Antarctic Fulmars - Ruapuke Beach

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Liam Ballard
Posts: 236
Joined: Mon Oct 03, 2016 7:51 pm
Location: Mt Eden, Auckland
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Antarctic Fulmars - Ruapuke Beach

Postby Liam Ballard » Sat Jun 15, 2019 7:55 pm

Back from a day at Ruapuke and Raglan, a disappointingly uneventful seawatch (not even a gannet) but we were very excited to find THREE fulmars dead on the beach, one in reasonably good condition (a few flies, bad smell but very easily recognisable). We couldn't believe our luck, especially since the only other bird remains found were an odd looking wing from what looked to be a Muscovy duck, as well as a pretty decayed carcass from what was most likely a fluttering shearwater, but the absence of the head made it difficult for us to identify!

Might be a good time for a pelagic off the Waikato west coast...?

Bird number 1:
IMG20190615120517.jpg
IMG20190615120517.jpg (714.68 KiB) Viewed 1463 times

Bird number 2:
IMG20190615121527.jpg
IMG20190615121527.jpg (964.92 KiB) Viewed 1463 times

Bird number 3(!):
IMG20190615122414.jpg
IMG20190615122414.jpg (974.46 KiB) Viewed 1463 times
Liam Ballard
Ian Southey
Posts: 1100
Joined: Tue Sep 08, 2009 5:45 pm

Re: Antarctic Fulmars - Ruapuke Beach

Postby Ian Southey » Sat Jun 22, 2019 11:57 am

These birds still seem to be coming in. These are the results from the South Auckland beach patrol at Kariotahi on Thursday

Antarctic Fulmar 3
Fairy Prion 1
Thin-billed Prion 2
Unidentified Prion 1
Blue Petrel 3
White-headed Petrel 1
Little Shearwater 1
Unidentified mollymawk 2
Mallard 3

The weather was not that bad beforehand yet several of these birds were lying fresh on the previous night's tide line so it appears that food is very short at sea just now. When these kinds of birds come ashore there are often Kerguelen Petrels too but none found so far.

Ian
BruceW
Posts: 9
Joined: Mon Feb 04, 2019 2:36 pm

Re: Antarctic Fulmars - Ruapuke Beach

Postby BruceW » Sat Jun 22, 2019 1:14 pm

I presume that these are Southern Fulmar. There's been a huge influx into Australian waters over the past few weeks with quite a few beachwashed birds as well. They have been seen from Sydney down to Tasmania, Victoria, South Australia and Western Australia.

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