wgeoff

This seabird flew quite fast past my seawatching station on Po Toi yesterday morning at about 10am.




I believe it's a Swinhoe's Storm-petrel.

It was coming from the north east and heading towards the south west, the opposite of all other seabirds in spring.

wgeoff

Thanks Brendan

To be honest, it looked nothing like the bird in your video. Your bird is feeding - mine was trying to fly as fast as possible, in fact it was shearing over the waves like a shearwater.

I only saw it very briefly through binoculars, the rest of the time I was trying to get good photos because I realised immediately it was something unusual. Through binoculars it looked like a small all-dark shearwater or petrel. Afterwards, I could only look at the photos in the camera viewfinder as I don't have a computer on Po Toi at present, and what I could see was too small to really identify it. I realised the shape was wrong for a shearwater or Bulwer's Petrel and I thought some of the photos looked like those of the Brown Noddy in 2006. It was only when I got home today I could really see the photos and see what the bird was.

wgeoff

Thanks Graham and Mike

You always think of Storm-petrels as being very small, but this is based on the European Storm-petrel. One of Graham's photos shows that Swinhoe's is not much smaller than a Bridled Tern and my initial impression of this bird was a small shearwater rather than a storm-petrel.

Mike, I've always thought of seeing Swinhoe's in late August following your record, but Clive Viney had two near Round Island on 28 May 1990 (see 1990 HKBR).

I'm lucky that modern cameras and lenses are so good - this bird was a long way away yet the photos still show good detail. The EXIF info on the photos show exactly 22 seconds between first and last photos, so I didn't have much time to think about it. This is the way with most seabirds seen from Po Toi.

[ Last edited by wgeoff at 1/06/2012 06:11 ]

wgeoff

Thanks Mike

Whilst other dark-rumped storm-petrels are similar, they are fantastically unlikely based on known range, compared to Swinhoe's which nests just up the coast, and given the date of this bird which is spot on for a migrant returning to it's nesting grounds.  

There are also some plumage differences which may be relevant. However, I wouldn't wish to be seen to be doing the work of the Records Committee.

wgeoff

Thanks Mike

It seems we have at least one vote on the Records Committee.