Life…

Vanity, Vanity, all is Vanity…
There is nothing new under the sun.

The fear of God is the beginning of wisdom.

Eat, drink and be merry and walk in the path of righteousness.
Hold goodness tight to your breast as a lover.

Beck’s Petrel Rediscovered—again?

So, after my last post a quick google shows that another gentleman also seems to have ‘rediscovered’ the Petrel, and even taken a picture of it–in 2006. (see the article below). I am considering an email to both ‘rediscoverers’ to ask if they are aware of each others claim.

The picture above is from the article below and is credited as “Richard Baxter
The first ever photo of a live Beck’s Petrel Pterodroma becki?”

from: http://www.birdlife.org/news/news/2006/06/becks_petrel.html
(accessed on 6 March 2006)

Beck’s is back

14-06-2006

Beck’s Petrel Pseudobulweria becki, unrecorded since 1929, has apparently been seen and photographed in the Coral Sea, east of Australia’s Great Barrier Reef. The observer, birding tour guide Richard Baxter, was able to compare it directly with Tahiti Petrel Pseudobulweria rostrata, the bird with which it is most likely to be confused (and with which it may be conspecific).

Despite the 77-year gap in the record, BirdLife had categorised Beck’s Petrel as Critically Endangered rather than Extinct. “It probably remains extant, because there have been a number of recent records of up to 250 individuals of the very similar Tahiti Petrel in the Bismarck Archipelago and Solomon Islands which may refer to this species,” states BirdLife’s species account. “Furthermore, petrels that are nocturnal at the nesting grounds are notoriously difficult to detect, and there are numerous possible breeding sites on isolated atolls and islands that require surveying.” However, it adds: “Any remaining population may be tiny.”

Baxter had been crossing the Coral Sea for two days, en route from Noumea to Australia. “Tahiti Petrels were abundant the entire time we were in suitably deep water and I had seen several hundred,” he reported. “The Beck’s was the size of a Cookilaria petrel [a subgenus of small Pterodromas], significantly smaller than a Tahiti Petrel, and comparable to both Black-winged Pterodroma nigripennis and Gould’s Petrel Pterodroma leucoptera, which were also seen that morning.”

“When looking at the Beck’s it was very obviously not a Tahiti Petrel on size alone.” —Richard Baxter

Baxter’s description continues: “When looking at the Beck’s it was very obviously not a Tahiti Petrel on size alone. I also think the wings are shorter and broader than Tahiti and it does not have the same large billed appearance. The underwings also appear lighter. Photos of underwing plumage taken of Tahiti the same morning shows very dark at that time of year. The chin/throat is pale and the specimen also has a pale chin/throat! No one I know has ever seen a Tahiti with a pale throat!”

Rollo Beck, an ornoithologist and collector of museum specimens, took part in the Whitney expedition to Oceania in the 1920s. The petrel which bears his name is known only from two specimens: a female taken at sea east of New Ireland and north of Buka, Papua New Guinea, on 6 January 1928; and a male taken north-east of Rendova, Solomon Islands, on 18 May 1929.

BirdLife’s proposed conservation measures for the species include scrutinising and photographing all P. rostrata-type petrels seen within the region; and surveying far-flung atolls and reefs north of New Ireland and the Solomons, and high-altitude forest on Bougainville, where Beck’s Petrel may be breeding. Also recommended is biochemical analysis, to determine whether it is a species in its own right, or a subspecies of Tahiti Petrel.

“Conservationists are reluctant to designate species as Extinct if there is any reasonable possibility that they may still be extant, in order to avoid the ‘Romeo error’, where we might give up on a species prematurely.” —Dr Stuart Butchart, BirdLife’s Global Species Programme Coordinator

Dr Stuart Butchart, BirdLife’s Global Species Programme Coordinator, is lead author of a forthcoming paper which explains the framework used to tag 15 Critically Endangered species Possibly Extinct. Beck’s Petrel was not one of those 15 species, as the possible recent sightings in the Bismarck Archipelago and Solomon Islands weighed in its favour. However, another seabird, the Guadalupe Storm-petrel Oceanodroma macrodactyla was reclassified as Critically Endangered (Possibly Extinct).

“Guadalupe Storm-petrel has not been recorded since 1912 despite several searches, following a severe decline owing to predation by introduced cats and habitat degradation by introduced goats,” Butchart explained. “Only the difficulty of detecting storm-petrels at their breeding colonies at night (when the birds are active), and the continued survival of other storm-petrels on the island, point to the possibility that some individuals survive, and hence that classification as Extinct would be premature.”

He says that listing a species as Extinct has significant conservation implications. “Conservation funding is, justifiably, not targeted at species believed extinct. Therefore conservationists are reluctant to designate species as Extinct if there is any reasonable possibility that they may still be extant, in order to avoid the ‘Romeo error’, where we might give up on a species prematurely.”

Beck’s Petrel Rediscovered

It appears that a species of petrel thought to be extinct, the Beck’s Petrel, has been rediscovered!

from:http://news.theage.com.au/rare-sea-bird-rediscovered-off-png/20080307-1xns.html
(Accessed on 6 March 2008)

Rare sea bird rediscovered off PNG

March 6, 2008 – 11:41PM

A rare sea bird not sighted since the 1920s and feared extinct has been rediscovered by a British expedition in waters off Papua New Guinea.

The critically endangered Beck’s petrel was re-discovered in the Bismarck Archipelago, in the south-west Pacific Ocean, north-east of Papua New Guinea.

The Bulletin of the British Ornithologists’ Club this week published a paper about the expedition by its leader, Israeli ornithologist and writer Hadoram Shirihai.

Until Mr Shirihai’s voyage in July and August last year, there were only two known specimens of the bird in the world, collected in 1928 and 1929 and held by the American Museum of Natural History in New York.

Nick Askew, spokesman for the British-based bird conservation society Birdlife International, hailed the discovery as “incredibly important”.

“The voyage was specifically organised to look after the bird,” Mr Askew told AAP.

“(Mr Shirihai) was in the area four years earlier, in 2003, looking for other birds and he thought he sighted the Beck’s petrel.

“He then organised this extra voyage in 2007 to find the species, which was so successful.

Mr Shirihai photographed more than 30 individual Beck’s petrels on the voyage, Mr Askew said.

He also observed young juveniles in flight, which indicated the birds were breeding nearby, and recovered a dead Beck’s petrel from the sea – now only the third museum-held specimen.

“It’s fantastic, and it just goes to show his efforts were more than worthwhile,” Mr Askew said.

“We hadn’t written the bird off. It’s been classified as critically endangered, which is just one step off extinction, but this new sighting confirms the bird is still around, which is fantastic news.

“It means we can now start focusing conservation efforts to try to save the species.”

Little is known of the Beck’s petrel because of its scarcity and remote location.

The Beck’s petrel is a sea bird that may be nocturnal and is thought to breed in the Bismarck Archipelago, in an area of circular, mountainous islands.

Mr Askew said the bird probably nests in burrows on the islands.

Many of the petrels were discovered off the southern tip of New Ireland.

It is not known why the bird is so rare.

Mr Shirihai hired a ship locally, the FeBrina, and lured the birds by laying out pieces of fish.

Efforts would now turn to preserving the species, Mr Askew said.

“Now it’s been rediscovered. Now we need to do some further survey work looking for the bird and trying to learn more about it.

“We haven’t actually found any breeding grounds at present, although there were young birds so they must be breeding in the area somewhere.”

A reported sighting of a single bird thought to be a Beck’s petrel by an expedition in Australian waters in the Coral Sea in 2006 was rejected by the Australian Rare Birds Committee.