Wednesday 28 May 2014

Stormbirds

I've heard a lot of people say that raptors are "real" birds because of their ability to gracefully soar and hunt other birds.

Those people don't realize that seabirds are the truly impressive birds flying thousands of kilometres just for one meal, and somehow managing to return to their small breeding islands without any apparent geography to guide them there, all the while enduring gale force winds despite some of them weighing less than 500 grams.

Although they seem to be able to manage any kind of wind and ocean swell they do occasionally get blown close to shore. This morning Ed and I were happy to see several Leach's Storm-Petrels and a handful of Red-necked and Red Phalaropes in breeding plumage.

This photo more or less sums up the morning:
Can you name all 4 species? (this looks way way better if you click on the image!!)


And whenever the seabirds are blown to shore, the predators are never far behind:


Some videos from this morning: