Port Phillip Baykeeper » short-tailed Shearwater http://www.bay-keeper.com Say g'day to the Bay Thu, 08 Dec 2011 11:14:22 +0000 en hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.2.1 Short-tailed Shearwaters http://www.bay-keeper.com/2009/11/short-tailed-shearwaters/ http://www.bay-keeper.com/2009/11/short-tailed-shearwaters/#comments Sun, 22 Nov 2009 09:57:42 +0000 BayKeeper http://www.bay-keeper.com/?p=757 Short-tailed Shearwaters (Puffinus tenuirostris aka Muttonbirds) have been reported dead on Port Phillip Bay beaches over the past week. I found five at Point Gellibrand today. Large numbers of dead seabirds prompts concern that they may have suffered from pollution or some other unnatural threat. But in this case it seems to be a cyclical event, linked to the incredible distance travelled on their annual migration around the Pacific. When they return in November, rough weather can be the end of birds weakened by the journey.

Puffinus_tenuirostris_resized

The fledgling ‘muttonbird’ pictured (courtesy of wikipedia) is looking forward to an annual round trip of around 15,000km. The October 2009 edition of the Bird Observer reports a Short-tailed Shearwater found dead at Port Fairy Beach, more than 48 years and 3 months after it was banded as an adult on Griffiths Island, Port Fairy, in 1960. Another curious fact is that Shearwater eggs (just one per burrow) are all laid on, or within a few days of November 25!

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