■WEDGE- TAILED SHEARWATER 
— LISIABSKI 
-ihinotated List -—- p.JI —-- 
hsff 17 cont. 10, 000, 000 square feet of non-beach island. As both this species 
and the Bonin Petrels were present on the island, it is difficult to 
give an estimate on the number of active burrows for wither species. 
It appeared that there were approximately l/5 to l/3 as many chicks as 
there,were adult birds. Many young Wedge-tails* were seen in. shallow 
depressions in the sand at the base of clumps of Eragrostis, or at the 
entrance to burrqws. All the young birds seen were in the early feathering 
stage. 
Bahding and recapture of Wedge-tails was not emphasized dur to limited 
time available for acitivites on the island. Adutl Wedge-tails that were 
bled were banded and released. Threpr birds died as a result of blood 
sampling. In addition, 10 birds were collected and the heaqls i preserved 
for Haso-Parasite studies. As no molt or other ^information was taken 
on the collected birds, they were not given field numbers. 
/ 
L sff 18 Mar. 3$f~20, *67 (CDH Kept) Estimated Population -- none seen 
L8$- 19 June 2-6, *67 (DLS Kept) Estimated Population ------ 500,000 
Bests — ----—- ??? 
We forgot to take molt so we actually know very little about Wedge-tailed 
Shearwaters on Lisianski. I did check burrows and did not find eggs but 
no concentrated effort was undertaken to establish the breeding stage. We 
found eggs on Laysan so quite possibly there were eggs or will be in the 
next few days. f. 
Of 500 Wedgetails banded none were dark-phase. We did find a dark 
phase bird sitting on the island, but dark-phase birds represent far less 
than one percept of the island population. 
(FCT) Total population estimate: 20,000. Wedgetails had not begun their 
life cycle but birds were paired outside the burrows both in the daytime 
and at night. 
