kmatthew

A friend of mine in the UK who is a pretty experienced birder went to South China around 2 months ago, while he was on a ferry on South China Sea near Zhuhai, he encountered 3 small birds, which he recognised as Storm Petrels.

This is his version of the encounter:
"Whilst out on the South China Sea – not in Hong Kong waters I think as we were not too far from the Chinese city of Zhuhai - we encountered 3 smallish birds which flew alongside our ferry. The most noticeable feature of all 3, which were clearly the same species, was that they all had white rumps. The birds, which I thought I ‘recognised’ as Petrels were very dark brown in colour apart from what appeared to be a lighter line of a mark on the wing which stretched from the body to part way along the wing. This colour was nothing like the white of the rump, more a grey type of dullness."

He is wondering could they be Wilson's Storm Petrels?? My first thought about the white rumps was House or Pacific Swifts, but his description of a light line marking on the wing does not really match...I am not sure if there are any records of this species in or near South China Sea before, so I thought I should ask more experienced birders. If there is a chance these were Wilson's, it will be a species worth looking for in future boat trips??

Cheers!!

[ Last edited by kmatthew at 23/06/2008 18:16 ]

wgeoff

There are several records of white-rumped storm petrels thought to be Wilson's in the Hong Kong area.

19.3.1989 2 at mouth of Tolo Channel (Avifauna page 485)
27.4.1992 2 330 miles SE of Hong Kong seen from a yacht (1993 HK Bird Report)
28.4.1992 5 270 miles SE of Hong Kong ditto (1993 HK Bird Report)
14.6.1972 1 at mouth of Pearl River (records of Royal Naval Bird Watching Society)

Wilson's Storm-petrels have been recorded off Singapore, Malaysia and Japan, mostly in summer.

It seems likely that birds from the southern hemisphere move into the South China Sea in their winter (our summer) and could be seen in the Hong Kong area in the summer period. Mike Chalmers certainly thinks so.

What ferry was he/she on?

lmichael

This is a fascinating record and very plausible. Wilson's Storm Petrel is probably the most likely choice but Leach's Storm Petrel is also possible. I agree that the observation appears to rule out the possible confusion of swifts or house martins. Not within HK waters so not a job for the HK Records Committee, however an incentive for all of us to keep looking!

Mike Leven

kmatthew

Thanks Geoff & Mike,

So this is certainly a species worth looking out for in HK in the future!! I am not too sure what ferry he was on, he didn't exactly say.

Thanks a lot!!
Matt