Due to heavy reconstruction of this webpage, this blog is temporary suspended to renew in this summer, it will be updated again after late-autumn, thank you for your visits in these 9 years.

15 January 2011

Petrels and Shearwaters

From top to bottom :
27p : Sooty Shearwater (灰鸌) ; 70p : White-chinned Petrel (白額鸌)
95p : Southern Giant Petrel (南方巨鸌) ; £1,15 : Great Shearwater (大鸌)

Falkland Islands (2010)
8th July, 2010. Stanley
12th August, 2010. Stanley

After the Albatrosses issue on 2009, Tony Chater illustrated new series of seabird again on 2010 which features 4 species of Procellariidae (水薙鳥科). Four species are fairly common in Southern Ocean and its islands. Sooty Shearwater widely to be found in Pacific and Atlantic. The bird breeds in the islands of south Pacific and Atlantic, especially South Island of New Zealand and Falkland Islands, in the spring of southern world, it migrates long-distance to north for whole summer (there is autumn and winter of northern world) in Mexico, Guadalupe Island, Norway and Scotland. White-chinned Petrel is a large shearwater lives range of Southern Ocean, and also south Australia, Peru and Namibia. Mostly it breeds in the islands of Southern Ocean and one of them is Falkland Islands. Southern Giant Petrel is a common petrel in the world, same as White-chinned Petrel, it also breeds in same range of islands. Falkland is the largest breeding place of the bird near 19.500 pairs recorded on 2005. Great Shearwater, mostly breeds in the islands of south Atlantic from Tristan da Cunha to Falkland, during summer it migrates to north arrive Great Britain and Ireland.

Four shearwaters are catching fish and squid as their food, formally they don't have natural hazards. However most of shearwaters and albatrosses lost their life due to the longline fisheries in southern area, their populations decreasing quickly in recent years. For example population of White-chinned Petrel decreased 40% in these 40 years and now the species classified as Least Concern in IUCN list.