wgeoff 2/05/2008 05:43
Shearwater sp
On Wednesday evening at about 5.30pm, I was seawatching from Po Toi when I saw an approaching shearwater/petrel.
From the flight - leisurely flap flap and glide - I knew this was not a Short-tailed Shearwater. The bird was flying into an east force 3 wind. Through binoculars I thought it was a Bulwer's Petrel but with a telescope I could see it was pale underneath and under the wings. I started taking photos.
Here are 10 photos of the bird. Note, they are taken at extreme range, maybe 1000 metres - it is a tribute to Canon photographic systems that they show any detail at all. On Po Toi, I have no boat to chase seabirds, you have to take them as they come.
[img]http://www.geoffwelch46.com/SHEARSP81.jpg[/img] [img]http://www.geoffwelch46.com/SHEARSP810.jpg[/img] [img]http://www.geoffwelch46.com/SHEARSP811.jpg[/img] [img]http://www.geoffwelch46.com/SHEARSP82.jpg[/img] [img]http://www.geoffwelch46.com/SHEARSP83.jpg[/img] [img]http://www.geoffwelch46.com/SHEARSP84.jpg[/img] [img]http://www.geoffwelch46.com/SHEARSP85.jpg[/img] [img]http://www.geoffwelch46.com/SHEARSP86.jpg[/img] [img]http://www.geoffwelch46.com/SHEARSP87.jpg[/img] [img]http://www.geoffwelch46.com/SHEARSP88.jpg[/img]
The bird seemed quite large - longer winged than a Short-tailed Shearwater. Some of the photos show a dark head which would eliminate Streaked Shearwater and I never considered this at the time because I was going backwards from an all dark bird to a dark bird with pale underparts so the head must have appeared dark to me. I thought it might be a pale or intermediate phase Wedge-tailed Shearwater.
Can anyone make anything from them?
[[i] Last edited by wgeoff at 21/09/2010 18:18 [/i]]
kmatthew 2/05/2008 07:25
that is some distance away!! It is definately too pale for Short-tailed and Sooty (Have Sooty been recorded in HK??). So, looking through other species of shearwaters, only Buller's (Don't think they are recorded in HK either), Wedge-tailed and Streaked have paler underparts.
Looking at photos, these are the information they gave me:
Buller's - Got an "M" shaped pattern on it's back, it also got a very pale underwing, which as I can see both features are not presented on this bird.
Wedge-tailed - Pale Morph have darker grey-brown plumage on back, head and upperwing, underpart is pale. Medium coverts and primaries underwings are darker. This matches certain features shown by this bird in the photo; dark upperbody and slightly darker underwing.
Streaked - Largest of these three, have slightly similar colourations and undering pattern with Wedge-tailed, with slightly paler underwing, though at this distance it certainly can be mixed up. Have pale forehead, which I can't really tell clearly if there is or not in these photos...But head looks dark in a few photos.
So, I am leaning towards Wedge-tailed. But they are really too far to judge for me...pretty impressive photos for such great distance though!! :shock:
Will love to hear some more from real experts... :oops:
Cheers. :D