Is it really that surprising that after a journey from the Bering Sea back to
Australia that a few birds die? Wrecks of Short-tailed Shearwaters (STSW) and
other seabirds occur regularly all over the world. In Australia, wrecks are
common at this time of year because STSW adults returned at the end of
September. Juvenile wrecks occur in April/May after they fledge. Some birds
just aren't going to make it. Given the breeding population is estimated to be
between 23 -30 MILLION I don't think the numbers that have been reported will
have any significant impact on the population.
Wrecked birds can be very useful to science. Birds can be used in a number of
different ways such as looking for effects of plastic ingestion, heavy metal
contamination and staple isotope studies. Numbers and timing of wrecks can
also be used to infer migration. Don't forget, all birds should be checked for
leg bands. STSW are the third most banded species in Australia (120,000 to
date!).
Regards,
Mark
> Date: Mon, 29 Nov 2010 11:17:54 +0000
> From:
> To:
> Subject: [Birding-Aus] Dead Shearwaters
>
> Tonya's post about the dead ST Shearwaters in southern NSW, extends the
> grim picture that had been painted by my daughter who lives beside the
> beach at Peregian on the Sunshine Coast of Qld - by several hundred
> kilometres.
>
> About the first week in November, she, and a young boy who happened to
> be walking on the beach, moved by compasssion rather than rationality,
> had been prompted to enter the surf to rescue a couple of floundering
> young shearwaters and took them to the Australian Wildlife Zoo -
> inevitably without a happy ending.
>
> Apparently there were many dead shearwaters along the northern Sunshine
> Coast beaches and there had been even more a couple of weeks earlier.
> She is not sufficiently knowlegeable to have aged the dead birds she saw
> on the beach on those occasions, although the floundering birds were
> juveniles.
>
> I join Tonya in an interest to hear explanations of the phenomena - the
> likely causes and whether juveniles are particularly at risk.
>
> Angus Innes.
>
>
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