Notes on seabirds 80. Leach’s Storm-petrels Oceanodroma leucorhoa landing on a research vessel at night

During a research cruise on the RRS Charles Darwin in deep waters south of Madeira (31°-33°N and 15°-18°W), from 3-20 November 2004. a total of 17 Leach’s Storm-petrels Oceanodroma leucorhoa were recorded landing on the ships’ deck at night. The maximum found on any one night was four on November 6th and 7th (Fig. 1). All but one of the birds was successfully released the following morning after being boxed overnight. All birds arrived while the ship was stationary and the rear deck was lit with high-power floodlights. In addition to those actually found on deck, small numbers were noted flying around or over the ship. All birds found on deck arrived during calm weather on both clear and cloudy nights, and also at different moon phases; none were picked up on deck during windy nights. Bourne (1992) observed that about half of all records of seabirds picked up on Royal Navy vessels between 1960-1990 related to storm-petrels, with two-thirds of these relating to Leach’s Storm-petrels alone.