On Monday, a
Sooty Shearwater was seen from Porth Ysgaden and two Pomarine Skuas from Cemlyn.
Greater shearwaters - many so filled with sand eels that they comically had difficulty taking off from the water as we approached them - continuously entertained us, along with lesser numbers of their darker cousin, the
sooty shearwater.
Instead, it rests with a small seabird called the
sooty shearwater.
A single soil profile was obtained from a
sooty shearwater breeding area on each island, from back-excavating the edge of a recent landslip on Taukihepa and from excavating a new toilet on Putauhinu.
Nationally, sightings included Pacific golden plover from eastern Siberia, American wigeon from North America and
sooty shearwater from the south Atlantic.
If you ever sighted a
sooty shearwater on its annual transhemisphere migration, you'd want to know more.
| Gusty winds at the weekend brought a Sabine's Gull to Aberdaron on Monday,
Sooty Shearwater past Bardsey on Friday and Black Terns past Point Lynas, Little Orme and Rhos Point on Sunday, with an unseasonal Great Northern Diver at the latter.
In the process, the arctic tern covers about 44,000 frequent flier miles (71,000 kilometers), beating its archrival, the
sooty shearwater, by roughly 4,000 miles (6,440 kilometers).
In addition, the population of the
sooty shearwater, a seabird that eats zooplankton, has plunged 90 percent over the last 8 years, he notes.
Strong winds brought Pomarine Skuas and Leach's Petrels to several coastal watchpoints, an up-estuary Gannet to Connah's Quay, plus Grey Phalaropes to Point Lynas and Bardsey, with Sabine's Gull and
Sooty Shearwater flying past the latter site.
The Oregon Coast will be the first birding trail in the country to offer pelagic sites, accessible only by boat to view seagoing birds such as the black-footed albatross,
sooty shearwater and fork-tailed storm-petrel - "birds you'll never see standing on the mainland," Grafe said.
A couple of Wrynecks, a
Sooty Shearwater and Lapland Buntings were also on the island this week.