Jonathan Meiburg
Kim Burke
Thor Harris
Howard Draper
Hurts so bad that you know it's not sinning.The funny thing is it's just beginning to feel good.
Not Tonight
If you stay sober, I'll put the kettle on. And you can come over, drink tea, and watch the lawn.
If You Stay Sober
It's like a dream I had: this girl I went to see (and I can't sing her name, she might be listening to me), in a room of missing tiles we felt ourselves entwine, and she bit my tongue and shouted as I crawled into her mind.
The Left Side
People got no respect for the dead; they roll new plans out neatly.
An Accident
Everybody makes mistakes - some do most of all. "I just don’t have what it takes," they’re singing as they fall.
Mistakes
Shearwaters are medium-sized long-winged
seabirdSeabirds are birds that have adapted to life within the marine environment. While seabirds vary greatly in lifestyle, behaviour and physiology, they often exhibit striking convergent evolution, as the same environmental problems and feeding niches have resulted in similar adaptations...
s. There are more than 30
speciesIn biology, a species is one of the basic units of biological classification and a taxonomic rank. A species is often defined as a group of organisms capable of interbreeding and producing fertile offspring. While in many cases this definition is adequate, more precise or differing measures are...
of shearwaters, a few larger ones in the genus
CalonectrisCalonectris is a genus of seabirds. It comprises three large shearwaters. There are two other shearwater genera. Puffinus, which comprises about twenty small to medium-sized shearwaters, and Procellaria with another four large species...
and many smaller species in the genus
PuffinusPuffinus is a genus of seabirds in the order Procellariiformes. It comprises about 20 small to medium-sized shearwaters. There are two other shearwater genera: Calonectris, which comprises three large shearwaters, and Procellaria with another four large species...
. The
ProcellariaProcellaria is a genus of southern ocean long-winged seabirds related to prions and a member of the Procellariiformes order.-Taxonomy:Procellaria is a member of the family Procellariidae and the order procellariiformes. As members of Procellariiformes, they share certain characteristics. First they...
petrelPetrels are tube-nosed seabirds in the bird order Procellariiformes. The common name does not indicate relationship beyond that point, as "petrels" occur in three of the four families within that group...
s and
BulweriaBulweria is a genus of seabirds in the family Procellariidae named after English naturalist James Bulwer. The genus has two living species, Bulwer's Petrel and Jouanin's Petrel...
were believed to belong to this group, but are only distantly related based on more recent studies, while the
PseudobulweriaPseudobulweria is a genus of seabirds in the family Procellariidae. They have long been retained with the gadfly petrel genus Pterodroma despite morphological differences. mtDNA cytochrome b sequence analysis has confirmed the split out of Pterodroma and places the genus closer to shearwaters...
and
Lugensa "petrels" are more closely related (Bretagnolle
et al., 1998; Nunn & Stanley, 1998). The genus
Puffinus can be divided into a group of small species close to
Calonectris and a few larger ones more distantly related to both (Austin, 1996). One thing that can be agreed upon about taxonomy of
ProcellariidaeThe family Procellariidae is a group of seabirds that comprises the fulmarine petrels, the gadfly petrels, the prions, and the shearwaters. This family is part of the bird order Procellariiformes , which also includes the albatrosses, the storm-petrels, and the diving petrels.The procellariids are...
is that it is in a state of flux.
These birds are most common in temperate and cold waters. They are pelagic outside the breeding season.
These
tubenoseTubenose may refer to:* Birds in the order Procellariiformes.* Fishes in the family Aulorhynchidae....
birdBirds are feathered, winged, bipedal, endothermic , egg-laying, vertebrate animals. Around 10,000 living species and 188 families makes them the most speciose class of tetrapod vertebrates. They inhabit ecosystems across the globe, from the Arctic to the Antarctic. Extant birds range in size from...
s fly with stiff wings and use a “shearing” flight technique to move across wave fronts with the minimum of active flight. Some small species, like
Manx ShearwaterThe Manx Shearwater is a medium-sized shearwater in the seabird family Procellariidae. The scientific name of this species records a name shift: Manx Shearwaters were called Manks Puffins in the 17th century. Puffin is an Anglo-Norman word for the cured carcasses of nestling shearwaters...
are cruciform in flight, with their long wings held directly out from their bodies.
