Eaglehawk Neck, Tasmania - Pelagic Reports 3&4 Sept 2011 - photos. TWO not one CHATHAM ALBATROSS?

[David Stowe <>]

Hi all,
I'm no expert on Albatross however if you look at the underwing pattern on the 
left wing there are three smudgy grey feathers coming into the white from the 
dark leading edge between the carpal joint and wingtip (very happy for someone 
to tell me the proper names of these feathers etc).
All images that show the underwing including the "second" bird show this 
feature. I would assume it would be unlikely for two birds to share this? (I do 
mean this as an honest question)
So for mine it looks like one bird.
Cheers,
David Stowe

On 11/09/2011, at 5:25 PM, Mike Carter wrote:

> In my opinion, all the shots in Rob Hynson's first set of images from various 
> angles show a bird with very little black, on the mandibular unguis, located 
> along the lower edge. This is contra the second bird, three minutes later, 
> which consistently shows an almost wholly dark mandibular unguis. Therefore I 
> reckon two birds were involved as shown in Raja's images. If Raja would allow 
> me to download her images, I could crop and place the bills in juxtaposition 
> to demonstrate what I mean.    
> 
> Mike Carter
> 30 Canadian Bay Road
> Mount Eliza  VIC 3930
> Tel  (03) 9787 7136
>