Hi all, Steve and I took the tinny out today to about 20km off Swansea (NSW) to see if we could get amongst some of the interesting birds reported off the NSW coast in the past week. Seems the southerly air-flow may have spoilt the party following the cold water upwelling earlier in the week that saw sea temperatures plummet by 6 degrees overnight after a bout of nor-easters over warmer water. It was reasonably quiet today, but with the usual Wedgies, Fleshies and Short-taileds getting about (and more Hutton’s than Fluttering, maybe a dozen of the former). On the way back in a bird that looked otherwise like a Wedge-tailed Shearwater but with pale underparts appeared in the throng. We have identified it as an intermediate morph Wedge-tailed Shearwater (there is a very low res image attached to a Birdline NSW report, but if anyone would like to see higher res images let me know and I’ll forward them through). I’ve been trying to find info on just how commonly this morph is recorded in Australian waters and cannot find much at all. I recall talking to Lindsay Smith (SOSSA Wollongong) about this last weekend and I’m sure he said they’ve had very few, if any, off W’gong over the years. Has anyone else recorded pale Wedgies in south-eastern Australian waters? Mick ===============================
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For anyone that is interested in the topic and hasn’t seen the photos, I’ve uploaded them to the SOSSA website here
http://www.sossa-international.org/forum/showthread.php?126-Intermediate-pale-morph-Wedge-tailed-Shearwater-off-Swansea-NSW&p=236#post236
You don’t have to be a SOSSA member to use the forum, including hosting photos, you just need to register to the site. You don’t have to be registered to view the site either.
The forum is available for discussions about seabirds and pelagics, as per the Forum rules, which are available here http://www.sossa-international.org/forum/misc.php?do=vsarules
Cheers,
Brook
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Andrew Sutherland has kindly allowed me to post a couple of his photos of the 2010 Hillarys pale/intermediate morph bird for interest. As mentioned, it didn’t come into the boat, so the photos are very distant but do show the extent of paleness on the underside
The photos can be seen at https://picasaweb.google.com/101486094752558106417/WARareBirds#
Cheers,
John
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G’day everyone, The Hillarys pelagic trip of Perth in September 2010 recorded a single ‘pale’ Wedgie, similar in plumage to Mick’s bird, just north of Rottnest Island. We described it as an intermediate morph, but as I say, it was similar in plumage to Mick’s bird, with pale underbody and underwings. Unfortunately the bird didn’t come into the boat and the only photos I know of are very distant. I didn’t take them, but I’ll see if I can get permission from the photographer to post them somewhere. I am away most of this coming week though, so it may be a short while before I can sort it out. Interestingly, some field guides claim that around 25% of WA birds are pale morph – I presume this is based on the Serventy paper that has been mentioned, but certainly does not hold true in waters off Perth and further south, and I’ve wondered in the past where these claims came from! Cheers,John
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Hi Jeff,
Thanks for your comment. I totally agree. I was actually also trying to say that Mick’s is a pale/”intermediate” morph bird (especially if you “lump” pale and intermediate), in contrast our cafe-au-lait and white-bellied birds are just weird dark morphs (e.g. “retained extremely worn belly”; and yes, I’ve seen this in Providence Petrels, too).
That’s why I asked for further photos/evidence of pale morph WTSWs in Australia. Looking forward to see Dave Stowe’s picture of the 2006 Sydney bird (see Roger McGovern’s comment).
Thanks also for mentioning the two 1972 papers, Jeff. I had a quick look. Serventy (1972) made the conclusion (20-30%) from very low numbers if I didn’t miss anything (3/13 and 4/20 fleglings). Apparently one bird was collected, previously, and should be in the WA Museum. Lane’s bird was collected, too, and the specimen should be in the Australian Museum.
Interestingly, you compared the colouration of Mick’s bird to that of an intermediate morph Pink-footed Shearwater. There is an interesting article in the January 2012 issue of Birding (American Birding Association) discussing a quiz bird: a large dark shearwater. The author discusses the following questions. “Is it a Flesh-footed Shearwater?” “Is there such a thing as a dark morph Pink-footed Shearwater?” “Are there Flesh- x Pink-footed Shearwater hybrids?”
http://www.aba.org/birding/v44n1p56.pdf
Cheers,
Nikolas
Sorry, I have not only seen cafe-au-lait coloured ones but also birds that I believe are dark morph but with aberrant pale bellies, such as this one in Raja’s collection:
http://www.adarman.com/Pelagics/2011-December-10-Sydney
So this again makes Mick’s, Steve’s and Lucas’s find so interesting!
Cheers,
Nikolas
Hi Mick & Birding-aus,
The bird looks certainly interesting! The only “pale” WTSWs I have seen in Australia were overall cafe-au-lait coloured. Mick’s bird, however, looks “normal” from above and has clear white areas underneath (belly and underwing – but not extensive enough for a “perfect” pale morph WTSW), which makes it look like an “intermediate morph” WTSW. This is really interesting! Are there any further photos of pale morph or intermediate morph WTSWs in Australia? I know that there is a lot of rumour about pale WTSWs turning up here, but aren’t they mainly just aberrant cafe-au-lait coloured WTSWs or are they really pale morph WTSWs?
Cheers,
Nikolas