of Migratory Species. This Agreement on the Conservation of Albatrosses and Petrels (ACAP) is designed to protect all ALL HANDS ON DECK TO SAVE Southern Hemisphere albatrosses as well Red-billed Tropicbird as giant petrels and Procellaria petrels. A draft text was thrashed out at the third ALBATROSSES AND PETRELS negotiation meeting, held in Cape Town flies in at the end of January 2001. t 10h30 on 9 January 2001, an adult seen and photographed close inshore ccording to Threatened Birds of the To the uninitiated the proceedings A Red-billed Tropicbird Phaethon from Chapman’s Peak Drive on the Cape AWorld, albatrosses have the highest were less than dynamic, with politicians aethereus was seen as it circled the Smit Peninsula. The second record was on proportion of threatened species of any and policy-makers quibbling over the Pentow Marine deep-sea tug John Ross, 9 February 1989, about 70 kilometres off bird family. Of the 21 species recog wording of clauses. But ACAP’s efforts and the ship it was towing. For an hour the Cape Peninsula. The third was made nised by BirdLife International, only should improve the conservation status it made frequent and seemingly despe on 10 December 2000, also from the John one is not threatened with extinction. of these magnificent seabirds through rate attempts to land on board the tug. Ross, about 180 kilometres north of the Two species are critically threatened, an Action Plan that calls for reduction It would get to the point of landing, place where the bird came aboard one two are endangered, 12 are vulnerable, of incidental mortality in fisheries, only to go off again in a flurry of month later. and four are near-threatened. The main eradication of introduced predators at feathers, streaming its long white tail. There is one record off the Namibian threat facing albatrosses is uncontrolled breeding sites, reduction of disturbance Then it would give up on the tug, fly off coast: a Red-billed Tropicbird accom longline fishing, which also threatens and habitat loss, and measures to reduce to the ship being towed, and repeat the panied a research ship ‘for a short time’ both species of giant petrel Macronectes marine pollution. A promising aspect of performance there before returning to at a point about 400 kilometres offshore and all five Procellaria petrels. the Cape Town meeting was the presence the tug. The photograph on this page of Lüderitz. The researchers do not give To address this global conservation of several nations with longline fleets. was taken during this period. Ultimate the exact date, but it was most likely to problem, a group of Southern Hemi The Agreement should come into effect ly, the bird crashed, exhausted, onto the have been in early April 1972. sphere governments, led by Australia, before the end of 2002. deck of the tug, which was then 300 The specimen was of the nominate has set up an Agreement under the PETER RYAN kilometres north-west of Cape Town. subspecies which breeds on islands of m.p. kahl The Wandering Albatross – one of the vulnerable seabird species. Bonn Convention on the Conservation The tropicbird was cared for on board the Atlantic Ocean south of the equator: until the John Ross arrived in Cape Town St Helena and Ascension Islands along two days later, when it was sent to the the mid-Atlantic Ridge, and Abrolhos rescue centre of the Southern African and Fernando de Noronha offshore of SAFRING NEWS Cory’s & Scopoli’s Shearwaters Foundation for the Conservation of Brazil. The total population of this sub Coastal Birds (SANCCOB). It was found to species on these islands is believed to n 12 January 2000, an exhausted and darker, greyer upperparts. This south coasts of southern Africa, mainly Scopoli’s Shearwater, with an appre be suffering from a lung infection, and number fewer than 3 000 pairs. Although Oseabird was found on the beach at species disperses south to at least 26°S in between November and May. Cory’s ciably heavier bill and darker head, although it was treated with great care, it this bird could have come from any of Jeffreys Bay, Eastern Cape. It had a ring the South Atlantic, but has not yet been Shearwaters (in the strict sense) breed on mantle, chin and throat. But the most died six days later. these islands, St Helena is the closest to L18993 from Portugal. The bird died a recorded from southern Africa. islands in the Atlantic (Madeira, the diagnostic feature in the field is the This is the fourth record of the Red- the localities of the five records and it is few hours later, but it has taken almost a The other two taxa are more similar in Canary Islands and Azores) and migrate dark primaries that form a solid, billed Tropicbird off South Africa, and most likely that they originate from year to obtain its ringing details. appearance, but are recognised by at least chiefly to the west Atlantic, occurring off blackish tip to the underwing of Cory’s the first specimen, the previous records this island. It was a Cory’s Shear the east coasts of North Shearwater, whereas Scopoli’s being sight records. The first record was A. Chipps, L.G. Underhill & water Calonectris [d.] and South America. Shearwater has pale bases to the on 25 November 1984, when one was E. van der Merwe borealis, ringed as a There have been only primaries, resulting in a narrow black nestling on the Madeira two confirmed records margin to the wingtip (see Gutièrrez Islands off the coast of of Cory’s Shearwater in 1998, Dutch Birding 20: 216–225). Morocco in the north- southern Africa, based Since the publication of that article, east Atlantic Ocean. It on morphometrics of Peter Ryan has examined several had been ringed more specimens. The Jeffreys hundred ‘Cory’s Shearwaters’ at sea than 15 years ago, on Bay bird adds another off South Africa and all have been 13 October 1984. The record, as does one of Scopoli’s Shearwaters. Birders should direct distance between the only two other examine closely all ‘Cory’s Shear ringing and recovery recov eries of ringed waters’ to assign them to (sub)species, was 8 322 kilometres, Cory’s Shearwaters from but identification off southern Africa although the route southern Africa: a bird is often complicated by birds moulting flown over the ocean ringed on Madeira in their primaries. would have been con September 1981 that Dieter Oschadleus, Les Underhill & siderably greater. was caught at sea off Peter Ryan Cory’s Shearwaters Durban 12 years later breed on rocky coasts Underwing patterns of Scopoli’s Shearwater Calonectris [d.] in February 1994. The Please send any information on metal- or colour-ringed birds to: and islands of the diomedea (top) and Cory’s Shearwater C. [d.] borealis (above). other recovery was SAFRING, Mediterranean and the presumably a Scopoli’s University of Cape Town, north-east Atlantic, with three distinct some authorities as separate species: Shearwater, ringed on a Spanish island in Rondebosch 7701; taxa. The Cape Verde population was Cory’s, and Scopoli’s shearwaters C. [d.] the Mediterranean in 1985 and found tel. (021) 650 2421/2; recently re-split as the Cape Verde diomedea. Scopoli’s Shearwaters breed in dead in Namibia six and a half years fax (021) 650 3434; e-mail [email protected] Shearwater C. edwardsii, which is easily the Mediterranean and are common later. A. Chipps distinguished by its dark bill, smaller size non-breeding visitors off the west and Cory’s Shearwater is larger than The Red-billed Tropicbird photographed as it circled above the boat.
22 BIRDING BRIEFS africa – birds & birding april/may 2001 BIRDING BRIEFS 23