What are these brown-looking shearwaters? (1 Viewer)

[Garrulous Jay]

I saw these birds as I was crossing the Little Minch between Mull and South Uist in late May. They were a long way off and i took a several photos but none were really sharp, I'm afraid. They look very brown for Manx, which is what I would expect to find here. What are they? And what is that mysterious white bird flying with them?

 

[Andrew Whitehouse]

They seem fine for Manx Shearwaters. Sometimes they can look a bit brown. Not sure about the white bird.

 

[Garrulous Jay]

Thanks Andrew. I guessed they had to be Manx but there were others much closer that did look black and their black strongly contrasted with their white which is not the case in these birds here. Ah well I suppose I have been amazed at how Guillemot black can change to light brown in the right light conditions, so I guess this is another example.

On another matter, I've just had a quick look at your sound blog. Having my only grandchildren in NSW, we go there every year and I can safely say that one of my favourite soundscapes is on a ranch in the Hunter Valley which is totally free of noise pollution and I will often get up very early in the morning so i can go outside and listen to the pied butcherbirds whose song seems to drift for miles in the silence and is so very beautiful and so very Australian!

 

[Andrew Whitehouse]

Thanks Andrew. I guessed they had to be Manx but there were others much closer that did look black and their black strongly contrasted with their white which is not the case in these birds here. Ah well I suppose I have been amazed at how Guillemot black can change to light brown in the right light conditions, so I guess this is another example.

On another matter, I've just had a quick look at your sound blog. Having my only grandchildren in NSW, we go there every year and I can safely say that one of my favourite soundscapes is on a ranch in the Hunter Valley which is totally free of noise pollution and I will often get up very early in the morning so i can go outside and listen to the pied butcherbirds whose song seems to drift for miles in the silence and is so very beautiful and so very Australian!

You're right about how the colours on Manx Shearwaters vary a bit like on Guillemots. In strong sun they can often look quite surprisingly brown.

Glad to hear that blog was interesting - it's a few years old now. Australian soundscapes are very beautiful. You might like to listen to a recording I made in the Capertee Valley a couple of years ago here:
http://environmentalhumanities.org/archives/listening-to-birds /
That recording goes with THIS article I wrote.

 

[Nutcracker]

White bird could be a winter plumage Black Guillemot. But resolution is not good enough to be 100% sure.

Agree Manxies for the rest.

 

[Julian Bell]

Black guillemot is not a bad guess but I really don't think this is the case. Length of wing etc is off for this species.

It seems quite mysterious but what about an almost albino Manx?

 

[Andrew Whitehouse]

Black guillemot is not a bad guess but I really don't think this is the case. Length of wing etc is off for this species.

It seems quite mysterious but what about an almost albino Manx?

I vaguely wondered about a leucistic Manx. Hard to know for sure from these pictures. That would be a freaky thing to see on a seawatch.

 

[Julian Bell]

Exactly Andy - I thought how I would have reacted getting that thing in the scope. BUT this would probably have been MUCH easier to deal with in real life than from photographs.

We all know that sometimes photos make life harder rather than easier!

 

[paddy7]

Looks like a leucistic - i know the pic is a struggle but look at the similarity in the tail....

 

[davierh]

We had a completly white manx at Strumble head many years ago.