Re: Gisborne pelagic (Oct 21) addendum: Manx Shearwater
Posted: Sat Nov 11, 2017 9:25 pm
Hi Sav,
the bird approached the boat from from 5 o'clock and went out of sight only a few seconds later at about 2 o'clock. When I first spotted it without binoculars, it looked clearly different from Fluttering or Hutton's Shearwater (which we had also seen in small numbers earlier on the day). It had stronger wing beats and because of the bright underside and the contrast between upper and underparts my first thought was that it could maybe be a gadfly petrel (maybe because I was specifically on the lookout for these). When I took the photos, it was clear that it was a shearwater. Nevertheless, the quick glimpse on the camera screen afterwards left me puzzled because it showed a bird that looked superficially like a Fluttering Shearwater, but I had expected to see something different. Regrettably, none of us had Manx on their radars, so we left the ID as "Fluttering Shearwater". I did not look at the photos again until I returned home. As soon as saw the photos on the computer screen, I noticed that this bird looked different from Fluttering and Hutton's Shearwater.
Cheers,
Matthias
the bird approached the boat from from 5 o'clock and went out of sight only a few seconds later at about 2 o'clock. When I first spotted it without binoculars, it looked clearly different from Fluttering or Hutton's Shearwater (which we had also seen in small numbers earlier on the day). It had stronger wing beats and because of the bright underside and the contrast between upper and underparts my first thought was that it could maybe be a gadfly petrel (maybe because I was specifically on the lookout for these). When I took the photos, it was clear that it was a shearwater. Nevertheless, the quick glimpse on the camera screen afterwards left me puzzled because it showed a bird that looked superficially like a Fluttering Shearwater, but I had expected to see something different. Regrettably, none of us had Manx on their radars, so we left the ID as "Fluttering Shearwater". I did not look at the photos again until I returned home. As soon as saw the photos on the computer screen, I noticed that this bird looked different from Fluttering and Hutton's Shearwater.
Cheers,
Matthias