Thinking About Birds

In June 2015, I was on a pelagic trip out of Port Stephens. Towards the end of our couple of hours drifting at the continental shelf, an unusual Storm-Petrel turned up. Its jizz was similar to the Wilson's Storm-Petrels, of which we had many around the boat.  However, it had a streaked white belly. Our first thoughts were that we had a New Zealand Storm-Petrel - a rare bird that was thought to be extinct until 10 or so years ago but with increasing reports of it. However, our bird was too dark underneath the wings plus its wings are proportionately longer than for the New Zealand Storm-Petrel.  Many seabird experts are canvassing that our bird possibly is a New Caledonian Storm-Petrel. This also has been considered to be extinct - and officially still is so considered. However, there have been a couple of recent sightings off Queensland of birds looking similar to our one, and the theory has been developing. It might be a year or two before our bird's ID is nailed. Below are some of my photos from the day.