Monday 16 June 2014

The Tubenose Handbook - Great Shearwater

16th June 2014 - Topsham


Here's one I made earlier: this is a recently painted plate from the 'Tubenose Handbook' - by Hadoram Shirihai and Vincent Bretagnolle, and illustrated by yours truly (still can't quite believe my luck to be working on this project). Occasionally I find myself working on a species I think I know fairly well, back in the late 80's and early 90's I had many good days at Porthgwarra watching big passages of Great and Cory's Shearwaters. Having said that, it's only after sorting through hundreds of photos that I really appreciate just how variable Great Shearwater is and that juveniles are often identifiable.

Great Shearwaters - underside variation

And here's the whole plate - with provisional captions and before corrections.

Great and Cape Verde Shearwaters


In the book this plate will be faced by one showing Cory's and Scopoli's Shearwaters.



4 comments:

  1. Excellent plate Tim, let's hope we see some of these magnificent birds this summer off Devon! Any idea when the 'Tubenose protect handbook' will be available?

    Mark D

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  2. Thanks Mark, presume Great's fairly likely somewhere at least, but Cape Verde would be spectacular! As for publishing date, afraid it's a little way off yet - I haven't completed half the plates yet and Hadoram and Vincent still have a lot of research to do.

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  3. Hi Tim.
    How do you separate juveniles from adults in great shearwaters?

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    1. Hi Paloma, juvs don't have a distinct white hind collar like adults (good close views required), the cap tends to be a paler brown and merges into a brownish hind neck; this holds during the first calendar year and is often still the case in second calendar year also. Moult is also a good guide, in spring (May-June) juvs (and some 2cy) are in fresh plumage whereas older birds are either quite worn or in moult. In autumn (July-Oct) juvs are becoming more worn and are never in wing moult, 2cy and older birds in primary moult, in fresh plumage by August/September.

      Hope this helps

      Tim

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