Nasty Northern Giant Petrels

by

On a few occasions lately I have witnessed how nasty the Northern Giant Petrel can be. Firstly off Port Fairy on shelf on the 27th people aboard the boat had 4 GPs (3 definite Northerns, perhaps 1 Southern) attacking a Short-tailed Shearwater and drowning it. We later went over to check out the corpse floating on the sea. In addition to this I spotted a Northern GP off Cape Nelson yesterday (3/11/13) about 10AM. There were heaps of Short-tailed Shearwaters offshore, some sitting on the ocean. This of course is not unusual at the moment with big wrecks about everywhere in SE Aust. The GP kept flying up to a STS sitting on the water & jumping on it. The STS would either dive under the water & evade that way, or fly off. This it did about 6 times before the NGP actually jumped on a bird which was probably too weak to get away. It then grabbed it and took off with it, then landed and attacked it’s belly. The poor shearwater was flaying it’s legs and wings around. Eventually you’d expect the NGP to start eating the thing. It did peck at it a bit, but then abandoned the bird (not sure if it was dead, but it would have been mortally wounded) & then proceeded to have a go at several other shearwaters on the water. I got the feeling the NGP was acting like the Grim Reaper & selecting the shearwaters th at were ready to die! I have noticed that there have been Northern Giant Petrels hanging around southern Australia (Cape Nelson, Port Fairy, Port MacDonnell & Eaglehawk Neck) & perhaps taking advantage of the plight that the STS are in at the moment. It’s also interesting that there have only been a few Southern Giant Petrels the whole year. I remember Southerns being more common than Northern, particularly in the mid and later part of winter. Northerns seem to outnumber them lately. Has anyone noticed a decline in SGP numbers, as opposed to NGP numbers?-Kevin Bartram =============================== To unsubscribe from this mailing list, send the message: unsubscribe (in the body of the message, with no Subject line) to: birding-aus-request@vicnet.net.au http://birding-aus.org ===============================

6 thoughts on “Nasty Northern Giant Petrels”

  1. Since I started going on pelagics in WA (31 July 2005), we’ve recorded the following Southern: 5 – with 3 of those in one trip, July 2008 off Albany. (Off Perth: 2, Off Albany: 3) Northern: 12 (Off Perth: 1, Off Albany: 11) UnID’d: 1 (Off Perth: 1, Off Albany: 0) On my various seawatching trips (mostly Cape Naturaliste, some at Albany, Perth and Gracetown) over the same time period, I’ve recorded the following – though this may be slightly biased as I find the absence of a dark bill tip harder to be certain of than the presence of one when seawatching Southern: 13 (2 white morphs) Northern: 25 UnID’d: 60 This is contra the accepted line that the vast majority of birds in WA waters are Southern, though I’m not certain what these claims are based on since they are typically accompanied by a comment along the lines of “most individuals are unidentifiable”. Also not certain if they refer mostly to waters off Perth, or southern WA as a whole (most of my records are from Cape Naturaliste). So not certain if this reflects a relative change in abundance, inaccuracy in the original claims, mismatched data, or any combination of the three Cheers, John =============================== To unsubscribe from this mailing list, send the message: unsubscribe (in the body of the message, with no Subject line) http://birding-aus.org ===============================

  2. I agree John, and in that vein, this article is a great reminder not to anthropomorphise birds or any other animal! http://www.slate.com/blogs/wild_things/2013/10/28/sea_otter_dolphin_and_penguin_behavior_your_favorite_animals_are_jerks.html Cheers, Chris On Tue, Nov 5, 2013 at 5:41 PM, John Harris <wildlifeexperiences@gmail.com>wrote: — Check out our site: http://www.bird-o.com Follow us on Facebook (Bird-O) and Twitter (@birdodotcom) =============================== To unsubscribe from this mailing list, send the message: unsubscribe (in the body of the message, with no Subject line) http://birding-aus.org ===============================

  3. Hi All, I’m not sure nasty is the right word to use, how about “just doing what nature requires to stay alive” Northern Giant Petrels?? If they are so nasty, have you thought of removing them from your life lists?? Along with all of the Butcherbirds, Skuas, Birds of Prey etc……. I guess not as your lists would be 20+ less than they are now. Give them a break, besides most of you are probably meat-eaters unless you have made the conscious choice to be a vegan. That’s my 50c worth. *Yours in all things* “*GREEN”* *John Harris* *Croydon, Vic* * Director – Wildlife Experiences Pty LtdPrincipal Ecologist/Zoologist* *Nature Photographer* *Wildlife Guide* *wildlifeexperiences@gmail.com <wildlifeexperiences@gmail.com>* *0409090955* *President, Field Naturalists Club of Victoria* *(www.fncv.org.au )* On 5 November 2013 12:06, Mick Roderick <mickhhb@yahoo.com.au> wrote: =============================== To unsubscribe from this mailing list, send the message: unsubscribe (in the body of the message, with no Subject line) http://birding-aus.org ===============================

