Bulwer's off the North Carolina Coast

Bulwer'sPetrel, about 72 km southeastof OregonInlet, NorthCarolina. These photographs show the long-winged and long-tailedaspect of this speciesin flight, as well as the broad,long buffy "carpal bar" of the upperwing. Notetoo the relativelysmall head and bill. Photographs/MaryGustafson

HARRYE. LEGRANDJR.,* PAULGURIS, bars in freshplumage--such as dark-morphHerald or Trinidade and MARYGUSTAFSON Petrel(Pterodroma [a.l arminjoniana),dark-morph Parasitic Jaeger (Stercorariusparasiticus), and immatureSooty Tern (Sternafusca- ta)--as wellas noddy terns (Anous spp.) were we considered washefirstcharacterized week ofAugust by strong1998northeasterlyalong thecoast winds, ofNorth owing Carolinato one brieflyas we studiedthis , but it soonbecame apparent that it or twocold fronts that pushed southward into the state. Such "back- wassmaller than a gadflypetrel or jaegerbut clearlya tubenose,not door"cold fronts--dropping down from New Englandrather than one of the terns,which have long, thin bills.LeGrand tentatively comingfrom the west or northwest--arerather rare in summer,and identifiedthe bird asa Bulwer'sPetrel ( bulwerii) upon see- few are strongenough to weatherout pelagictrips. However, five ingthe carpal bars, but weasked Captain Allan Foreman to chasethe pelagictrips scheduled off OregonInlet and off Hatterasbetween bird to makesure of the identity.We caughtup to the bird andwere the first and third of Augustwere cancelled because of heavyseas. ableto parallelit with the boatfor a few minutes.Gustafson, along Windsremained strong out of the northeastthrough the seventh but with SandyKomito, took several photographs for documentation. werepredicted to lessenby theweekend of August8 to 9. The locationof the sightingwas approximately72 km south- Becauseof the frustrationsof the previousweekend and the southeastof OregonInlet, at about35 ø 15' N, 75ø 05' W. The depth potentialto finallyget offshore following winds that might help con- of the oceanwas approximately 300 fathoms(600 m). We did not centrate in the Gulf Stream--there was considerable antic- obtain a water temperaturereading, but the locationwas in the ipationwhen 22 birdersjoined the threeof usaboard the Country inshoreportion of the Gulf Stream,well westof the westernwall of Girl in Manteoon August8. The windson that daywere light and the Gulf Stream,not in the truly warm Streamwaters. southeasterlyand the seas glassy calm, excellent conditions for find- ing largenumbers of .Skies were mostly sunny and tempera- DESCRIPTIOI•I tureshigh, making for swelteringconditions. The bird wasa sooty-brownoverall with widebuffy carpal bars that By mid-morning,we had seenseveral dozen each of the three common •Cory's(Calonectris cliomedea), Greater widenedtoward the carpaljoint (or "wrist").The wingswere very (Puffinusgravis), and Audubon's(P. lherminieri)--mostof these long,pointed, and angledat the wrist.The tail waslong and pointed restingon the becalmedwater. These three species are dark above andappeared to be an extensionof thebody; it wasnever fanned in and whitish below. Thus, when we saw a medium-sized, all-dark bird flight.The headappeared fairly small,and the bill wassmall and dark. flushfrom a groupof restingshearwaters, we immediatelyfocused on this unfamiliarspecies. Even at a considerabledistance, perhaps The size of the bird was slightlysmaller than an Audubon's 500m, wewere able to observepale carpal bars, such as those found ,which was present for comparisonin flight. In bulk, it on manystorm-petrel species. Seabirds that typically lack pale carpal wasclearly slimmer than the shearwater, but in winglength and body lengthit approachedthe shearwater.In fact,when the bird wasseen * 1109Nichols Drive Raleigh, NC 2_7605 withoutother species for sizecomparison, it gavethe impressionof J-1604 •Voodland Road Green Lane, P^, 18054 a largerspecies, perhaps the apparentsize of a smalljaeger or a •t 8488 SnowdenOaks Place, Laurel, MD, 2_0708. BridledTern (S. anaethetus).This size discrepancy was likely due to