Many are long-distance migrants, perhaps most spectacularly
Sooty ShearwaterThe Sooty Shearwater is a medium-large shearwater in the seabird family Procellariidae. In New Zealand it is also known by its Māori name tītī and as "muttonbird", like its relatives the Wedge-tailed Shearwater and the Australian Short-tailed Shearwater The Sooty Shearwater (Puffinus griseus) is...
s, which cover distances in excess of 14000 km (8,699.2 mi) from their breeding colony on the
Falkland IslandsThe Falkland Islands are an archipelago in the South Atlantic Ocean, located about from the coast of mainland South America. The archipelago consists of East Falkland, West Falkland and 776 lesser islands. The capital, Stanley, is on East Falkland...
(52°S 60°W) north to 65°-70°N in the
North Atlantic OceanThe Atlantic Ocean is the second-largest of the world's oceanic divisions. With a total area of about , it covers approximately 20% of the Earth's surface and about 26% of its water surface area...
off north
NorwayNorway , officially the Kingdom of Norway, is a Nordic unitary constitutional monarchy whose territory comprises the western portion of the Scandinavian Peninsula, Jan Mayen, and the Arctic archipelago of Svalbard and Bouvet Island. Norway has a total area of and a population of about 4.9 million...
.
Short-tailed ShearwaterThe Short-tailed Shearwater or Slender-billed Shearwater , also called Yolla or Moonbird, and commonly known as the muttonbird in Australia, is the most abundant seabird species in Australian waters, and is one of the few Australian native birds in which the chicks are commercially harvested...
s perform an even longer "figure of 8" loop migration in the
Pacific OceanThe Pacific Ocean is the largest of the Earth's oceanic divisions. It extends from the Arctic in the north to the Southern Ocean in the south, bounded by Asia and Australia in the west, and the Americas in the east.At 165.2 million square kilometres in area, this largest division of the World...
from
TasmaniaTasmania is an Australian island and state. It is south of the continent, separated by Bass Strait. The state includes the island of Tasmania—the 26th largest island in the world—and the surrounding islands. The state has a population of 507,626 , of whom almost half reside in the greater Hobart...
to as far north as the
Arctic OceanThe Arctic Ocean, located in the Northern Hemisphere and mostly in the Arctic north polar region, is the smallest and shallowest of the world's five major oceanic divisions...
off northwest
AlaskaAlaska is the largest state in the United States by area. It is situated in the northwest extremity of the North American continent, with Canada to the east, the Arctic Ocean to the north, and the Pacific Ocean to the west and south, with Russia further west across the Bering Strait...
.
They are also extraordinarily long-lived. A
Manx ShearwaterThe Manx Shearwater is a medium-sized shearwater in the seabird family Procellariidae. The scientific name of this species records a name shift: Manx Shearwaters were called Manks Puffins in the 17th century. Puffin is an Anglo-Norman word for the cured carcasses of nestling shearwaters...
breeding on Copeland Island,
Northern IrelandNorthern Ireland is one of the four countries of the United Kingdom. Situated in the north-east of the island of Ireland, it shares a border with the Republic of Ireland to the south and west...
, is currently (2003/2004) the oldest known wild bird in the world:
ringedBird ringing or bird banding is a technique used in the study of wild birds, by attaching a small, individually numbered, metal or plastic tag to their legs or wings, so that various aspects of the bird's life can be studied by the ability to re-find the same individual later...
as an adult (at least 5 years old) in July 1953, it was retrapped in July 2003, at least 55 years old. Manx Shearwaters migrate over 10000 km (6,213.7 mi) to
South AmericaSouth America is a continent situated in the Western Hemisphere, mostly in the Southern Hemisphere, with a relatively small portion in the Northern Hemisphere. The continent is also considered a subcontinent of the Americas. It is bordered on the west by the Pacific Ocean and on the north and east...
in winter, using waters off southern
BrazilBrazil , officially the Federative Republic of Brazil , is the largest country in South America. It is the world's fifth largest country, both by geographical area and by population with over 192 million people...
and
ArgentinaArgentina , officially the Argentine Republic , is the second largest country in South America by land area, after Brazil. It is constituted as a federation of 23 provinces and an autonomous city, Buenos Aires...
, so this bird has covered a
minimum of 1000000 km (621,372.7 mi) on migration alone.
Shearwaters come to islands and coastal cliffs only to breed. They are nocturnal at the colonial breeding sites, preferring moonless nights to minimize predation. They nest in burrows and often give eerie contact calls on their night-time visits. They lay a single white egg.
