Scopoli's Shearwater
Calonectris diomedea (Scopoli, 1769)
Photo © Telegro, CC BY-SA 4.0 <https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0>, via Wikimedia Commons
STATUS
North Atlantic and Mediterranean. Monotypic.
OVERVIEW
This record, recently found, is now with BOURC as a potential first for Britain.
NOT PROVEN
0). 1878 Hampshire Christchurch Bay, two, shot, 29th May, adult male now at Leicester Museum.
History Kelsall & Mumm (1905) under 'Greater Shearwater', say: 'In the Hart collection at Christchurch are specimens procured in that neighbourhood in 1878 and 1894.'
Hart's MS. states that these two were shot from a boat in Christchurch Bay between the Shingles and the Needles on 29th May 1878. They then passed to the Leicester Museum for restoration along with the rest of the Hart collection during the 1950s.
Hart's MS. states that specimen numeber 1, an adut female, went to pieces due to fat burn, and that number 2, an adult male, was relaxed and made into a cabinet skin in October 1959.
J. M. Clark and M. Moody examined the specimen at Leicester in October 2021 and it appears to be of this species.
The record is with BOURC.
