More disappointment with Fiji Petrel Burrow Searching on Gau

Dr Sue Waugh helps the Fiji Petrel team with its nesting burrow searches, but there is no good news.

Dr Sue Waugh, an experienced seabird biologist with BirdLife International led a NFMV Fiji Petrel team for a 10 day search for Fiji and Collared Petrel burrows on Gau.

Well over a 100 burrows were examined with a burrowscope but none showed any sign of being a petrel burrow. Lairo (land crabs) were seen in many of them.

This is particularly disappointing and comes shortly after similar hard but unsuccessful work by fellow NZ petrel specialist, Jill West.

Flesh-footed Shearwater at a burrow on Lady Alice I. NZ. (Photo: Sue Waugh)
Flesh-footed Shearwater at a burrow on Lady Alice I. NZ. (Photo: Sue Waugh)

Sue was very impressed by the expertise with which the Fiji Petrel team led by Eleazar O’Conner and Moce Qalo was able to locate prospective burrows, and also the performance of the burrowscope used.

Part of her work was to field test the burrowscope which the project is using as it was designed and constructed by her partner Dominique Filippe of Sextant Technologies.

So far the burrowscope has performed extremely well – other than to find any petrels !

The rugged upland forests of Gau - home to nesting Fiji and Collared Petrels. Photo: Eleazar O'Conner
The rugged upland forests of Gau – home to nesting Fiji and Collared Petrels. Photo: Eleazar O’Conner

The Fiji Petrel Project intends to step up its burrow searching on Gau by using the considerable expertise in the forest of the island communities’ youth.

This has already commenced with Eleazar and Qalo teaching individuals from Sawaieke, Nawaikama, Malawai and Levuka villages how to find potential petrel burrows. they have returned to their villages and are, in turn, training teams to search their own forest areas.

All burrows will be marked with flagging tape and the burrowscope will be brought round to inspect the burrows, in due course.