My experience in Juan de Fuca Strait off Victoria is that most of the winter shearwaters are usually Sooty's, perhaps outnumbering Short-tails 20:1.


Date: Thu, 3 Dec 1998 10:17:25 -0800
From: Kai Schraml <thekaiser at earthlink.net>
To: "'tweeters at u.washington.edu'" <tweeters at u.washington.edu>
Subject: Short Tailed Shearwaters off of Cape Flattery
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Dear Tweets,
I too was at Cape Flattery this Thanksgiving weekend and saw the same
casual sea otter with child, and all the rest. One thing perplexed me
though. It was a small dark Shearwater that hung out near the
observation post. Since the Sooty and Short Tailed are very close in
appearance I thought that the time of year more than likely dictated
that it was a Short-Tailed. Is this a good assumption? I saw the bird at
close range, but do not know the two species well enough to make a
visual separation.
Does anyone have any thoughts?
Kai Schraml