TABLE 2 



Minimum and conservative land bird counts along cruise track of R/V Akademik Korolev in the 

 South China Sea, 23-31 October 1988. ' : 



Species 



Small juv. accipiter (Accipiter sp. ) 



Ad. Japanese sparrow-hawk (Accipiter gularis) 



Ad. shikra (A. badius) 3 



Ad. crested goshawk (A. trivirgatusf 



Eagle/kite (Accipitridae) 



Peregrine falcon (Falco peregrinus) 



Oriental scops owl (Otus siiniaf 



Chinese pond heron (Ardeola bacchus) 



Watercock {Gallicrex cinerea) 



Dove [Streptopelia sp.)' 



Grey nightjar (Caprimulgus indicus) 



Fork-tailed swift (Apus pacificus) 



Swift (Apodidae) 



Dollarbird (Eurystomus orientalis) 



Barn swallow (Hirundo rustica) 



Swallow (Hirundo sp. ) 



Ashy minivet (Pericrocotus divaricatusf 



Lanceolated Warbler (Locustella lanceolata) 4 



Great reed warbler (Acrocephalus arundinaceus i 



Warbler (Acrocephalus sp.) 



Arctic warbler (Phylloscopus boreal is) 



Flycatcher (Ficedula sp.) 



Brown shrike (Lanius cristatus) 



Unidentified passerines or remains 



TOTALS 



'Cruise track segments and stations are illustrated in Fig. 1 and described in Table I . 



'Abbreviations in column headings are: Min. (minimum count) and Cons, (conservative count) as explained in Table I. 

 Footnote 1 . 



"Because these birds are considered non-migratory, these identifications should be treated as tentative. All are based on 

 nearby visual observations aided by lOx binoculars, but without photographic or other substantiation. 



individuals of these species were deposited in the US National Museum: Oriental scops owl. USNM No. 607190; Ashj 

 minivet. USNM No. 607193; and Lanceolated warbler, spirit specimen (not assigned numbers at USNM l. 



in good body condition this far from land, it is more tenable to 

 suppose that these species regularly use this route. In Table 3, 

 our best estimate of physical condition is compared for all 

 species that we encountered far from land. We know from 

 handling a few captives, and infer from the energetic flight of 

 others, that the raptors and the barn swallows at Station 13 

 (Fig. I ) were in good physical condition. For the other species, 

 too few individuals were present to draw firm conclusions, but 

 all birds of most species appeared to be in good condition. 



A final hypothesis may explain the presence of some of the 

 raptors. Many were opportunistically foraging at sea. During 

 our 3-day layover dig. I, Station 13), we recorded raptors 

 perching for extended periods, roosting nightly on the ship, and 



engaging in at least 21 hunting forays (Ellis et ai. 1990). Of 

 14 forays for which the outcome was known, 13 (93%) were 

 successful. Some accipiters even used the ship's deck lights to 

 forage at night. We gathered prey remains, totaling at least 

 20 kills. Two species, barn swallow and brown shrike (Lcmius 

 cristatus), suffered heavy mortality from predation. Of 14 barn 

 swallows (minimum count) observed from 25-29 October, at 

 least 7 turned up as prey. Even more significant, five of six 

 (minimum count) brown shrikes seen during the same 5-day 

 period were observed as prey. Simpson's (1983a; Wells, in 

 prep. ) observations of raptor behavior at both oil fields led him 

 to conclude that Japanese sparrow-hawks were hunting and 

 "commuting between nearby rigs." Our observations confirm 



250 



