There's an Abatross in my Soup.

Sightings anywhere within a 250 km radius of Toowoomba, but excluding the local survey area (see above), for the period 1 Sep - 30 Nov 2008.

Moderator: Mick Atzeni

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Rod Hobson
Posts: 509
Joined: Thu Jan 19, 2006 8:03 am

There's an Abatross in my Soup.

Post by Rod Hobson »

Folks,

Paul Walbridge of SOSSA has very generously sent me a list of seabirds recorded on their monthly boat-trips off Southport, SEQ some of which I included in my "Spring Beyond-2008" posting of the 12th inst. (see below also). In that list Paul included two species of albatross that should also be added to our list viz. Gibson's Albatross (Diomedea gibsoni) and New Zealand White-headed Albatross (Thalassarche steadi). These two are species that were 'split' from the Shy Albatross (Thasallarche curta) and Wandering Albatross (Diomedea exulans) by Robertson and Nunn in 1998. Christidis and Boles have not accepted this 'split' in their most recent work on the systematics and taxonomy of Australian birds (2008) and which the Toowoomba Bird Observers has chosen to adopt.

I don't wish to enter into the convoluted arguments between the pro- and anti-splitters on this subject. I'm sure that both parties have logical explanations for the stances that they take on these sorts of matters. What I do suggest, however is that we make use of SOSSA's excellent data and include these two birds on our "Spring Beyond -2008" list and record them as:

Wandering Albatross (Gibson's Albatross- SOSSA)
Shy Albatross (New Zealand White-capped Albatross - SOSSA)

Regards,
Rod H.
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Mick Atzeni
Posts: 1843
Joined: Sun Dec 11, 2005 9:08 pm

Former Albatross species

Post by Mick Atzeni »

Rod

I've no problem with your suggestion.

In fact, I encourage readers to report at sub-species/race level if they think it's relevant, e.g. Blue bonnets, Striated Pardalotes.


Cheers
Mick
Michael Atzeni
7 Woden St, Murphys Creek 4352
Mob: 0499 395 485
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