First Record of the Wedge-Tailed Shearwater in California
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The followingarticle is the firstin a serieson Californiararities to be edited by JosephMorlan and Don Roberson.It is basedon materialssubmitted to the CaliforniaBird RecordsCommittee (CBRC). The descriptionand cir- cumstanceswere drawnfrom the accountsof the observersand have been reviewedby them. Robersonprepared the distributionalsummary; Morlan preparedthe identificationsummary. In thisway we hope muchimportant informationaccumulated in CBRC files will becomewidely available. Wedge-tailed Shearwater Sketch by Tim Manoils FIRST RECORD OF THE WEDGE-TAILED SHEARWATER IN CALIFORNIA RICHARD STALLCUP, Box 36, Inverness, California 94937 JOSEPH MORLAN, 417 Talbot Ave., Albany, California94706 DON ROBERSON, 282 Grove Acre Ave., Pacific Grove, California 93950. On 31 August1986, Stallcupwas leadinga pelagictrip for the Point Reyes Bird Observatory.At about 0900, he was standingat the stern of the Sea Wolf about 4 nauticalmiles due westof Point Pinos,Monterey County, when an unusualshearwater glided by, headingtoward a largeflock of gullsand shearwatersin the boat's wake. The bird was very close and it took him a secondto realize that it was not any expectedspecies. He shouted "What is that? What is that bird? Get onto that bird!" The shearwater melted into the flock but quicklyreappeared about 40 feet behind the boat. Its unique shape, dark bill, pink feet, and nearly uniformdark brown upperpartssug- gesteda Wedge-tailedShearwater Puffinus pacificus, a speciesStallcup had seen off western Mexico and southeastern Australia. All 20 other observersclustered at the stern, many strugglingto see details as Stallcupyelled out "What'sthe preciseunderwing pattern? Is the bill all dark? Who has a camera?' Then he remembered his own camera and was soon photographingthe shearwater,guessing at the proper exposure,until he ran out of film. He obtained 17 photos (includingFigures 1-3); Alan K. Thomas obtained one more (Figure 4). Fortunately the bird was very cooperative,staying in the wake for an estimated10-12 minutes.It wasoften the birdclosest (30-50 feet) to the shipbut sometimesdrifted back or landed Western Birds 19:61-68. 1988 61 WEDGE-TAILED SHEARWATER on the water. It flew outsidethe flock, up one sideor the other, crisscrossing and quarteringand droppingon tidbitsof chum. The quarteringmaneuvers provided excellent views of the spread tail and often of the dangling legs and feet. Stallcupobtained LORAN readingsfrom the captain (placingthe bird at 36 ø 38 • 16 iN, 122 ø 04 • 27 W) and radioedanother boat of birdwatchersabout 35 miles west. This secondgroup of observersscoured the area later that day, as did another charteredboat the following day, but the bird was not relocated. Stallcuptook the followingdescription, compiled from fieldnotes and with referenceto the photographs: A shearwatermost like Buller'sP. bulleriin sizeand shape but with a tail half again as long, muchwider, and more flamboyant.The wingsappeared long and slimin most views,but were wide, especiallyfrom the wristinward (suggestinglong secondaries?). The body was slimmerthan that of the Pink-lootedShearwater P. creatopus,being more like Buller'sin proportions,including those of the head and bill. The flight was extremelygraceful, like Bullet's,with effortlessflapping broken by sustainedgliding on bowedwings. The flapswere smooth,unlike the more laboredflight of the Pink-looted, and this bird used the lift from the waves more efficiently.It usuallystayed lessthan 3 feet from the surface,but occasionallywheeled up to perhaps20 feet. When com- peting for chum it displayedthree notable behaviorialcharacteristics: (1) it blatantly used its large tail to outmaneuvereven the agile Heermann's Gulls Larus heerrnanni, quarteringwith its body to drop onto floatingfood items,reminding one of a harrier Circus, (2) it often foragedwith its legsand feet hangingdown, and (3) it sometimes pulled its head back a bit, giving an "Adam's apple" effect to its long neck. The entireupperparts were darkwithout noticeable markings. The remigesand retrices were black above and below. The crown, face, nape and a large peninsularsmudge projectingonto the side of the breastwere blackish,merging with little contrastinto the ebonybrown back and upperwingcoverts. The tipsof somecoverts (probably greater coverts)were paler (wornor pale-tipped?), forminga barelynoticeable tan stripenear the trailingedge of the upperwing. The chin, throat, breast,sides, belly, and flankswere pure white, but the demarca- tion from the dark upperpartswas rather fuzzy. The undertail coverts and lower flanks were dark. The underwingcoverts were mostlywhite, separatedfrom the whitebody by blackish axillars.The entiretrailing third of the underwing,made up