These Storm-Petrels were photographed
on a pelagic off the southern Texas coast on July 16, 2004
by Andy Garcia; the default species in this part of the
Gulf is Band-rumped Storm-Petrel Oceanodroma
castro, while Leach's
O. leucorhoa is much rarer and Wilson's
Oceanites oceanicus has been documented only
once in Texas:
The pics are presented and "numbered" in the sequence
they occurred on Andy's camera - those without comment are ones
I feel unable to make much of!:-:
B looks to me to be a fairly classic Band-rumped:
C1 seems to have too much white on the rump/utcs for Band-rumped?:
is D2 a Leach's?:
D3 is quite enigmatic to me: the white rump/utc patch appears
to be huge - much longer than the trailing dark patch formed by
the tail; the white on the rear-underside seems way too extensive
for Leach's (check the reflection) and there is no dark "point"
laterally where the all-dark outer retrices of Leach's normally
cuts into the wrap-around white; the tail does not look forked
enough for Leach's; there is a fairly strong paler panel on the
underwing coverts:-
G looks like Leach's to me: extensive wear in the flight feathers;
little white underneath; "U"-shaped white rump patch
with hint of gray central divide; a dark "point" formed
by the black bases to the outer tail feathers, that splits the
white wrap-around; outer tail feathers much longer than inners
- but there clearly seems to be two generations of tail feather
- Leach's is not supposed to begin molting until the late Fall?:
H may the same bird as G?:
J looks like a classic Band-rumped: narrow white rump patch; extensive
white below, with no dark splitting the wrap-around (Band-rumped
has white bases to the outer tail feathers and this white is on
BOTH sides of the basal shaft on the outermost - unlike Wilson's
which has a black outer edge and extensive white inner edge);
note that this bird does not seem to have badly-worn outer primaries
(see below):
pics K - N are probably the same individual; I am confused by
this one, as the white rump patch seems too deep for Band-rumped
and has a classic Leach's-like central split - but the tail does
not look forked-enough for Leach's, and the primary molt timing
seems wrong for Leach's; note also the contrastingly pale underwing
coverts:
