AUDUBON'S SHEARWATER
BIRDS OF NANTUCKET
by Kenneth Turner Blackshaw
Strangely enough, there seem to be too few birds named after John James Audubon. He is perceived as the father of North American ornithology but perhaps that was because he was better at managing his publicity. He was also good enough to name many birds for his friends and colleagues, and they forgot to reciprocate.

Audubon's Shearwater

We only find two birds named for Audubon - the same as Bachman, Brewer, Townsend, Ross, Le Conte, Clark, and Baird. Alexander Wilson has five species named for him, Cassin, four, Swainson and Steller, three. If you look these people up, you find many early explorers and naturalists. The star seems to be Wilson and he and Audubon were competitors in the early-published illustrations of the birds we know and love.

This week's bird is one that Audubon wrote about while his ship was becalmed west of Florida in the Gulf of Mexico. The birds were fairly thick around him, evidenced by the fact that when he asked the mate to shoot one for him, he killed four with a single shot. Audubon then sketched the birds and took detailed notes describing all parts. His bird descriptions were so thorough that they are still used by experts today. It's interesting that Mr. Audubon didn't name this bird himself. He misidentified it as a different species of shearwater.

It took the French naturalist, Rene P. Lesson, to recognize it as different and provide it with a name, Puffinus lherminieri, naming it for Dr. Felix L. L'Herminier who lived in Guadeloupe, West Indies.

Well what is a shearwater anyway and why did it attract Mr. Audubon's attention? Shearwaters are like mini-albatrosses. They are seabirds and are among the most fully adapted to living in a marine environment. They are part of a family known as 'tube noses.' They have tubes on their upper beaks from which they can excrete salt. This allows them to drink sea water.

We may see five species of shearwater around Nantucket and Audubon is the rarest, with only three records, way back in 1948, '49, and '50. This used to fall in our definition of an 'accidental' species and I am just realizing that Mrs. Andrews and I should have dropped it completely from our last edition of "Birding Nantucket" since we say if a bird hasn't been seen in 50 years it shouldn't be in there. Perhaps we'll change that rule since they are being seen off-shore!

Three types of shearwaters are common in summer just off our shores, the Greater, Cory's,

and Sooty. I saw a Sooty just the other day, winging

past our boat three miles east of Great Point, definitely on a mission of its own. They are fast

fliers, beating their stiff wings four or five times and then going into a long glide. Most often there are waves at sea and as the wind crosses them it

produces uplifting currents that shearwaters and

albatrosses use quite effectively. You see them lift up above the waves on a puff of wind, then roll and glide down the lee side into the wave trough, only to reappear again, a few seconds later and a great distance farther on.

A bird that is very similar to Audubon's Shearwater is the Manx Shearwater. They are seen off-shore here every summer, mostly from mid- August on. It is slightly larger, but that's probably not useful in identifying them when it's just a single bird winging along. The Manx is white under the tail. Audubon's is dark.

Audubon's Shearwater is mainly a tropical shearwater, found in those latitudes all around the world. It is divided into ten different subspecies and itself has been lumped with other shearwaters in the past. The genetics of these seabirds is still an area where more research needs to be done.

The Audubon's that reach here are often nonbreeding birds that wander in the summer, because, as the late Roger Tory Peterson said, "Birds have wings and they use them." They nest throughout the Caribbean and at one time in Bermuda. That population is now described as 'extirpated,' a curious word making one think of 'extinct' and 'exterminated.'

If you are fortunate enough to be out with Captain Blair Perkins of Shearwater Excursions in June or July, watch for a small, very black and white, shearwater winging by. This is a bird that we should expect to find, particularly with so many

other species extending their ranges northward. I

George C. West creates illustrations for these articles. If you enjoy 'social' birding, join the Nantucket Bird Club at 8 a.m. Sundays in front of Nantucket High School for a two to three hour birding trip. Call 228-1693 for more information. To hear about rare birds, or to leave a bird report call the Massachusetts Audubon hot line at 1-781- 259-8805. Ask Ken a question at: kenandcindy1@ comcast.net.