of the remiges,was dark, as was a narrowstrip on the leadingedge, only slightlywider than that of Buller'sShear- water.A dark diagonalline, fromjust inside the wriston the leadingedge to the posterior axillaries,isolated a smalltriangle of white on the underwingcoverts, producing a field characterapparently unique to the light morph of this species. The bill appeareddark in the field, but was subtlyblack-tipped on the distalquarter and darkestblue-gray on the remainingbasal portion. Eyes appeareddark. Legs and feet were pink, recallingthose of Pink-looted Shearwater. At Stallcup'ssuggestion, Ruben Balzer, Bill Manolis,Nancy Menken, Susan Peaslee, Alan Thomas, William Ure, and Katherine Wilson submitted addi- tional descriptions.These were similar in most repects to Stallcup's, although Manolis describedthe back as "chocolatebrown" and the feet as "flesh-colored." The recordwas unanimously accepted by the CaliforniaBird RecordsCom- mittee on the first circulation(Bevier in prep.). It constitutesthe first record for California and for North America north of Mexico. 62 WEDGE-TAILED SHEARWATER Figure1. Wedge-tailedShearwater. Monterey Bay. 31 August1986. Note outlineof white triangleon underwingcoverts and long wedge-shapedtail. Photo by Richard Stallcup Figure2 Wedge-tailedShearwater. Monterey Bay, 31 August1986. Note narrowpale tips to greater coverts forming a narrow wing stripe Photo by Richard Stallcup 63 WEDGE-TAILED SHEARWATER Figure3. Wedge-tailedShearwater, Monterey Bay, 31 August1986. lXlotethe long, thingray bill with slightly darker tip and black flight feathers contrasting with white wing linings. Photo by Richard Stallcup Figure4 Wedge-tailedShearwater, Monterey Bay, 31 August1986. The head is pulled back.producing an "Adam'sapple" effect, and the longsecondaries give a distinctive broad-based appearance to the wings. Photo by Alan K. Thomas 64 WEDGE-TAILED SHEARWATER DISTRIBUTIONAL SUMMARY The Wedge-tailedShearwater ranges widely throughout the tropicalPacific and Indian oceans.It occursin the easternPacific from Baja California(A.O.U. 1983) to Ecuadorand throughoutthe centraland westernPacific, north to Japan and southto southernAustralia and New Zealand. It occursin the In- dian Ocean from western Australia to southern Africa and north to the north- ern Red Sea (Jouaninand Mougin 1979, Sinclair1978, Shirihai 1987). All breedingcolonies are on tropical or subtropicalislands. Pacificpopulations of this polymorphicspecies consist predominately of the lightmorph in the north (exceptat the Marianasand Revillagigedos)and the dark morph in the south (exceptat SharksBay, westernAustralia, where 20-30% of the birds are light; Blakers et al 1984), with 10ø N latitude representingan approximatedividing line (King1974). The breedingcolonies nearest California are on San Benedicto Island, in the Revillagigedogroup off southernMexico, and in the HawaiianIslands. The San Benedictobreeding populationwas two-thirds dark in 1898 but wasnearly all dark by 1974 (Jehl and Parkes 1982). However, sightingsat sea near the Central Americancoast (east of 120ø W) are predominatelyof the light morph, with dark birds becoming more numerous only far offshore (between 120 and 150 ø W; Pitman 1986). The Hawaiian populationis estimatedat 1.5 million birds (Haley 1984), and 97% of the birdsaround the main islandsare of the light morph (Berger 1981). They nestfrom Marchto November,then movesouth to the Equatorial Countercurrentand east to waters off Central America, completinga molt prior to returning to their breeding colonies (Berger 1981, King 1974). A vagrant from this long migrationroute might accountfor the bird reaching Monterey during fall, as most other populationsare nonmigratory (Jouanin and Mougin 1979) and mostsouthern populations are dark. Largeflocks usual- ly remain near the Hawaiian breedinggrounds until November, so this bird may have been a nonbreeder. The bird wasnot associatedwith any stormor sea-temperaturefluctuation (e.g., "El Nifio"). Seasin the vicinitywere calmwith a three-footground swell; the weather was calm and overcast.King (1974) found the Wedge-tailed Shearwater insensitiveto water temperature, as long as the temperature was above21 ø C (70ø F), and foundit only slightlysensitive to salinity,preferring salinitiesabove 34.6 partsper thousand.However, he citedtwo recordsfrom watersof 15 ø C (59 ø F), showingthat the speciesis not entirelyrestricted to warm water. On 31 August1986 the surfacetemperature at HopkinsMarine Station,Pacific Grove, 8 mileseast inside Monterey Bay, wasonly 13.5 ø C (56.3 ø F) and temperaturesoff Point Pinosaverage even cooler (A. Baldridge pers. comm.). At Granite Canyon, about 15 milessouth of the sighting,the temperaturewas 11.7 o C (53.1 o F; ScrippsInstitute of Oceanography1987). Thus the water temperaturewhere the shearwaterwas