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It’s winter down here for sure now, and winter in Kaikoura , on the coast of South Island north of Christchurch, means one thing, albatrosses! I took a lot of photos but today I’ll just be sharing the ones of the Buller’s Albatross , Thalassarche bulleri , known here as the Buller’s Mollymawk.
You’ll need to find yourself an albatross. Gratuitous Black-browed Albatross photo ( Thalassarche melanophrys ) not engaging in dancing Albatrosses are the longest lived of an already long lived order of birds, the petrels, and are in fact among the longest lived of all birds. So what is going on?
While I often tease Corey about how many albatrosses we have down here in New Zealand, the fact is that the United States has three species of Albatross that breed within its boundaries, albeit one of them only very rarely, and visit the western shores of North America. Laysan Albatross, Phoebastria immutabilis Some young adults.
Ka’ena Point is also a breeding ground for the Federally protected Laysan albatross, where 45 nests were being carefully monitored by the non-profit Pacific Rim Conservation. The oldest Laysan albatross was last seen raising a chick on Midway Atoll in 2016, at age 66. They are docile and devoted parents who will not leave their nests.
There was a time when albatross taxonomy was quite simple. Actually, I lie, albatross taxonomy has always been a mess, but there was a period of relative calm, from the sixties to the ninties, when there were about 12 species in two genera. This is unambiguously an albatross. Okay, so this is a wandering albatross of some kind.
Midway Atoll has hundreds of thousands of Laysan Albatross …it is the biggest nesting colony of Laysan Albatross in the world. During my legendary tenure there, I saw a lot of albatross chicks. But there is one that I remember better than most…Moby Dick, The Great White Albatross Chick.
Have you ever stayed up late at night pondering how you might introduce your child to the awesomeness that is an albatross without having access to, you know, a real live albatross? That is why I am so psyched that illustrator Bill Bolton has come out with an ebook for kids about an albatross that is afraid to fly.
The important thing is that I get to see albatrosses and he doesn’t. I mean, granted, he does live near the North Atlantic, the one ocean pretty much bereft of albatrosses (it wasn’t always that way, by the way). The Black-footed Albatross. Like all albatrosses Black-footed Albatrosses pair for life, unseen by Corey.
This Sunday I will be off the coast of Kaikoura on South Island for the first time since 2008 checking out the amazing albatrosses they have there. While albatrosses are found year-round on the tours out of Kaikoura, the best season for them is winter and not all species are common year round. Kaikoura dawn at my last visit.
So here’s some Antipodean Albatrosses! The taxonomy of the bigger albatrosses, known as great albatrosses, is tricky. What were three species, Royal Albatross, Wandering Albatross and Amsterdam Albatross , are now seven. The mighty Antipodean Albatross. This is a true Wandering Albatross.
Photographic guides are opinion splitters, some birders love images others are completely turned off by them, yearning for the art and craft of the traditional field guide. There are good photographic guides and a great many bad ones.
Kaikoura, in New Zealand’s South Island, is arguably the best place in the world to see albatrosses and petrels. And the endemic Hutton’s Shearwater, which only breeds in Kaikoura, will keep you entertained for those few minutes till the albatrosses hit. More Albatrosses, this time a White-capped Albatross !
About half of all breeding Wandering Albatross nest on the Prince Edward Islands. There’s also the Grey-headed Albatross , Sooty Albatross , Blue Petrel , Great-winged Petrel , Black-faced Sheathbill , and so many more that rely on this island. Yellow-nosed Albatross. Wandering Albatross. Mouse-free Marion!
Although the islands are a cramped home to 18 species of seabird, the dominant and most charismatic of these are the two species of albatross, the Black-footed and Laysan Albatrosses. There was one young Black-footed Albatross that was apparently not planning on going quietly into the dark night, however.
I have raved on and on about how Kaikoura is the best place in the world to see albatrosses , but the once sleepy seaside town is not actually famous for these magnificent birds. You almost certainly won’t see a Sperm Whale out with the albatross crew, but the trip is still utterly essential as well.
Anyone that has read my posts before knows I love Kaikoura and the amazing people at Albatross Encounter. It was pretty obvious which of the many boats out there it was, the huge flocks of petrels and albatrosses around the boat made finding it easy. Salvin’s Albatrosses were nice to add to my year list. Not a bad day!
I will never tire of banging Kaikoura’s drum as the best place in the world to see albatrosses, and since albatrosses are the among the best birds in the world it amazes me that none of you have made it out here yet (actually, some of you have, per some of the comments, but Corey hasn’t). At first anyway.
They include Black-footed Albatrosses , Laysan Ducks , and roughly 65 percent of the world’s Laysan Albatrosses. Between 2012 and 2013, populations of Laysan and Black-footed Albatrosses at Midway reached near-record levels. Photos of the Black-footed, above, and the Laysan, below, both from Duncan.). mainland.
Thanks to it’s marine canyon it’s the place to see Sperm Whales, swim with Dusky Dolphins and New Zealand Fur-seals, and watch albatrosses, shearwaters and petrels. There is no better place on Earth to see albatrosses, and that is a precious thing. White-capped Albatrosses are easy to see.
Penguins are shown individually in groups, in dense colonies, within habitat (ice, rainforest, beach), swimming in the ocean, and doing things–nose to nose with an albatross, feeding a child, placing an egg on its foot, sliding down ice. (You can see additional photos at Plantema’s online photo gallery.)
Soon afterwards a confident shout heralds the sighting of the first albatross of the day… This is usually a Shy Albatross as sweeps in slow and graceful flight over the wake before veering away on motionless wings giving all the opportunity to see the characteristic axillary ‘thumb-print’ on the mainly white underwing.
