Only half my last message got through so I will try again.
Cheers Dan
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Hi all,
Had
a great holiday with the folks and Carl Billingham on Lord Howe Island
last week. Just thought I would quickly post some of the seabird
sightings. The weather was fantastic all week and we managed to get out
to sea four times (3 times to Ball’s Pyramid and once 10km NW of the
island). We went out three times with Jack Shick and Ian Hutton and once
with Greenback charters. It was great being out seabirding with such
enthusiastic, knowledgeable and friendly guys. Very welcoming, as was
everyone on the island. I
was particularly keen to see the dark and intermediate morph
White-bellied Storm-Petrels but whilst we saw hundreds of White-bellied
Stormies during the week we only had two brief views of fully dark morph
birds and several mostly dark morph birds with paler bellies. There
were quite a few intermediate birds but mostly to the lighter end of the
spectrum.
The
other seabird highlights were two White-necked Petrel (apparently quite
a regular visitor), a single Gould’s Petrel (relatively few records,
maybe 5 or 6, but almost certainly a more regular and overlooked bird),
Tahiti Petrel (again only the 6th
or so record, following a sighting the previous week, but Ian Hutton
suggested they are probably common in deeper water a bit further from
the island - he has seen reasonable numbers not far from LHI when
transferring to the island by sea), and a single Long-tailed Jaeger (I think
only about the
4th record but again not at all surprising, especially in March) and a couple
of gouldi Great-winged Petrels. However,
the highlight for me was the vast numbers of Providence Petrels coming
in to Mount Gower in the afternoons. Seeing thousands off the southern
end of the island and probably thousands more circling up and over Mount
Gower and Lidgbird was just spectacular. The
only unexpected birds we found on the island were a Baillon’s Crake
that stayed loyal to a short stretch of a grass-fringed stream for at
least 3 days, an early visiting Swamp Harrier, and the already present
Coot and Maned Duck at the Old Settlement dam. Cheers Dan
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