Rob Harrison - 8 January 2010

A bird buried in a garden on 3 December and first thought to be a Storm Petrel has now proved to be a Leach's Petrel that died after being recovered from Roborough Down on Dartmoor.

Rob Harrison tells the story. "On 3 December a friend informed me that a neighbour of his, Dave Marriott, had found an injured (one-legged) bird on Roborough Down, Dartmoor the day before, 2 December, after there had been gales and bad weather. He took the bird home but unfortunately it died and he buried it in his garden. He said he thought it was a Storm Petrel.

We were curious about the find and wondered if it just might be a Leach's Petrel. By the time we had found out details of the neighbour and made contact nearly three weeks had gone by. So on 23 December 'grave robbers' George Harris and I, armed with spades and a Tesco's "body" bag, went over and met Dave Marriott who allowed us to take the body away. Luckily it had been buried under piles of leaves and thanks to the cold weather was in surprisingly good condition.

"Burke and Hare" measured and photographed the body and were pleased to declare that it was indeed a Leach's Storm Petrel as we had suspected. In true style the corpse, which at present is in the freezer, will be given to 'medical science' in the form of Anthony Bicknell of Plymouth University!

Roger Smaldon's book, Birds of Dartmoor confirms that Petrels are driven inland by violent gales. The first Dartmoor record known, was of a bird picked up in similar circumstances near the Rock, Yelverton on 20 Nov 1931, only about half a mile from the latest victim. Three further bodies were found after prolonged gales in October 1952 at Ivybridge, Tavistock and Yelverton. After westerly gales, a dead individual was found at Harford on 21 December 1989. The next record, again after prolonged gales was a bird found alive at Tavistock in early November 2000.

No doubt many more injured or dead "wrecked" birds must go unnoticed and unrecorded at these times of bad weather.