VOLUHE53 (1999), ISSUEI 113 thevery long wings of the Bulwer'sPetrel and to itsmuch larger size In the Madeira archipelago,and in most otherAtlantic nesting thanstorm- that occurlocally. areas,the firstreturning adults appear in April, andbirds are com- The flightof the bird wassomewhat like that of a Leach'sStorm- mon at seaby lateMay (Zino and Biscoito1994). Nesting generally Petrel(Oceanodroma leucorhoa) or a CommonNighthawk (Chordei- takesplace from May to July,with egg-layingusually in earlyJune lesminor). The Bulwer'sPetrel has the lowestwingloading of any andfiedging of youngabout 100 days later (Zino andBiscoito 1994) tubenose(Enticott and Tipling1997), and, in fact,the bird'sflight Dispersalfrom the coloniesbegins in lateAugust through September wasvery buoyant and "bouncy," with the wingsalways being bent andOctober (Harrison 1983), but breedingfailure can be fairlyhigh andbowed at thewrist. After each wing-beat, the bird tendedto twist in the species,such that somebirds may disperse earlier (Zino and or roll slightlyfrom sideto side.After severalwing-beats, the bird Biscoito1994). Most of the Atlanticpopulation moves south and glidedwith wingsdistinctly bowed and bent at the wrist.The bird west to winter in the South Atlantic off northeastern Brazil, as far as stayedwithin approximatelyone meter of the water,and it did not 30ø to 40ø S (Bourne1995, Megyesi and O'Daniel 1997). riseand fall or arcover the water.Its flightwas moderately fast, per- TheAugust 8, 1998,record of Bulwer'sPetrel is the first to be doc- hapsclose to 25 knots,but theboat was able to overtakethe bird such umentedby photographfor the watersoff easternNorth America that the observerswere able to viewthe petrelfor severalminutes. Thereare no knownspecimens from this region, but thereare sever- al publishedsight records. The firstpublished report was of a proba- DISCUSSION ble Bulwer'sPetrel off Key West,Florida, on May 14, 1969 (Taylor SimilarSpecies. Bulwer's Petrel should be confusablewith very few 1972).Another was reported off northeasternFlorida on May 1, 1984 other species,as it is neither a storm-petrelnor a (Haneyand Wainright 1985). Unpublished is a crediblesight record (Pterodroma).The speciesmost similar is the muchlarger Jouanin's of a single Bulwer's from the Argentia, the ferry between Petrel(B. fallax), which lacks or haspoorly demarcated carpal bars Newfoundlandand North Sydney,Nova Scotia, on July15, 1980,by andpossesses a graduated tail ratherthan a pointedtail. It is alsolim- DavidWolf and Bret Whitney (Whitney, pers. comm.). A sightrecord ited to the Indian Ocean. forVirginia about 80 mileseast of Chincoteagueon August 15, 1993, The manyspecies of all-darkstorm-petrels (i.e., those without is plausiblebut was not acceptedby the staterecords committee whiterumps) have forked or squaredtails, and the onlysuch storm- (Kain 1995).There are also several sight records for the southeastern .petrel known from the North AtlanticOcean is the very rare Swin- CaribbeanSea and the NetherlandAntilles (Voous 1983, Tostaln hoe'sStorm-Petrel (Oceanodroma monorhis), which is much smaller 1987).Apparently the onlyknown specimen for the westernNorth thanBulwer's Petrel. Bulwer's might be most reminiscent. (to North Atlantic is a Bulwer's Petrel found dead on Soldado Rock off Trinidad American birders) of Black Storm-Petrel(O.. melania), which is in theWest Indies, on January23, 1961(fftench 1963). somewhatsimilar in size,flight style, and overall coloration; howev- In waters off North Carolina, Hass observed one in the Gulf er,that speciesdoes not havea longpointed tail, its wingsare short- Streamoff the OuterBanks on July1, 1992(Hass 1995). The North er, and it is knownonly from the North PacificOcean. The white- CarolinaBird