Posted: Oct 25, 2019 8:09 pm
Mutton bird mystery at Victoria's Griffiths Island closely watched by birdwatchers, Environment Department
ABC South West Vic By Daniel Miles
Updated about 11 hours ago
A short-tailed shearwater flies over the ocean.
PHOTO: 40,000 mutton birds are a month overdue on their migration from the northern hemisphere.
If they're not dead, where are they?
That's the question being asked by birdwatchers in south-west Victoria following the first spring in living memory that the 40,000-strong colony of short-tailed shearwaters, also known as mutton birds, hasn't arrived in full.
Each year, hundreds of thousands of the birds descend on Victoria's coastline to breed following a 15,000-kilometre journey, which takes two months to complete.
The birds spend the northern summer around Alaska before travelling to Australia, where they usually arrive with precision.
But this year in south-west Victoria they're late: a whole month late. [/quote]
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2019-10-25/ ... d/11627720