It began with a phone call to us from Ann Forster on 28 April 1998. And thence began a story of investigation, scholarship, tragedy and science that resulted in our areaÕs assistance in the discovery of a new species of stormpetrel from the Azores.

Barry Sweatt, a fisherman out of Orange Beach, AL brought a petrel that had landed on his boat in the Gulf of Mexico on April 27th to Wildlife Sanctuary of Northwest Florida for rehabilitation. This was not the first time he had done this. On other occasions he brought in several petrels for rehabilitation by Dorothy Kaufmann and her staff, and most were successfully released from the ForsterÕs home near the entrance to Pensacola Bay. But in this instance the attempted release was unsuccessful and the bird died. Noticing that the bird had a band on the leg, Ann gave it to us for transfer to Archbold Biological Station in Lake Placid, Florida as a valuable museum specimen.