  4. In 4 years of pelagics and other seabird surveys off Port Stephens (and 2 off Swansea) that I have been running / involved in, we have only recorded SGP on one trip (Sept 2012, when we had 2 birds). Mind you, we’ve only had NGP 5 or 6 times. Any seawatched GP’s that I have been able to confirm to species level off Nobby’s have all been Northerns too.   I’m sure the SGP’s were the more commonly encountered of the two when the trips were being run by Baxter/Hansbro (from about 2000-2006?) but I don’t have that info in front of me.   Also, if you checked the SOSSA Monthly Guide before it was given a welcome refreshing recently you would have seen that SGP’s were more commonly recorded off W’gong up to 1999. The guide shows a different story now though (see link below, which uses data collected between 2000-2013).   http://www.sossa-international.org/forum/content.php?185-Month-by-Month-Birding-Guide-Wollongong   Mick     On Monday, 4 November 2013 11:20 PM, martin cachard <mcachard@hotmail.com> wrote: hey kev & nik, going through my (limited compared to u guys) records, Nik’s ratio between spp is about the same for me too. maybe this has always been the case?? cheers Martin Cachard, Cairns 0428 782 808                         =============================== To unsubscribe from this mailing list, send the message: unsubscribe (in the body of the message, with no Subject line) http://birding-aus.org/ =============================== =============================== To unsubscribe from this mailing list, send the message: unsubscribe (in the body of the message, with no Subject line) http://birding-aus.org ===============================

  5. hey kev & nik, going through my (limited compared to u guys) records, Nik’s ratio between spp is about the same for me too. maybe this has always been the case?? cheers Martin Cachard, Cairns 0428 782 808 =============================== To unsubscribe from this mailing list, send the message: unsubscribe (in the body of the message, with no Subject line) http://birding-aus.org ===============================

  6. Hi Kev, Over the last 6 years I had 3 x more NGPs than SGPs along the East coast (mainly Sydney & Wollongong). Cheers, Nikolas   —————- Nikolas Haass nhaass@yahoo.com Brisbane, QLD ________________________________ From: Kev Lobotomi <kevlobotomi@hotmail.com> Sent: Monday, November 4, 2013 4:22 PM On a few occasions lately I have witnessed how nasty the Northern Giant Petrel can be. Firstly off Port Fairy on shelf on the 27th people aboard the boat had 4 GPs (3 definite Northerns, perhaps 1 Southern) attacking a Short-tailed Shearwater and drowning it. We later went over to check out the corpse floating on the sea. In addition to this I spotted a Northern GP off Cape Nelson yesterday (3/11/13) about 10AM. There were heaps of Short-tailed Shearwaters offshore, some sitting on the ocean. This of course is not unusual at the moment with big wrecks about everywhere in SE Aust. The GP kept flying up to a STS sitting on the water & jumping on it. The STS would either dive under the water & evade that way, or fly off. This it did about 6 times before the NGP actually jumped on a bird which was probably too weak to get away. It then grabbed it and took off with it, then landed and attacked it’s belly. The poor shearwater was flaying it’s legs and wings around. Eventually you’d expect the NGP to start eating the thing. It did peck at it a bit, but then abandoned the bird (not sure if it was dead, but it would have been mortally wounded) & then proceeded to have a go at several other shearwaters on the water. I got the feeling the NGP was acting like the Grim Reaper & selecting the shearwaters th at were ready to die! I have noticed that there have been Northern Giant Petrels hanging around southern Australia (Cape Nelson, Port Fairy, Port MacDonnell & Eaglehawk Neck) & perhaps taking advantage of the plight that the STS are in at the moment. It’s also interesting that there have only been a few Southern Giant Petrels the whole year. I remember Southerns being more common than Northern, particularly in the mid and later part of winter. Northerns seem to outnumber them lately. Has anyone noticed a decline in SGP numbers, as opposed to NGP numbers?-Kevin Bartram                         =============================== To unsubscribe from this mailing list, send the message: unsubscribe (in the body of the message, with no Subject line) http://birding-aus.org =============================== =============================== To unsubscribe from this mailing list, send the message: unsubscribe (in the body of the message, with no Subject line) http://birding-aus.org ===============================

Leave a Comment