MEGA - ANTARCTIC PETREL, Birdlings Flat

[andrewcrossland]

Great! many thanks, that clears that one up! Common Diving petrels are pretty uncommon in these parts so important to confirm.

[philbattley]

I don't think that is a diving petrel. The underwing is much too white and the wing shape doesn't look right. Search diving petrel images to see the difference. A prion or blue petrel might be more likely.

Cheers, Phil

[Davidthomas]

Prion for me too.

[Jan]

And it has certainly departed this life, so if you needed a tick for that species, [whatever it is] you might be disappointed.....

[wazzagonewild]

I guess I hadn't critically considered those other options, and agree that prion seems to be a much better fit (sorry Andrew!). I don't have any better photos to clinch the exact ID.

[FraserGurney]

That's my mistake, although I give myself some leeway as there was a slight breeze and a bit of drizzle at the time...

[andrewcrossland]

Yep, cool, thanks Team. (I knew you’d get there!! I’ve been looking at those wings all day and thinking of a nice way to ask if you’d really had a good look at the bird). Anyway, even without a Diving Petrel, it was an incredible couple of days.

[Adam C]

Hi Andrew just getting back to you re the Grey-Headed. My record was accepted and I got a really good look at it. Probably one of the few that I did before my bins got salted up. I'm 100% on it as a Juv Grey-headed. Nothing else fits. Dorsal view was all dark grey with an all black bill and a white bum (first view that really stood out as something I hadn't seen before) but the white belly and solid black underwing really had me scratching but I made a really strong mental snapshot of it and filed it while the Sooty was flying about, not to mention the White-headed petrels and trying to pin the Antarctic Petrel. It made one pass about 5 waves back and that was it but it all clicked later.

[Michael Szabo]

I'm writing a summary of the species/numbers seen at Birdlings Flat on 31st May 2021 during the big winter storm event to go in the Bird News section of the next Birds New Zealand magazine. I've got the following species/numbers from this forum and a few other posts made to Facebook at the time. I'd appreciate comments on the following from any of those who observed the birds there that day:

1 Grey-headed Albatross, 1 Light-mantled Sooty Albatross, 1 white morph Sth Giant Petrel, 2 Antarctic Fulmars, 1 Antarctic Petrel, 2 White-headed Petrels, c30 Soft-plumaged Petrels, 1 Grey-backed Storm Petrel, 2 Black-bellied Storm Petrels, 1 Pomarine Skua, and 1 Brown Skua.

[FraserGurney]

Looking at my eBird records that seems pretty accurate Michael. Difficult to assess numbers in those conditions but that's probably a good, conservative estimate.