A Curious Connection Among Storm Petrels, St. Peter And Weather
This week a European scientific organization announced that the planet will likely exceed 1.5 degrees C (2.7 degrees F) of warming relative to pre-industrial values. That's the very target the Paris Climate Agreement was trying to prevent. In the wake of the recent Presidential election, I am not quite ready to delve into the dire implications of this news, but I eventually will. For now, I choose to be distracted by storm petrels and their curious connection to St. Peter, oceanic storms, and snowfall. Let me explain.
This week my son, a senior at Dacula High School, announced his commitment to play basketball at Oglethorpe University in Atlanta, Georgia. We are so excited for this academic and athletic opportunity at the next level. Oglethorpe's mascot is Petey the Stormy Petrel . In the wake of his announcement, family and friends were asking us, "What is a storm or stormy petrel?" I am scientist who writes about weather and climate so decided to go beyond a basic definition.
The University website stated , "A stormy petrel is a seabird, commonly found on the eastern seaboard, and known for flying low to the ocean to look for food.... According to legend, James Oglethorpe was inspired by the courage of the small, gutsy bird as it dove in and out of the crashing ocean waves as he crossed the Atlantic Ocean in 1732." The Oceanwide Expedition website expanded the definition. It noted , "Storm petrel is a catch-all phrase referring to two subfamilies of birds with a number of different species found therein." Brittanica Online defined a storm petrel as, "Any member of about 20 species of seabirds constituting the family Hydrobatidae, or sometimes considered as Oceanitidae (order Procellariiformes)."
For the sake of brevity, let's focus on Wilson's Storm Petrel. This hardy bird can be found in Antarctica and most of the global oceans, with the exception of the Arctic. According to Audubon, it may be the most numerous of the seabirds and is named for the father of American ornithology, Alexander Wilson. Nicholas Lund wrote , "Wilson's Storm-Petrels live their entire lives out on the open sea. Unless you take a dedicated pelagic seabirding trip (which you should, sometime), your best chance to see one is onboard a whale-watch boat off the East Coast." While some petrel subspecies can be larger, Wilson's Storm Petrels are about the size of a swallow.
Because of their size, they rarely dive deep into the water for food. Instead, the linger just above the surface and scoop just beneath it for small fish and crustaceans. This interesting behavior coupled with their webbed feet gives them the appearance of "walking on water." The Christian Bible speaks of Peter walking on water in the Gospel of Matthew. The term "petrel" is derived from this reference to Saint Peter. According to AllAboutBirds.org , fishermen in the northeastern U.S. and Canada referred to the birds as Mother Carey's chickens, which is a reference to "mater caritas, the Virgin Mary."
The birds have other regional names too. These include satanites, sataniques, water witches, and oiseau du diable ("bird of the devil"). Mariners associated petrels with storms. Since they spend most of their lives, with the exception of breeding, over the ocean, these birds are quite adapted to the wind, storm conditions, and rough seas. Their webbed, nostril tubes, and food hunting strategies are suitable for the harsh oceanic enviroment. As resilient as they are, however, they are facing impacts of climate change.
A 2023 study found that Antarctic petrel population dramatically declined in recent decades. Warming oceans have reduced one of the birds' main sources of food, krill. Additionally, warmer air temperatures provide more water vapor for snowstorms. Though likely counterintuitive, a warmer, more humid atmosphere produces more snowfall in the region. That's bad for petrels because their nests are increasingly blocked.
That's it for my storm petrel tutorial. I look forward to meeting Petey and the rest of the storm petrel family.
