These storm petrels are pretty interesting and look to me like they might be a
match for this bird collected in the 1840s,
http://www.sil.si.edu/digitalcollections/usexex/navigation/ScientificAtlases/enlarge_image_a.cfm?id=255
currently regarded as a colour morph of the Black-bellied Storm Petrel.
Finding numbers of them in the same place is reminiscent of the New Zealand
Storm Petrel so they could actually be a distinct species. Good find and thanks
for sharing.
Ian
>________________________________
> From: Philip Griffin <>
>To: birding-nz <>; birding-aus
><>
>Sent: Friday, 17 May 2013 6:49 AM
>Subject: [BIRDING-NZ] FWD: WEST PACIFIC SEABIRD EXPEDITIONS
>
>
>Reposting here from Seabird News:
>
>
>An eight-person expedition team, led by Peter Harrison, returned from seas
>south of Noumea, New Caledonia, last week after six days of off-shore
>seabird research. The team included Chris Gaskin, a leading figure in the
>rediscovery and subsequent ongoing research of the New Zealand Storm-Petrel
>whose breeding grounds he helped discover just a few weeks ago. The New
>Caledonian expedition team carried out 16 chum-drops over the six-day
>expedition period in waters ranging from 800 to 1685 metres deep. Included
>in the species photographs at the chum slicks was the mysterious
>storm-petrel originally unearthed during the recent West Pacific Odyssey
>voyages by Chris Collins, et al, and generally referred to as the New
>Caledonia Storm-Petrel.
>
>As yet not formally described, the unnamed storm-petrel was recorded on all
>six days of the expedition, with 21 sightings in total. The chum-slicks
>were deployed to entice the mysterious storm-petrel within range of the
>same powerful air-powered, four-barrel net guns that had successfully
>captured the recently discovered Pincoya Storm-Petrel *Oceanites pincoyae*,
>in seas off Chile in 2011. The New Caledonia Storm-Petrel, however, proved
>much more difficult to entice within range of the net guns than the Pincoya
>Storm-Petrel. The guns were fired just twice over the six-day period, with
>the net narrowly missing the intended target on both occasions.****
>
>In appearance, the mysterious storm-petrel resembles the New Zealand
>Storm-Petrel but is larger, with proportionately longer wings and tail,
>different flight and feeding habits. Observations over the six-day period
>of the unnamed taxon suggest that it is a member of the *Frigata* genus and
>probably closely related to the New Zealand Storm-Petrel which also has
>prominently streaked underparts and white in the underwing.****
>
>The New Caledonia seabird expedition was preceded by a week-long expedition
>by Harrison and his wife Shirley Metz to seas off the Solomon Islands where
>several thousand images of the near mythical Heinroth’s Shearwater *Puffinus
>heinrothi* were taken. Images from the Solomon Heinroth expedition and the
>New Caledonia expedition can be viewed at the Seattle-based Zegrahm
>Expeditions website(*http://www.zegrahm.com/blog*<http://www.zegrahm.com/blog>
>)****
>
>Other species seen and photographed by Harrison during the past month in
>the West Pacific include Vanuatu and Beck’s petrels; Magnificent, Collared
>and Gould’s petrels; plus White-bellied Storm-Petrel.
>
>
>*-*-*-*-*-*-*
>Philip Griffin
>
>
>mobile +64 27 217 9911
>
>
>[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]
>
>
>
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