Talk:Wilson's Storm Petrel

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Is it true that the Wilson's Storm-petrel is the most numerous bird on the planet? The idea seems to be that although they are rarely seen in any numbers, the surface area of the oceans is so large that the estimated numbers of Petrels is huge. It seems to have been listed in the Guinness Book of Records at some point, as mentioned here, suggesting they number in the hundreds of millions. However, I couldn't find the same records in the current online version of Guinness. -- Solipsist 06:51, 12 Feb 2005 (UTC)
 * I've always understood it to be the commonest seabird, and i've put this in the text jimfbleak 06:42, 13 Feb 2005 (UTC)

While reading "Rockbound" by Frank Parker Day (1928) I found numerous references to "careys", unpleasant nocturnal birds which figure vividly in a nightmare in the book. The novel is set on (probably) Ironbound Island off Lunenburg, Nova Scotia and the birds are described as digging burrows on even more isolated small islands off the coast. I am unable to determine why, exactly, the fishermen found them to be so unpleasant, unless it is that if you startle them at night they may give off the smelly oily substance mentioned in the above article. They would seem to be Wilson's storm-petrel, especially from the description of plowing up the nests on p.286, but I wonder about shortening 'Mother Carey's chickens' to 'careys'. User: helenmartin4 8:40pm, 5 August 2005

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