Kimberley Birdwatching's annual trip to Ashmore Reef returned to Broome on
Saturday so the earliest most of us arrived home was yesterday evening with
the opportunity to view the photos of Arabian Shearwaters posted last week.
Like the Peregrine Bird Tour group we also had an exceptionally successful
trip and I will post a report later this week.
Having now seen the photographs we're gob-smacked. Those Shearwaters they
saw are something special! They are not Hutton's Shearwaters - we had
excellent views and obtained many photographs of 575 Hutton's in a variety
of plumages just three days ago. None resembled those birds. So
congratulations to Simon Mustoe, Chris Doughty and the others in that group
on their discovery. What a find!
To us they do look basically like Arabian Shearwaters and are undoubtedly
new to Australia. Moreover, they could be new to science as a separate
taxon. With so many birds together who knows, there could be a population
breeding somewhere in northern Australia or Indonesia. There are 3,000
islands in the Kimberley alone let alone the NT. That Audubon's, Tropical,
Little Shearwater group is notorious for having small populations scattered
over a wide area and there is no general consensus regarding their taxonomic
relationships. Indeed, even modern texts suggest new breeding sites await
discovery. So well done!
Mike Carter, Rohan Clarke & George Swann
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