and scattered elsewhere.
The SA and WA birds are a distinct subspecies that probably deserves better
protection.
Cheers Jeff.
-----Original Message-----
From:
On Behalf Of Tim Dolby
Sent: Friday, 15 August 2008 3:52 PM
To: Tim Dolby
Cc:
Subject: Pacific Gull
Hi all,
Just for a bit of fun (it's Friday after all) I thought I'd question the
appropriateness of the name of the Pacific Gull.
Recently Grant Brosie asked about the status of Pacific Gull in NSW.
Basically it seems that they are uncommon to rare in NSW. NSW borders the
Pacific Ocean. By contrast they are common in Victoria, Tasmania, South
Australia and Western Australia. From what I can gather only the west coast
of Victoria and Tasmania borders the Pacific Ocean (I could be wrong, in
which case everything I'm saying is wrong). The rest of these areas either
border the India Ocean / or Southern Ocean - and the Pacific Gull is common
in an area known as Bass Striat.
So the question is why is it called a Pacific Gull? Surely it should be
called something else!
For example the Atherton Scrubwren is called the Atherton Scrubwren because
it's found on the Atherton Tableland, the Chatham Albatross is a Chatham
Albatross because it breeds on the Chatham Islands. Similarly the Northern
Scrub-Robin is called a a Northern Scrub-Robin because it's found in
northern Australia, and the Southern Scrub-Robin... well you get the idea.
So, here are some suggestion as alternative names for the Pacific Gull
(Larus pacificus), most of which are stupid:
Bass Strait Gull
Great Southern Gull or just Southern Gull
Victorian Gull
Tasmanian Gull
South Australian Gull (maybe not)
Western Australian Gull
Indian Ocean Gull
Large-billed Gull (although Larus crassirostris, the scientific
name for the Black-tailed Gull, means large-billed gull)
Very-large-billed Gull
Red-tipped-billed Gull
Large Black-backed Gull
Pacific Gull (oh, hang on.. whoops)
Australian Gull
Simon (why not?)
Dolby's Gull (because I thought about this in the first place!)
Cheers,
Tim Dolby
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