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Greater Shearwater

Status Common summer visitant. It is regular in offshore waters off eastern and southern Nova Scotia, from late May to early November, with later stragglers. Single birds seen southwest of Sable Island on 17 February 1975 (R.G.B. Brown) and 100 km southwest of Yarmouth on 30 March 1973 (P. Hope, R. Howie) were either overwintering birds or early spring migrants. Otherwise, the earliest record for summer is 21 May 1959 when Wickerson Lent counted 11 off Brier Island. In the early 1970s, very large numbers regularly occurred off Brier Island in late August and early September:10,000 were reported on 1 September 1971, 3,000 on 3 September 1972, 4,000 on 26 August 1973 and 5,000 on 26 August 1976. These Greater Shearwaters, along with Sooty Shearwaters, Atlantic Puffins, and Herring and Great Black-backed Gulls (as well as humpback and finback whales), were feeding on dense swarms of krill (the euphausiid shrimp Meganyctiphanes norvegica). Numbers declined in the later 1970s despite the continued presence of the krill.

Description Length: 43 - 53 cm. All plumages: Upperparts dark brown; feathers on crown conspicuously darker than those on the back; uppertail coverts white-tipped and form a conspicuous white band across the base of the rump; underparts white, usually with a dark smudge on the belly; undertail coverts gray.

Range Breeds in the South Atlantic in the Tristan da Cunha group of islands and the Falklands. The total population of at least 5 million birds migrates to the North Atlantic during the Southern Hemisphere's winter. Their route takes them up the west side of the Atlantic to Georges Bank, the Scotian Shelf and the Grand Banks, where they disperse to the north and east.

Remarks These birds are called "hags" or "haglins" by our deep-sea fishermen, who meet them in summer far off the coast. At fish-cleaning time large numbers are sometimes attracted to the boats, where they mingle with Sooty Shearwaters to compete for the offal thrown overboard. The Greater Shearwater's wings are narrower than those of Cory's Shearwater, and are beaten more rapidly, and, when gliding, Greater Shearwaters stay closer to the water.