They feed on fish, squid, and similar oceanic food. Some will follow fishing boats to take scraps, notably Sooty Shearwater; these species also commonly follow
whaleWhale is the common name for various marine mammals of the order Cetacea. The term whale sometimes refers to all cetaceans, but more often it excludes dolphins and porpoises, which belong to suborder Odontoceti . This suborder also includes the sperm whale, killer whale, pilot whale, and beluga...
s to feed on fish disturbed by them. Their primary technique for feeding is diving and some species diving as much as 70 m (229.7 ft) under water.
Shearwaters are part of the
familyIn biological classification, family is* a taxonomic rank. Other well-known ranks are life, domain, kingdom, phylum, class, order, genus, and species, with family fitting between order and genus. As for the other well-known ranks, there is the option of an immediately lower rank, indicated by the...
ProcellariidaeThe family Procellariidae is a group of seabirds that comprises the fulmarine petrels, the gadfly petrels, the prions, and the shearwaters. This family is part of the bird order Procellariiformes , which also includes the albatrosses, the storm-petrels, and the diving petrels.The procellariids are...
, which also includes
fulmarine petrelThe fulmarine petrels or fulmar-petrels are a distinct group of petrels within the procellariidae family. They are the most variable of the four groups within the Procellariidae, differing greatly in size and biology. They do have, however, have a unifying feature, their skull, and in particular...
s,
prionThe Prions are small petrels in the genera Pachyptila and Halobaena. They form one of the four groups within the Procellariidae , along with the gadfly petrels, shearwaters and fulmarine petrels....
s, and
gadfly petrelThe gadfly petrels are seabirds in the bird order Procellariiformes. These medium to large petrels feed on food items picked from the ocean surface....
s.
List of species
- Calonectris
Calonectris is a genus of seabirds. It comprises three large shearwaters. There are two other shearwater genera. Puffinus, which comprises about twenty small to medium-sized shearwaters, and Procellaria with another four large species...
- Calonectris diomedea, Cory's Shearwater
The Cory's Shearwater is a large shearwater in the seabird family Procellariidae.This species breeds on islands and cliffs in the Mediterranean, with the odd outpost on the Atlantic coast of Iberia. The nest is on open ground or among rocks or less often in a burrow where one white egg is laid,...
- Calonectris edwardsii, Cape Verde Shearwater
The Cape Verde Shearwater , or Cagarra locally, is a medium-large shearwater, a seabird in the petrel family Procellariidae. It is a breeding endemic of the Cape Verde archipelago of Macaronesia in the Atlantic Ocean, off the coast of West Africa.-Taxonomy:The Cape Verde Shearwater was originally...
- Calonectris leucomelas , Streaked Shearwater
The Streaked Shearwater, Calonectris leucomelas is a species of seabird. The bird is 48 cm in size, with a 122 cm wingspan. This species is pelagic, but also occurs in inshore waters. It occurs in the Pacific Ocean, nesting in Japan and many of its offshore islands. After breeding, the Streaked...
- Puffinus
Puffinus is a genus of seabirds in the order Procellariiformes. It comprises about 20 small to medium-sized shearwaters. There are two other shearwater genera: Calonectris, which comprises three large shearwaters, and Procellaria with another four large species...
- "Puffinus" group – smaller species, closely related to Calonectris
- Puffinus nativatis, Christmas Shearwater
The Christmas Shearwater, Puffinus nativitatis, is a medium-sized shearwater of the tropical Central Pacific. It is a poorly known species due to its remote nesting habits, and it has not been extensively studied at sea either....
- Puffinus subalaris, Galápagos Shearwater
The Galápagos Shearwater, Puffinus subalaris is a small shearwater. Until recently it was considered to be a subspecies of Audubon's Shearwater, but it is actually one of two members of a very ancient lineage of the small Puffinus species, the other being, as indicated by mtDNA cytochrome b...
- Puffinus bryani, Bryan's Shearwater
Bryan's Shearwater is a species of shearwater that may occur around the Hawaiian Islands. It is the smallest species of shearwater and is black and white with a bluish gray beak and blue tarsi. First collected in 1963 and thought to be a Little Shearwater it was determined using DNA analysis to...
- Puffinus puffinus, Manx Shearwater
The Manx Shearwater is a medium-sized shearwater in the seabird family Procellariidae. The scientific name of this species records a name shift: Manx Shearwaters were called Manks Puffins in the 17th century. Puffin is an Anglo-Norman word for the cured carcasses of nestling shearwaters...
