Subject: [Tweeters] Yesterdays Ashy Storm-Petrel
Date: Jun 25 07:57:11 2006
From: bill shelmerdine - georn1 at hotmail.com


Greetings Tweeters,
Yesterday Bruce Labar posted the sighting of an Ashy Storm-Petrel on the
June 24 Westport Seabirds Trip. Here are some follow-up details:

Yesterday at 11:50 a good Westport Seabirds trip turned into a great
Seabirds trip. We were on our way back in from our deep chum spot where we
had some really excellent views of Leach's and Fork-tailed Storm Petrels.
Several photographers on board were able to obtain some very nice photos,
and as far as petrels were concerned it was already a really good day.

We were just entering an area with a dispersed group of storm petrels, which
included numbers of Fork-tailed and Leach's. Bruce LaBar and I noticed a
couple of storm petrels together at about 1:30 (direction from the bow,
assigning the bow to the 12:00 position it is ahead and to the right
(starboard). One bird was clearly a Fork-tailed, the other quite dark by
direct comparison. We had quickly ruled out Leach's by shape and flight,
and at first assumed that some condition of lighting was making this bird
appear quite dark. However, we pretty quickly came to our senses and
realized this bird was something different. Bruce and I quickly ruled out
Fork-tailed, Leach's and Black; clearly it was not a Least. (Both of us
have previous experience with these species as well as with Ashy.) I think
it was the other spotter, Scott Mills who was first convinced we were
looking at Washington's first Ashy Storm-Petrel. For those who like all the
dirty details, this was at 46 53 182; 124 55 333.

The description from my notes is as follows:
A dark storm petrel, 1st seen side-by-side with Fork-tailed, (and later
side-by-side with Leach's). It stood out in particular as very dark bodied,
particularly in the underparts, and not too dissimilar to Leaches in this
regard. The upper-wings were dark with a slight brownish-gray wash to the
coverts, slightly paler along the grater coverts/ base of the secondaries
that gave a hint of a carpal bar that was nowhere as distinct as a Leach's.
It took some time to get a reasonable look at the under wings, which at
first to me looked all dark. With some good views at this very cooperative
bird, we were finally able to note a more pale wash to the under wing
coverts. In shape it appeared distinctly long tailed and looked quite
different from either Fork-tailed or Leach's. On a couple of occasions the
bird stalled in flight, or banked and we were able to see that the tail was
deeply forked, but mostly it appeared long-tailed to me. The rump was dark,
but paler than the mid-back.

The flight pattern was direct, looking most distinct from Leach's, lacking
the deeper wing beats, and zig-zagging more nighthawk-like flight of that
species. Compared to Fork-tailed it seemed more direct (straighter) to me.
It was clearly smaller than Leach's, more similar to the size of the
Fork-tailed, but clearly longer-tailed. The wings seemed narrower and more
pointed than Fork-tailed and more like Leach's with regard to wing shape.

This sighting was exceptional on several accounts: we obtained long,
sustained views, we were able to chase and maintain sustained contact with
the bird, we had direct comparisons with both Leaches and Fork-tailed, and
had close views. Veteran seabirders know how often views are brief, and
hampered by sea, wind or light conditions, or frustrated by the motion of
the boat. Thanks to the great efforts by skipper Phil Anderson, we were
actually able to stay with this bird for 15 or more minutes while obtaining
views as close as 70 to 100 feet with sustained viewing well within 100
yards. The bird was viewed toward the east with the sun high in the sky.
It generally stayed to starboard and to the front half of the boat, but
crossed the bow several times at close range for excellent views north and
south of east and giving the observers on board a variety of lighting
conditions. A couple of birders from Norway were able to obtain some
amazing photos of this bird, which we were able to view in the cabin after
the observation. Isn't digital photography amazing? Talk about instant
gratification. We expect we will get these photos in few weeks and plan to
post them to the Westport Seabirds site.

It was truly a great day. Final results will posted to Westport Seabirds
Website. The excitement of the petrel sighting overshadowed a number of
other highlights including a fantastic encounter with numbers of Pacific
White-sided Dolphins and a remarkably cooperative South Polar Skua (rare for
June).
Cheers and Good Birding
Bill Shelmerdine
mailto: georn1 at hotmail.com

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