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- Title
Birds of Seal Rocks in northern Bass Strait over 40 years (1965-2005).
- Authors
Warneke, Robert M.; Dann, Peter
- Abstract
Long-term datasets of fauna are rare for uninhabited islands in south-eastern Australia. Here we report on 40 years of observations from 1965 to 2005 on the birds of Seal Rocks in northern Bass Strait. Seventy-five native and six exotic species including 21 native passerines were observed at Seal Rocks or nearby. Six species were recorded breeding--Crested Tern Thalasseus bergii, Silver Gull Chroicocephalus novaehollandiae, Sooty Oystercatcher Haematopus fuliginosus, Welcome Swallow Hirundo neoxena, Common Starling Sturnus vulgaris and, for the first time in Victoria, Kelp Gull Larus dominicanus. The main changes to breeding birds over the 40 years have been the movement and expansion of the breeding colonies of Crested Terns and Silver Gulls to adjacent parts of nearby Phillip Island, and the arrival and expansion of the breeding Kelp Gull population. Kelp Gulls have increased substantially at Seal Rocks since their arrival in 1968. The first reported breeding for Victoria occurred there in 1971. The expansion of Kelp Gulls may have been associated with the expansion of Australian Fur Seal Arctocephalus pusillus doriferus numbers which, on one hand, has reduced the number of suitable breeding sites but, on the other hand, has increased the amount of food available in the forms of vomited food remains and placentae. The variety of land birds recorded on Seal Rocks was surprisingly high, given the exposed nature and relative sterility of the terrain; however, the strait between Seal Rock and Phillip Island is narrow and all the species recorded there are common in the region and most are wide-ranging seasonally or undertake significant north-south migrations. Records were relatively few aft er 1997 due, in part, to the reduced amount of vegetation on the islets and greatly reduced lengths of research stays.
- Subjects
BASS Strait (Vic. &; Tas.); PHILLIP Island (Vic.); AUSTRALIA; BIRDS; ANIMALS; PASSERIFORMES
- Publication
Victorian Naturalist, 2013, Vol 130, Issue 1, p4
- ISSN
0042-5184
- Publication type
Article