- Puffinus yelkouan, Yelkouan Shearwater
The Yelkouan Shearwater, Levantine Shearwater or Mediterranean Shearwater is a medium-sized shearwater in the seabird family Procellariidae.-Description and identification:...
- Puffinus mauretanicus, Balearic Shearwater
The Balearic Shearwater is a medium-sized shearwater in the seabird family Procellariidae. It was long regarded a subspecies of the Manx Shearwater; see there for more on the Puffinus puffinus superspecies; following an initial split it was held to be a subspecies of the "Mediterranean Shearwater"...
- Puffinus huttoni, Hutton's Shearwater
The Hutton's Shearwater is a species of seabird in the family Procellariidae. Its common and specific name commemorates F. W. Hutton, a former curator of the Canterbury Museum in Christchurch....
- Puffinus opisthomelas, Black-vented Shearwater
The Black-vented Shearwater is a species of seabird. The bird is 30–38 cm in size, with a 76–89 cm wingspan. Formerly considered a subspecies of the Manx Shearwater, its actual relationships are unresolved....
- Puffinus auriculatus, Townsend's Shearwater
Townsend's Shearwater, Puffinus auricularis, is a rare seabird of the tropics from the family Procellariidae.Its relationships are unresolved. Its closest relatives are probably, but not certainly, the Hawaiian Shearwater and possibly the Manx Shearwater...
- Puffinus newelli, Newell's Shearwater
Newell's Shearwater or Hawaiian Shearwater is a seabird belonging to the genus Puffinus in the family Procellariidae. It belongs to a confusing group of shearwaters which are difficult to identify and whose classification is controversial...
or Hawaiian Shearwater
- Puffinus gavia, Fluttering Shearwater
The Fluttering Shearwater is a species of seabird in the Procellariidae family.It is found in New Zealand and Solomon Islands.Its natural habitats are open seas and rocky shores.-References:...
- Puffinus assimilis, Little Shearwater
The Little Shearwater is a small shearwater in the seabird family Procellariidae.mtDNA cytochrome b sequence data indicates that the former North Atlantic Little Shearwater group is closer to Audubon's Shearwater , and myrtae being closer to the Newell's and possibly Townsend's Shearwater...
- Puffinus lherminieri, Audubon's Shearwater
Audubon's Shearwater, Puffinus lherminieri, is a common tropical seabird from the family Procellariidae. Sometimes called Dusky-backed Shearwater, the scientific name of this species commemorates the French naturalist Félix Louis L'Herminier....
- Puffinus (lherminieri) bailloni, Tropical Shearwater or Baillon's Shearwater, not agreed upon as to whether a ssp. or sp.
- Puffinus (lherminieri) baroli, Barolo Shearwater or Macronesian Shearwater, not agreed upon as to whether a ssp. or sp.
- Puffinus (lherminieri) boydi, Boyd's Shearwater, not agreed upon as to whether a ssp. or sp.
- Puffinus (lherminieri) bannermani, Bannerman's Shearwater, not agreed upon as to whether a ssp. or sp.
- Puffinus (lherminieri) persicus, Persian Shearwater, not agreed upon as to whether a ssp. or sp.
- Puffinus heinrothi, Heinroth's Shearwater
Heinroth's Shearwater is a poorly known seabird in the family Procellariidae. Probably a close relative of the Little Shearwater or Audubon's Shearwater , it is distinguished by a long and slender bill and a brown-washed underside.This species is restricted to the seas around the Bismarck...
- "Neonectris" group – larger species, a distinct lineage
- Puffinus creatopus, Pink-footed Shearwater
The Pink-footed Shearwater is a species of seabird. The bird is 48 cm in size, with a 109 cm wingspan. It is polymorphic, having both darker and lighter phase populations...
- Puffinus carneipes, Flesh-footed Shearwater
The Flesh-footed Shearwater, Puffinus carneipes, is a small shearwater. Its plumage is black. It has pale pinkish feet, and a pale bill with a black tip. Together with the equally light-billed Pink-footed Shearwater, it forms the Hemipuffinus group, a superspecies which may or may not have an...
- Puffinus gravis, Great Shearwater
The Great Shearwater is a large shearwater in the seabird family Procellariidae. Its relationships are unclear. It belongs in the group of large species that could be separated as genus Ardenna ; within these, it might be allied with the other black-billed, blunt-tailed species Short-tailed...
- Puffinus pacificus, Wedge-tailed Shearwater
The Wedge-tailed Shearwater, Puffinus pacificus is a medium-large shearwater in the seabird family Procellariidae. It is one of the shearwater species that is sometimes referred to as a Muttonbird, like the Sooty Shearwater of New Zealand and the Short-tailed Shearwater of Australia...
