13 July 2018

On a birding trip to Newfoundland:

Here’s a bird that’s hard to see in Newfoundland even though 3 million pairs of them nest on Baccalieu Island and another 620,000 pairs at Witless Bay.

Leach’s storm-petrel (Oceanodroma leucorhoa) spends its life at sea and only returns to land under cover of darkness to nest in well-concealed burrows and rock crevices.  Because of this I probably won’t see one. Our tour isn’t making a pelagic trip.

Even so, I’ve learned some amazing things about this bird, illustrated in three videos.

Leach’s storm-petrels eat plankton and lanternfish from the ocean surface, flying and feeding in conditions that would make us seasick. In the video above, notice that the bird sometimes puts its feet down and walks on water.

The birds also feed at night because they see lanternfish glowing in the dark!  Learn about lanternfish below.

Unfortunately, the storm-petrel’s attraction to night lights is its undoing near human light sources. They fly toward artificial lights on land where some of them die. UPDATE, now that I’m here: On our first night at St. Johns I found a dead bird outside my motel window. Our guide identified as a Leach’s storm-petrel. 🙁

Leach’s storm-petrels live a long time for their size (20-36 years) and don’t breed until they’re four years old, producing a single egg per year.  This lifestyle was enough to sustain the population but in 2016 Leach’s storm-petrel suddenly jumped from Least Concern to Vulnerable in the IUCN Red List as described here.

Knowing that Leach’s storm-petrel could disappear makes it even more desirable to see one.

Since Newfoundland hosts almost half of the world’s population of nesting Leach’s storm-petrels (3.62+ million pairs), I stand a good chance of seeing one … if I could see at night.

UPDATE, now that I’m here: Yesterday as Hurricane Chris approached Newfoundland we drove from the south shore of the Avalon Peninsula, where Chris was due to hit, to Clarenville.  Along the way we stopped at St. Vincent’s Beach where a member of our group saw a flock of birds on the calm inlet water. 128 Leach’s storm-petrels!  Life bird for everyone!  We had great looks at these pelagic birds without being in a storm-tossed boat.

(videos from YouTube; click on the videos to see the originals. chart of IUCN threat assessment categories from iucn.org)

Day 6, July 13: Terra Nova National Park