For a few nights each summer since 2004, an unfamiliar seabird has been heard calling from the rocky slopes of Skellig Michael, a dramatic islet off the coast of Ireland's County Kerry (Google Coordinates 51.7689°, -10.5423°). This June the calls were recorded by a visiting film crew headed by Eamon de Buitlear and identified by Killian Mullarney and Magnus Robb (authors of Petrels Night and Day: A Sound Approach Guide) as a male Cory's Shearwater (Calonectris diomedea).Armed with a tape, Alyn Walsh and Mullarney revisited the site where they successfully caught and ringed the shearwater. The closest known breeding site for Cory’s Shearwater is on the Berlengas Islands, a small archipelago off central Portugal (39.4151°, -9.51258°) some 850 miles south of Skellig Michael. Interestingly, a few pairs of Scopoli's Shearwater nest on the French coast near Bordeaux (Mays, Durand and Gomez 2006 Ornithos 13: 316), a mere 650 miles away.
A UNESCO World Heritage Site, Skellig Michael (Great and Little Skellig) host large colonies of Manx Shearwater Puffinus puffinus, European (British) Storm-Petrel Hydrobates pelagicus, Northern Gannet Morus bassanus, alcids and Red-billed Chough Pyrrhocorax pyrrhocorax.
Will the Skellig Cory's Shearwater return next summer? Will he succeed in luring a mate? Could there be other Cory's or Scopoli's Shearwaters visiting North Atlantic seabird colonies?
See Irish Birding and Birdwatch Magazine for the full story.
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