Dr Fiona McDuie

Where?

Burgess Island, Hauraki Gulf, Peha, Tawharanui Peninsula, Bethels, New Zealand

The Grey-faced Petrel, otherwise known as Great-winged Petrel is a Southern Hemisphere Pterodroma breeding in burrows on rocky island colonies between 30 and 50 degrees S. It ranges widely throughout the sub-tropical oceans outside the breeding season, is highly pelagic foraging primarily at night on squid by surface-seizing and dipping.  It is known to associate with other Procellariiformes.

Where?

Burgess Island, Hauraki Gulf, New Zealand

Little Shearwaters have an extremely large range and are found throughout the southern oceans south of the Tropic of Capricorn primarily in subtropical waters. They are more commonly inshore foragers with a diet consisting of squid, fish and crustaceans. Little shearwaters breed in burrow on grassy slopes and I worked with this species on Burgess Island off the east coast of the north island of New Zealand deploying and retrieving data recorders and tracking devices.

Where?

Burgess Island, Hauraki Gulf, New Zealand

Common Diving-petrels have discrete ranges surrounding oceanic islands in the southern oceans. 'Divers' forage on planktonic crustaceans in inshore and offshore waters by pursuit-diving  from the surface or after plunging.

The steep slopes of Burgess Island off the north island of New Zealand hosts a large colony which burrows under grasses and this colony has been used in a pilot study to determine the efficacy of radio tracking to locate breeding individuals. I worked with this study in 2012, with New Zealand bird scientists Graeme Taylor of the Department of Conservation, Chris Gaskin, Dr Matt Rayner and Dr Todd Landers.

Where?

Cabbage Tree Island, New South Wales (NSW), Australia

Gould's Petrel is a Pterodroma or gadfly petrel and is listed as vulnerable due to its small breeding area and numbers. It is one of few Procellariiformes which have had their threatened status downlisted as a result of the successful establishment of new breeding colonies and population size increase (David Priddel and Nicholas Carlile).
It breeds in small colonies of 10-50 pairs in burrows on both Cabbage Tree Island and the newly established Boondelbah Island of New South Wales (NSW).They forage mainly on cephalopods, fish and crustaceans in the waters off southern Australia.

Individual adults of the Cabbage Tree Island colony are being tracked by Macquarie University PhD student Yuna Kim.