- Puffinus bulleri, Buller's Shearwater
Buller's Shearwater is a Pacific species of seabird in the family Procellariidae; it is also known as the Grey-backed Shearwater or New Zealand Shearwater...
- Puffinus griseus, Sooty Shearwater
The Sooty Shearwater is a medium-large shearwater in the seabird family Procellariidae. In New Zealand it is also known by its Māori name tītī and as "muttonbird", like its relatives the Wedge-tailed Shearwater and the Australian Short-tailed Shearwater The Sooty Shearwater (Puffinus griseus) is...
- Puffinus tenuirostris, Short-tailed Shearwater
The Short-tailed Shearwater or Slender-billed Shearwater , also called Yolla or Moonbird, and commonly known as the muttonbird in Australia, is the most abundant seabird species in Australian waters, and is one of the few Australian native birds in which the chicks are commercially harvested...
or Mutton bird
- †Puffinus olsoni, Lava Shearwater
The Lava Shearwater, Puffinus olsoni, was a species of shearwater that formerly bred on Lanzarote and Fuerteventura in the Canary Islands. The species is known only from fossil remains, and was only described by science in 1990. The species was intermediate in size between the Manx Shearwater and...
or Olson's Shearwater (extinct)
- Pseudobulweria
Pseudobulweria is a genus of seabirds in the family Procellariidae. They have long been retained with the gadfly petrel genus Pterodroma despite morphological differences. mtDNA cytochrome b sequence analysis has confirmed the split out of Pterodroma and places the genus closer to shearwaters...
- Pseudobulweria macgillivrayi, Fiji Petrel
The Fiji Petrel , also known as MacGillivray's Petrel, is a small, dark gadfly petrel.The Fiji Petrel was originally known from one immature specimen found in 1855 on Gau Island, Fiji by naturalist John MacGillivray on board 'HMS Herald' who took the carcass to the British Museum in London...
- Pseudobulweria rostrata, Tahiti Petrel
The Tahiti Petrel, Pétrel De Tahiti, or Petrel De Tahití is a species of seabird in the Procellariidae family....
- Pseudobulweria becki, Beck's Petrel
Beck’s Petrel, Pseudobulweria becki, is a small, recently rediscovered shearwater. It is dark brown above and on the head and throat. It is dark underneath the wings with a fairly distinct white wingbar. The belly and breast are white...
- Pseudobulweria aterrima, Mascarene Petrel
- Lugensa
- Lugensa brevirostris, Kerguelen Petrel
The Kerguelen Petrel is a small slate-grey seabird in the family Procellariidae. The species has been described as a "taxonomic oddball", being placed for a long time in Pterodroma before being split out in 1942 into its own genus Lugensa...
- Bulweria
- Bulweria bulwerii, Bulwer's Petrel
The Bulwer's Petrel is a small petrel in the family Procellariidae, and is one of two species in the genus Bulweria . This bird is named after the Scottish naturalist James Bulwer.- Description :...
- Bulweria fallax, Jouanin's Petrel
Jouanin's Petrel is a species of seabird in the Procellariidae family.It is found in Djibouti, Indonesia, Pakistan, Kenya, Maldives, Mozambique, Oman, Saudi Arabia, Seychelles, Somalia, and Yemen....
- Bulweria bifax, Small St. Helena Petrel
- Procellaria
- Procellaria cinerea, Grey Petrel
The Grey Petrel , also called the Brown Petrel, Pediunker or Grey Shearwater is a species of seabird in the Procellariidae, or petrel family...
- Procellaria aequinoctialis, White-chinned Petrel
The White-chinned Petrel or Cape Hen, Procellaria aequinoctialis, is a large shearwater in the family Procellariidae. It ranges around the Southern Oceans as far north as South Australia, Peru and Namibia, and breeds colonially on scattered islands....
- Procellaria conspicillata, Spectacled Petrel
The Spectacled Petrel, Procellaria conspicillata, is a rare seabird that nests only on the high western plateau of Inaccessible Island in the Tristan da Cunha group. It is one of the largest petrels that nest in burrows.-Description:...
- Procellaria parkinsoni, Black Petrel
- Procellaria westlandica, Westland Petrel
The Westland Petrel is a rare seabird that nests in New Zealand's forests. It is one of the largest petrels that nest in burrows, and is threatened by species introduced to New Zealand....
External links