This male Short-tailed Albatross has fledged 2 chicks from Eastern Island, Midway Atoll, the only place in the U.S. Short-tailed Albatross was thought to be, at one time, the most abundant species of albatross in the North Pacific. this species breeds.
In Costa Rica, this past year has seen expected additions like Lesser Black-backed Gull and Crimson-backed Tanager along with somewhat less expected birds like Yellow-nosed Albatross in the Caribbean and an equally mega probable Salvin’s Albatross in the Pacific.
Buller’s Albatross ( Thalassarche bulleri ) and Cape Petrel ( Daption capense ) at Kaikoura. The focus of today is one of the guys above, but since I have already done a story on Buller’s Albatrosses before it is going to be about the other guy. This post is not about albatrosses!
The giant petrels are aptly named, massive lumbering fulmarine petrels as large as small albatrosses that terrorise the Southern Ocean. The giant petrels share more than just their size with the albatrosses. Although giant petrels are big, they aren’t as big as an Antipodean Albatross !
In addition to the photo below, of a Black-browed Albatross and its young, a full-page photo shows adult and juvenile birds in flight. And, much as I love Albatrosses and am curious about Prions, it is the pages on Penguins that I keep turning to. South Georgia is home to the King Penguin, the second largest penguin in the world.
Keep your eyes to the skies… you might see an Albatross! Find out where you might spy a Shy Albatross and other phenomenal pelagics with Patrick Cardwell ) a. Whatever your plans this weekend, make time to enjoy SkyWatch Friday. Also be sure to come back Monday to share your best bird of the weekend !
Waved Albatross (Phoebastria irrorata). In Costa Rica, the sole tropical breeding albatross is a rare visitor to pelagic waters of the Pacific. A couple of ways to help the Waved Albatross is by supporting organizations such as the Galapagos Conservation Trust and the American Bird Conservancy.
The “Owls and Albatrosses” chapter, for example, begins with Doug’s personal experiences observing of the nesting strategies of Malleefowl and a Moluccan Megapode, Australasian “chickens who lay their eggs in unusual ways and do not parent. that’s three birds). This is a book that requires attention.
Maybe you’ll see albatrosses ! Keeps your eyes to the skies. Many civilized nations choose the third weekend in June to honor fatherhood, paternal bonds, and the influence of fathers in society. In response, many fathers elect to celebrate their paternity by ditching their progeny. Is this civilized behavior?
The mammoth like thing behind is an albatross chick. I ts easy to overheat, so the shade of a convenient Black-footed Albatross chick is sought-after. After breeding they can spend months at sea without landing before returning to land. A Sooty Tern chick in the gawky phase. A Great Frigatebird snatching a chick.
They’re lucky: unlike albatrosses and other seabirds, they are not ship followers and so can mostly avoid guy-lines and nets. For the next four years, the bird will not touch land. Manx shearwaters are, in relative terms at least, thriving. They fly too low for wind turbine blades, and dive too shallow for long-line hooks.
Black-footed Albatrosses One of Hawaii’s three species of albatross, this one isn’t likely to mistaken for much else. An adult Black-footed Albatross loafing in the evening and failing to fly to California. Laysan Albarosses Last but by no means least are the Laysan Albatrosses. To be an albatross is to move!
They are described as usually nocturnal in Brooke’s Albatrosses and Petrels of the World , but on Tern Island they can easily be seen lounging the day away on the surface. Shearwaters are not as accomplished on land as albatrosses and giant petrels, but they can walk. Here a bunch of them are investigating one such burrow.
I think I know what Corey wants for Christmas… a Buller’s Albatross. Trips albatrosses bucket lists South Africa wish lists' And have a great Christmas, a fantastic New year, and see you in March! Image of an African Wild Dog by Charles J Sharp (CC).
Rats had previously preyed on eggs and young of practically every defenseless seabird on the island, and had taken to even attacking adult albatross as they sat on their nests. Albatross chicks will no longer have to endure slowly getting eaten alive, unlike this poor bird.
In particular the South Island destination of Kaikoura is world-renowned for the flocks of albatrosses and giant petrels floating right off the pelagic boat, and the ease of the trip makes it a must-visit for any visiting birder. The Hauraki Gulf trip deserves to be on the itinerary of any birder visiting New Zealand.
And then there are the crazy-awesome Dippers and one should not forget the great diving birds like Gannets and Albatrosses. You should know by now that there are a good number of birds that spend an appreciable amount of time underwater. There are, for example, the Penguins and Diving Ducks.
The first is an albatross spotted and videod off the Pacific Coast. So far, it appears to have been a Salvin’s Albatross , a bird more at home in the Humboldt Current. Whether it was that species or another, it’s definitely new for the Costa Rica list!
Yes, the same Kaikoura I keep banging on about that is a great place to see albatrosses. But mostly it was that I had swam with dolphins a bunch of times already, usually in crystal clear tropical waters, and money was a bit tight after seeing sperm whales and albatrosses, so I decided to enjoy the Hector’s Dolphins from the boat.
I saw one once, in Chicago, and simply thought it was beautiful.) - A Laysan Albatross was found dead on Midway Atoll, its carcass full of ingested plastic objects, including toothbrushes, cigarette lighters, and bottle tops. -
Here’s the basic idea: when phytoplankton in the ocean fall prey to krill (shrimp-like crustaceans), they release a chemical that generates the funky-smelling dimethyl sulfide (DMS), which attracts Albatrosses , Petrels , Shearwaters , and Prions , who in turn eat the krill.
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