March 11, 2010

It’s March and the Providence Petrel is back on Lord Howe Island. The incredibly rare Petrel once bred in only two places on earth, Lord Howe and Norfolk Island. The bird was named in 1790 after the Norfolk Island supply ship HMS Sirius sank. Norfolk Island’s population survived by eating more than 170,000 of these birds and ultimately wiped them of the face of the island.

Now Lord Howe Island is the only place that they nest. They arrive every March to mate and breed on the slopes of Mounts Gower and Lidgbird. In the late afternoon you see hundreds if not thousands of birds forming a halo around the mountains. If you walk to Little Island (20 mins from Capella) you will see the birds on a mirror flight pattern just above your head.