Great-winged Petrels off Sydney

Hi all,

It is interesting that David Mitford had 45 Great-winged Petrels at Magic Point, Maroubra, Sydney, NSW, this past Friday (10 June 2011).

Almost exactly a year ago (6 June 2010) we had 40 Great-winged Petrels very close inshore at Magic Point and then a few days later 4 at Hal Epstein’s Sydney Pelagic. All birds were positively ID’d as GWPs (macroptera).

Regardless if Grey-faced Petrel (gouldii) is regarded a species or a subspecies, they are still quite distinct taxa. They differ in flight style, jizz, wing shape (e.g. longer in GWP – sic!) and plumage (e.g. usually more grey on face and forehead of GFP – sic!). http://www.adarman.com/Birds/Petrels-Shearwaters/Great-winged-Petrel/16226572_eiAEX#910874181_ZSSh5

GFP is a common spring/summer/autumn bird at the shelf break here. 

Besides the above sightings of GWP in early June, I have seen a number of GWPs on SOSSA’s Ulladulla pelagic in July and a few late ones in October.

Is there a pattern that GWPs migrate along the Sydney coast in early June or is that only coincidence?

Cheers,

Nikolas