Nicholas
Seabird biologist with a passion for island restoration. Likes a bit of petrel-hunting. Ex-government Senior Research Scientist
- Some of NSW coastal islands have their seabirds poorly documented, despite their close proximity. This must be the smallest vessel I’ve used to access an island in 30 years of survey. Learning more of White-faced Storm-petrel.
- Last weeks’ breeding noddy-terns of Phillip Island, Norfolk: Sooty; Common; Grey; Black. Approach/handled under permits. #SuperSeabirdSunday#Seabirds
- A good news #Seabirds story for your feed. Got to love Phillip Island off Norfolk- South Pacific. It keeps turning up surprises!
- After documenting an expanding Flesh-footed Shearwater population on Phillip off Norfolk last month, it was delightful to walk through the 10,000 burrow-strong Clear Place colony on Lord Howe last week. #SuperSeabirdSunday
- Surveying Lord Howe geckos between the two mountains here, showcased this year’s production of Providence Petrel fledglings- some still needing a good preen. #SuperSeabirdSunday#Seabirds
- A good news story after almost 10 years of working towards a local population recovery: www.abc.net.au/news/2025-11... #Seabirds
- A late offering for #SuperSeabirdSunday a male Kermadec Petrel has his partner drop back into the nest site. First meet-up after 5 months apart at sea.
- Providence Petrel defending its burrow to all comers at the world’s 2nd only breeding island, Red Knoll, Phillip Island Norfolk. #SuperSeabirdSunday#Seabirds🪶
- Placid Little Shearwater on the forest floor of Phillip Island, Norfolk. #SuperSeabirdSunday#Seabirds🪶
- Something to get you thinking… worldseabirdunion.org/world-seabir... #Seabirds
- Yellow-legged gulls, looking statuesque (with other statues) on a Roman era bridge over the Tiber, Rome. #SuperSeabirdSunday will be whatever I come across in Europe for the next two months. Got to love #Seabirds🪶
- No chocolate eggs but a pair of freshly hatched Little Penguin chicks from late last season. #SuperSeabirdSunday🪶
- Australasian Seabird Groups Pacific Travel Grant enabled NGO presenters to share stories of seabird conservation successes and challenges at the 1st ever gathering in Auckland New Zealand as part of 2025 Oceania Seabirds. Inspiring & sobering so much yet to be started. #Pacificseabirds#Seabirds🪶
- Alanna Smith & Kas Silk present on #OceaniaSeabird #conservation efforts from the Cook Islands, where rat eradication has been a major focus. Seabirds of the Cook Islands has just started a 2 yr petrel & shearwater monitoring project.
- A conference in Auckland New Zealand this week brings together Pacific seabird people from research, management and government to speak, listen and have hands-on experiences with regional experts to inspire and encourage connections and commitment for their conservation. #Pacificseabirds #Seabirds🪶
- A peculiar male petrel (and Storm-petrel) habit is the courtship growl- I’ve often heard it from burrows but didn’t realise it involved inflation of the throat. Some species can have a very low register for their body size. Here a White-necked Petrel gives it his all. #SuperSeabirdSunday🪶
- A sleepy view of a pair of Black-winged petrels on a lazy afternoon, Phillip Island Norfolk. #SuperSeabirdSunday🪶
- The Brown (previously Common) Noddy protecting its egg and keeping an eye on us as we step over its nest- built on the steep track, traversed between the landing site to the research hut on Phillip Island, Norfolk. #SuperSeabirdSunday🪶
- Assisting in the 66th productivity survey of shearwaters on Montague Island, coastal NSW. Using hose pipes for detection, downy young are extracted for banding and species ID. For 25 yrs Wedge-tails have been in the ascendency as tropical conditions strengthen southwards. Climate changing.#Seabirds🪶
- A Masked Booby indicates that my presence on the nearby track is as close as he’s happy with. His chick is in agreement. Phillip Island, Norfolk. #SuperSeabirdSunday🪶
- White-necked (naped) petrel pair in courtship The males growl in contrast to the females more common strident cry. Phillip Island, Norfolk (50 pairs). #SuperSeabirdSunday#Seabirds🪶
- The White-bellied Storm-petrel trip also gave up one of two deployed GLS loggers. 1st ever track. Aust. to Chile (10K km) and down towards the Antarctica coast. Unprecedented?! So hard to access remote colonies with over 80 island-days available (2009-2025) but only 8 landings possible.#Seabirds 🪶
- It’s taken 2 years but our hard work on Roach Is. off Lord Howe has been successful. Providing habitat for White-bellied Storm-petrels- safe from larger Little Shearwaters that take over natural burrows during chick provisioning. A slow burn project with many collaborators invested in success.
