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.
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?
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Last edited by wgeoff at 21/09/2010 18:18 ]
