Hi Jeff,
Thanks for your comment. I totally agree. I was actually also trying to say
that Mick's is a pale/"intermediate" morph bird (especially if you "lump" pale
and intermediate), in contrast our cafe-au-lait and white-bellied birds are
just weird dark morphs (e.g. "retained extremely worn belly"; and yes, I've
seen this in Providence Petrels, too).
That's why I asked for further photos/evidence of pale morph WTSWs in
Australia. Looking forward to see Dave Stowe's picture of the 2006 Sydney bird
(see Roger McGovern's comment).
Thanks also for mentioning the two 1972 papers, Jeff. I had a quick look.
Serventy (1972) made the conclusion (20-30%) from very low numbers if I didn't
miss anything (3/13 and 4/20 fleglings). Apparently one bird was collected,
previously, and should be in the WA Museum. Lane's bird was collected, too, and
the specimen should be in the Australian Museum.
Interestingly, you compared the colouration of Mick's bird to that of an
intermediate morph Pink-footed Shearwater. There is an interesting article in
the January 2012 issue of Birding (American Birding Association) discussing a
quiz bird: a large dark shearwater. The author discusses the following
questions. "Is it a Flesh-footed Shearwater?" "Is there such a thing as a dark
morph Pink-footed Shearwater?" "Are there Flesh- x Pink-footed Shearwater
hybrids?"
http://www.aba.org/birding/v44n1p56.pdf
Cheers,
Nikolas
----------------
Nikolas Haass
Sydney, NSW
________________________________
From: Jeff Davies <>
To: 'Nikolas Haass' <>; 'Mick Roderick' <>;
'Birding Aus' <>
Sent: Sunday, February 5, 2012 1:45 PM
Subject: Intermediate pale morph Wedge-tailed Shearwater off Swansea, NSW
G'day Nikolas,
Mick's bird appears to have a typical pale morph body but with a slightly
darker under-wing. However the only image that shows the darker than typical
under-wing also shows an almost completely dark hood which we know isn't
real from other photos of the bird on the water where it looks like a normal
pale morph head, so it is difficult to judge how dark the under-wing really
is. This slightly out of focus ventral view gives the equivalent impression
of an intermediate morph Pink-footed Shearwater for the under-wing.
Raja's bird looks to me like a dark morph with retained extremely worn
belly, a bit like you sometimes see in Providence Petrel. The dorsal
surface, head and flanks look fresh but the fresh feathers are tightly
encircling a trashed belly, there is a sharp cut off between the trashed
belly and the encircling fresh feathers.
I am unaware of any photos from Australian waters of Pale morph birds apart
from Mick's. HANZAB states there is a record of a pale morph bird breeding
at Solitary Island NSW, Bill Lane 1972, and also Serventy 1972 estimates
that 20-30% of birds breeding at Shark Bay are pale morph.
Pale morphs are the norm in mid west pacific, Japan, Hawaii etc.
Cheers Jeff.
-----Original Message-----
From:
On Behalf Of Nikolas Haass
Sent: Sunday, 5 February 2012 12:38 PM
To: Nikolas Haass; Mick Roderick; Birding Aus
Subject: Intermediate pale morph Wedge-tailed Shearwater
off Swansea, NSW
Sorry, I have not only seen cafe-au-lait coloured ones but also birds that I
believe are dark morph but with aberrant pale bellies, such as this one in
Raja's collection:
http://www.adarman.com/Pelagics/2011-December-10-Sydney
So this again makes Mick's, Steve's and Lucas's find so interesting!
Cheers,
Nikolas
----------------
Nikolas Haass
Sydney, NSW
________________________________
From: Nikolas Haass <>
To: Mick Roderick <>; Birding Aus
<>
Sent: Sunday, February 5, 2012 12:25 PM
Subject: Intermediate pale morph Wedge-tailed Shearwater
off Swansea, NSW
Hi Mick & Birding-aus,
The bird looks certainly interesting!
The only "pale" WTSWs I have seen in Australia were overall cafe-au-lait
coloured. Mick's bird, however, looks "normal" from above and has clear
white areas
underneath (belly and underwing - but not extensive enough for a "perfect"
pale
morph WTSW), which makes it look like an "intermediate morph" WTSW. This is
really interesting!
Are there any further photos of pale morph or intermediate morph WTSWs in
Australia? I know that there is a lot of rumour about pale WTSWs turning up
here, but aren't they mainly just aberrant cafe-au-lait coloured WTSWs or
are they really pale morph WTSWs?
Cheers,
Nikolas
----------------
Nikolas Haass
Sydney, NSW
________________________________
From: Mick Roderick <>
To: Birding Aus <>
Sent: Saturday, February 4, 2012 1:53 PM
Subject: Intermediate pale morph Wedge-tailed Shearwater off
Swansea, NSW
Hi all,
Steve and I took the tinny out today to about 20km off Swansea (NSW) to see
if we could get amongst some of the interesting birds reported off the NSW
coast in the past week. Seems the southerly air-flow may have spoilt the
party following the cold water upwelling earlier in the week that saw sea
temperatures plummet by 6 degrees overnight after a bout of nor-easters over
warmer water.
It was reasonably quiet today, but with the usual Wedgies, Fleshies and
Short-taileds getting about (and more Hutton's than Fluttering, maybe a
dozen of the former). On the way back in a bird that looked otherwise like a
Wedge-tailed Shearwater but with pale underparts appeared in the throng. We
have identified it as an intermediate morph Wedge-tailed Shearwater (there
is a very low res image attached to a Birdline NSW report, but if anyone
would like to see higher res images let me know and I'll forward them
through).
I've been trying to find info on just how commonly this morph is recorded in
Australian waters and cannot find much at all. I recall talking to Lindsay
Smith (SOSSA Wollongong) about this last weekend and I'm sure he said
they've had very few, if any, off W'gong over the years.
Has anyone else recorded pale Wedgies in south-eastern Australian waters?
Mick
===============================
To unsubscribe from this mailing list,
send the message:
unsubscribe
(in the body of the message, with no Subject line)
to:
http://birding-aus.org
===============================
===============================
To unsubscribe from this mailing list,
send the message:
unsubscribe
(in the body of the message, with no Subject line)
to:
http://birding-aus.org
===============================
===============================
To unsubscribe from this mailing list,
send the message:
unsubscribe
(in the body of the message, with no Subject line)
to:
http://birding-aus.org
===============================
===============================
To unsubscribe from this mailing list,
send the message:
unsubscribe
(in the body of the message, with no Subject line)
to:
http://birding-aus.org
===============================
|
