Nana Bea
Two birds that belong near Antarctica turned up off Port Macquarie. Our patch. I nearly dropped my tea.
James Bennett photographed a Kerguelen petrel and a grey petrel out at sea. Neither had been recorded alive at sea in New South Wales before. Until now the state had one grey petrel, washed up at Ballina in 1985, and one Kerguelen, found at Callala Bay in 2016. BirdLife's Mick Roderick called them stunningly rare.
Why so far north? Rohan Clarke from Monash puts it down to a shortage of food and warm water in the Southern Ocean. And no, the experts say it's not bird flu. These birds looked healthy.
Thrilling for the bird people. A bit worrying for the rest of us, I reckon. A bird doesn't fly that far for the view.
Source: ABC News, 2026-07-18
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