This week I have a guest mystery object – or two – for you to test your skills on:
I’d love to hear your thoughts on the identification of the skulls here – keeping in mind that any differences could be due to individual variation, sexual dimorphism or they may even be different species. Looking forward to hearing your thoughts!




The biggest of the tubenoses that is not an albatross, a gigantic bird. Two closely related species that in life can be distinguished by the colour of the tip of the bill. Unfortunately, those colours are not retained in skulls so I can’t say which exact species these are. The variation within species is considerable anyway.
Okay, I’ll be the pigeon. Too fresh to be dodo, not swoopy enough to be an albatross. Still, I wouldn’t want this tied around my neck! Are those section moving parts???
Lucky for these characters abeing good walkers, especially with huge price of gas these days.
fly south dear fellow…. summer awaits you.
Pretty scary. Look and listen!
First guess (before reading the comments): some kind of giant petrel? Or at least a largeish procellariid of some kind, surely?
Do I see a hint of green as a tip? If so my thoughts fly southwards.