Records Committee (1994) accepted this sight record rumpedstorm-petrels found in the North Atlantic,of course,are Lee(1995) "briefly saw a bird fittingthe description of thisspecies off noticeablysmaller than Bulwer'sPetrel as well. Gadflypetrels can North Carolinaon 6 June1979." This sighting was not mentionedin normallybe excludedby their lack of palecarpal bars, but wornindi- other paperssummarizing the distributionof seabirdsoff North vidualscan showpale bars. However, birds in this ,as well as Carolina(Lee 1984, 1986) and still lacks published details (cf. Tove et the KerguelenPetrel (Lugensa brevirostris), show neither a longand al. 1998). pointedtail nor very longand constantlybent or bowedwings; in A Bulwer'sPetrel was observed and photographed off the coastof overallappearance and flight style,Pterodroma and Lugensaspecies Californiaon July26, 1998;photographs and description.s of this look ratherhusky and stiff-wingedcompared to the slenderand bird haveappeared in the present)ournal (FN 52:498& 519),mak- bent-wingedBulweria. ingit the firstdocumented record of thespecies for thePacific Ocean I•istributionand I•ispersal. Bulwer's Petrel occurs in the temperate watersof the mainlandUnited States(Roberson et al. 1999).There ls andtropical waters of theAtlantic, Pacific, and Indian Oceans. In the a report of the speciesseen at the north end of the SaltonSea, Atlantic,breeding takes place only on islandsin the easternportion, RiversideCounty, California, on July10, 1993,following a tropical off the coastof Africa.Megyesi and O'Daniel(1997) list the Azores, storm (Small1994). The speciesbreeds in the Pacificas closeto MadeiraIslands, Desertas, Great Salvage Island, Canary Islands, and Californiaas the HawaiianIslands (American Ornithologists' Union CapeVerde Islands as breeding sites in theAtlantic. The Atlantic pop- 1998). ulationis thoughtto numberseveral tens of thousandsof breeding Basedon the veryfew reportsof the speciesfrom both coastsof pairs(del Hoyo et al. 1992),but thisestimate may be overstated.Zino theUnited States, it is apparentthat this distinctive and relatively eas- and Biscoito(1994) estimate1000 pairs on PortoSanto and nearby ily identifiedspecies does not widelydisperse toward the western isletsin the Madeiraarchipelago, about 500 pairs on Bugioand 1000 NorthAtlantic or the easternNorth Pacific.This scarcity of records pairson DesertaGrande and Ilhdu Chao. On the Selvagems(Salvage is in starkcontrast to the regularappearance of severalother species Islands),Zino and Biscoito(1994) reviseearlier estimates and reck- that nest on the same islandsin the easternAtlantic. Moreover, the on 5000 pairs there. In the Cape Verde Islands,Bulwer's is only relativeabundance of theseregularly encountered species in the knownto breedon the isletsof Cima andRaso, with about 100pairs westernNorth Atlanticclosely parallels their documentedpopula- (Hazevoet1994). On theAzores, they nested formerly on bothSanta tion sizesin the easternNorth Atlantic(Hass 1995). For example, Maria and Graciosabut more recently(Paterson 1997) haveonly Cory'sShearwater is a commonvisitor to the westernAtlantic in the been confirmedon the former,with estimatesof 500 to 1000pairs warmermonths, and Band-rumped Storm-Petrel (Oceanodroma cas- (Tuckerand Heath 1994).Finally, on the CanaryIslands, the total tro) is regularin somenumbers, particularly off North Carohna populationis about 1000 pairs in 35 colonies(Hernandez et al. White-facedStorm-Petrel (Pelagodroma marina), whose populations 1990).The most recent population estimates from the eastern North aresmaller, is a rarebut somewhatregular late summer and fall visi- Atlanticthus total onlyabout 9100 to 9600pairs. tor to the northeasternand mid-Atlanticstates. The veryrare Fea's

I 14 NORTH AHERICAN BIRDS BULWER'S PETREL

Petrel (Pterodromafeae) hasbeen seenon about32 occasionsoff Megyesi,J. L., andD. L. O'Daniel.1997. Bulwer's Petrel. (Bulweria bulwerii), North Carolina(Tove 1997; Brinkley and Patteson1998). On the in TheBirds of North America, No. 281.Academy of NaturalSciences, Philadelphia,and the American Ornithologists' Union, Washington, DC. otherhand, Little Shearwater( assimilis) shows apparently North CarolinaBird Records Committee. 1994. Report of the North even less trans-Atlantic movement than does Bulwer's Petrel, as Carolina Bird Records Committee: 1993. Chat 58: 85-88. thereare just two specimens,from Nova Scotiaand SouthCarolina Paterson,A.M. 1997.Las aves marinas de Espaga y Portugal:Peninsula (A O U. 1998).We are not awareof any photographsor accepted lb•rica,Islas Balaeres, Canarias, Azores y Madeira.Lynx. Barcelona. sightrecords of LittleShearwater from the westernNorth Atlantic. Roberson,D. L., S.E Bailey,and D. S.Singer. The NestingSeason: Middle PacificCoast region. Field Notes 52: 498-502. Thereare too few recordsand reportsof Bulwer'sPetrel in the Small,A. 1994.California Birds: Their Status and Distribution. Ibis. Vista, western North Atlantic to show any pattern of occurrence. California. Nonetheless,with the continuedinterest in pelagicbird distribution Taylor,J.W. 1972.Probable Bulwer's Petrel off KeyWest, Florida. Wilson Bulletin 84: 198. off both coastsof the United Statesand Canada, additional records Tostain,O. 1987.Le Petrelde Bulwer(Bulweria bulwerii) dans les eanx of the Bulwer'sPetrel might be expectedevery few years, at leastoff guyanaises.Oiseau 57: 45-46. the southeastern coast of the United States and in the Caribbean Sea. Tove,M. H. 1997.Fea's Petrel in North America:documentation. Birding 29: 309-315. ACKNOWLEDGMENTS Tove,M. H., H. E. LeGrandJr., E. S.Brinkley, R. J.Davis, and J. B. Patteson. 1998.Marine birds off the coastof North Carolina:A critique.Chat We extendour thanks to the organizerof thispelagic trip, Armas Hill, of 62: 4942. FocusOn Nature Tours(FONT), and we wish to thank Todd Hassfor his Tucker,G. M., andS. Heath. 1994. Birds in Europe:Their Conservation commentson previousdrafts of thispaper. We alsoappreciate the efforts of Status. BirdLife Conservation Series 3. BirdLife International. AllanForeman, captain of the CountryGirl, in trackingthe petrel in order Cambridge,England. for birdersto closelyobserve and photograph the bird. Voous,K. H. 1983.Additions to the avifaunaof Aruba,Curacao, and Bonaire,south Caribbean. Ornithological Monographs 36: 247-254. LITERATURE CITED Zino,E, andM. Biscoito.1994. Breeding birds in theMadeira archipelago. AmericanOrnithologists' Union. 1998. Check-List of NorthAmerican Birds. In Seabirdson Islands:Threats, Case Studies, and ActionPlans. 7th edition.American Ornithologists' Union. Washington, DC. BirdLifeInternational. Cambridge, England. pp. 172-185. Bourne,W.R.P. 1995. The movementsof Bulwer'sPetrel and the larger shearwaters in the Atlantic Ocean. Sea Swallow 44: 49-52. Brinkley,E. S.,and J. B. Patteson. 1998. Gadfly petrels in thewestern North Atlantic.Birding World 11: 341-354. delHoyo, J., A. Elliott,J. Sargatal, et al. 1992.Handbook of the birds of the world.Vol. 1 Ostrichesto Ducks.Lynx Edicions. Barcelona. Entlcott,J., and D. Tipling.1997'. Seabirds of theWorld: The Complete Reference.Stackpole. Mechanicsburg, Pennsylvania. ffrench,R. 1963.Bulwer's Petrel (Bulweria bulwerii) in Trinidad,West Indies. Auk 80: 379. Haney,J. C., andS.C. Wainright.1985. Bulwer's Petrelin the SouthAtlantic Bight. American B•rds 39: 868-870. Harrison,P. 1983.Seabirds: An IdentificationGuide. HoughtonMifflin. Boston. Hass,T. 1995.An additional record of Bulwer's Pnoho E] Ce]o •ospheve esere Petrel Bulweria bulwerii off the southeastern UnitedStates of America.Marine Ornithology 23: 161-162. Hazevoet, C. J. 1994. Statusand conservationof seabirdsin the CapeVerde Islands. In Seabirds on Islands:Threats, CaseStudies, and Action Plans.BirdLife International. Cambridge, England.pp. 279-293. Hernfindez,E., M. Martin, M. Nosales,V. Quills, G Delgado,and O. Trujillo.1990. Distribution and statusof Bulwer'sPetrel (Bulweriabulwerii Jardineand Selby 1828) in the CanaryIslands. Boletimdo Museo Municipal do Funcha142: 5-16.

Kaln,Committee.T.1995. 1995Raven Report 66: 95-99.oftheVSO Records Lee,D. S. 1984.Petrels and storm-petrels in North Carolina'soffshore waters: Including species previouslyunrecorded for North America. American Birds 38: 151-163. Lee,D. S. 1986.Seasonal distribution of marine birds in North Carolina waters, 1975-1986. American Birds 40: 409-412. Lee,D.S. 1995. Marine birdsoff the coast ofNorth // Carolina. Chat 59:113-171. Le Grand, G., K. Emmerson, and A. Martin. 1984. The status and conservation of seabirds in the • • 5•i3-16 November1999 MacaronesianIslands. International Council for Bird Preservation,Technical Publication 2: (•er H•ngen Biting Fesfivfl)to benefitTOS Colorplate •nd. 377-391. LeadersPaffi Wood •dJack Eitnie•

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