- Ridiculously rare footage for #SuperSeabirdSunday from late Feb. trip to Phillip Is. off Norfolk. 2nd only pop. of White-necked Petrels with one in company of Juan Fernandez Petrel, 10,000km from home islands. #Seabirds Amazing🪶
- The Southern Shark Ecology Group has been tracking Tigers in the waters around Norfolk Island, with arrival and departure the same as Wedge-tailed Shearwaters. A huge 75% of their diet is seabirds! We are in the 1st stage of a collab to see if shark and shearwater migration areas match.#Seabirds🪶
- Kermadec Petrel ‘606’ has done a great job as a first-time parent on Phillip Island, Norfolk. However, nest placement means every blowy day is a bad-hair-day! #SuperSeabirdSunday#Seabirds🪶
- Nice to get hands on a few of these Grey Noddies (Ternlets) on Phillip Island off Norfolk (under ethics permitting) for GLS recovery to help a student attempting to unravel some of the mystery of these little-studied birds.#Seabirds 🪶
- Red-tailed Tropicbirds struggle on land and, when it comes to incubation shift-changes, those stubby legs mean significant effort to get the egg settled in the brood-patch. 2 of 2. #SuperSeabirdSunday#Seabirds🪶
- How does a large bird with short legs manage incubation duties? Red-tailed tropicbirds are clumsy but get the job done. 1 of 2 #SuperSeabirdSunday#Seabirds🪶
- Kermadec Petrel ‘606’ was only away from the colony 20 months after fledging in March 2021. It loudly announced its return just 4 m. from the old nest. Now incubating, in all weathers, only 2 from here. Hopefully we’ll get to meet its partner in our next visit. #SuperSeabirdSunday#Seabirds🪶
- Caught between a rocky shoreline and predatory King Fish, surfacing bait fish make for a chaotic meal for Black Noddies. Phillip Island, off Norfolk. #SuperSeabirdSunday#Seabirds🪶
- A Black-winged petrel stockpiling leaves towards its burrow entrance, for nesting material. Phillip Island off Norfolk- South Pacific. #SuperSeabirdSunday#Seabirds🪶
- I’d go for #TubenosesTuesday Colleague doing PhD on terns on Phillip Is, Norfolk sent me a snap yesterday of one of my returning Kermadec fledglings with GLS attached, overflying the colony (in the company of a White-necked Petrel). I’m 1200 km away. Bird didn’t land🫤#Seabirds
- Is it possible to say #TubenosesTuseday ? Bonin Petrel at off Chichi-jima, Ogasawara Is., Japan. 22 Sep 2020. #Seabirds
- These are ethereal, confiding seabirds, little studied. A pair of Blue-Grey Noddies (Grey Ternlets) sharing the limelight for #SuperSeabirdSunday#Seabirds 🪶
- NZ has to be the largest urban/human modified landscape that was once dominated by nesting seabirds. Great to see Auckland Regional Council doing their upmost- with incredible limitations- to make that a reality once again. m.youtube.com/watch?v=QKRh...
- The last Little Penguin fledgling for the 2024/25 season. Our NSW study colony showed lower breeding pairs, less double-clutching and higher chick mortality than in the last 4 seasons. Periods of local ocean warming made it a tough year for all but the most experienced. #SuperSeabirdSunday#Seabirds
- Over 30 years, 25% of my scientific papers have reported on island surveys. My latest on Jimmies Island NSW, a new seabird island for our State (Little Penguins only), is the 1st I’ve accessed solely by sea kayaks. Sadly, also detected Black Rats. Explains why no Stormpetrels nesting here. #Seabirds
- Subtropical breeding, surface-nesting Kermadec petrel chick on Phillip Island off Norfolk. Study in its 8th year. At one of our sub-colonies aptly named ‘Mars’. Feeling immensely privileged to have such access. #SuperSeabirdSunday 🪶
- Courting Flesh-footed Shearwaters on Lord Howe Island. Great species to research as all of them want to be selected: ‘Pick me!’ Sound up on #SuperSeabirdSunday#Seabirds🪶
- A candidate for the most ‘chill’ of nesting seabirds: The Red-tailed Tropicbird- although lots of respect for the serrated bill, if handled for research. Festively coloured with breeding ‘peach-blush’. #SuperSeabirdSunday🪶
- As part of population recovery research for Kermadec petrel, a trial design of artificial habitat (3) has taken 7 years to be occupied in our small colony. 15 mths ago, installed camouflage covers on 20 new units and early 2nd season already have 30% uptake- including neighbour-nesting!#seabirds 🧪🪶
- Deploying and recovering Global Light Sensors on seabirds on remote islands -fickle and frustrating. Recoveries can have a 5% failure-despite that effort. Occasionally it’s gold! 3 Migrate units from Kermadec petrels of 1, 4 and 8 years deployment with 49 month battery life well exceeded.#seabirds🧪🪶
- A rare glimpse of two Gould’s petrel sharing a rock in the rainforest of Cabbage Tree Island, off NSW coast. Population not travelling too well under climate change- Breeding success 23-44% in last decade. #SuperSeabirdSunday#Seabirds🪶
- Despite Little Penguins having a tough season on the NSW south coast this year, one of my favourite nests at our study colony has raised two chicks already- and now on eggs for a 2nd try. #SuperSeabirdSunday#seabirds
- Providence petrel - the last of the winter fledglings (already looking weary and yet to take flight..), 880m on the summit of Mt Gower, Lord Howe Island. #SuperSeabirdSunday#seabirds🪶
