Now that our fieldwork had finished, we were able to enjoy a few weeks in the nearby city of Maceio, state capital of Alagoas, so that we could work on our computers and finish up a few outstanding documents.
While this does mean that birding is put on the backburner, it never stops entirely. On the night of the 10th February we planned to have a relaxing beach walk with Herminio and his girlfriend, and then go for a meal. However, as we walked along the beach we spotted a Shearwater sat nearly in the surf . This is my first Brazilian seabird, so we headed down for a closer look.
Through binoculars it was clearly a Puffinus sp. being a medium-sized seabird with a dark mantle and head, contrasting with white chin, breast and belly. Our suspicions were that the bird was probably a Manxie, and this was confirmed with the views we were then able to obtain. The bird flew a short distance at one point as it approached the shore, but only flew a few metres further out to sea. The underwings in flight were clearly obviously white, with no hint of any dusky colouration. As we watched the bird it became increasingly clear that it was not well, so I headed into the surf to retrieve the bird.
As was expected, it was easily possible to collect it a few metres from shore, however it was not docile, attempting to bite and constantly struggling to escape my grip. We brought the bird to shore to allow for some quick photos and to check for injury. There did not appear to be anything wrong with the bird physically so I took it back out into the waves, throwing it over the breakers so it could hopefully make its way out to sea, which it started to do as the evening drew on. By darkness it was further out to sea than it had been initially, so hopefully in the darkness it would be able to reorient itself and head back into the Atlantic.
Not quite how I expected to see my first Brazilian shearwater...
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