This is a belated post, prompted by New Year reflections on what I left
undone last year.
I travelled to Antarctica last February-March and on both the southward
(mid-February) and northward (early-March) legs of the trip, I saw large
numbers of Short-tailed Shearwaters south of the Antarctic convergence.
Numbers were especially high on the return, when we had detoured
unsucessfully to try to get into the Ballenys. There were tens of thousands
of Short-tailed Shearwaters in the pack ice in this region and it was often
the most common seabird in view.
I had recorded a few Sooty Shearwaters south of Macquarie Island and
numerous Sooty Shearwaters around and between New Zealand's subantarctic
islands on the same voyage, but all of the birds I saw well in the Antarctic
pack ice were Short-tailed Shearwaters.
It appears the species was not definitely recorded from Antarctic waters
until the 1980s, and there is still uncertainty about its status there. The
birds, 5000-6000km from their Bass Strait breeding islands, were clearly
feeding.
Greg Roberts
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www.birding-aus.org
birding-aus.blogspot.com
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