TUGGING AT HEART STRINGS

Not Wisdom's Chick, but a Laysan Albatross nearing fledging

Midway Atoll 2009.

Every time I sat down. Each time I tried to photograph or observe,

these young albatross would tug at my shirt or preen.........as if

I was also an albatross.

There are bonds between species..........any of you know how this goes

with a pet dog, cat, or bird...........They love us because we attend to their wishes

and try best as we can to understand their needs.

Even though it has been more than two years since this photo was taken, I feel

 a need to protect these incredible birds. 

As I write this in the early Fall, Laysan Albatross fledglings

are flying over the open Pacific in search of food on their own.

Some might find their way to our coast here in Washington, or down along

Oregon and California.

Imagine their ability to survive in an ocean world now so confused with

so much plastic. And, it seems the news cycle has passed that issue as

we try to find ways of working our way out of economic slumps..........

The baby albatross tugging at my shirt is approaching the age at which

it will return again to Midway this winter...........Hopefully, it has survived.

If so, it will begin a courtship ritual, mate, and raise a young bird to 

perpetuate its species. 

No one will celebrate its life. 

No one will name this bird.

No one will ever see it again as an individual.

And yet, here you are.........I was touched by this bird.

I hope you might be too.   

WISDOM'S CHICK

Wisdom's 2011 Chick that successfully fledged this summer.

Photo courtesy John Klavitter, USFWS.

This is a beautiful image of a young albatross alllllllmost fully feathered, but

still sporting a bit of juvenile softness, especially up there on the head.

Laysan Albatross chicks hatch at a size roughly the same as your fist.

Two weeks later they are double or triple this as adults feed them

pretty much every day, or perhaps every two days.

The young ones learn to identify their parents as they fight their way out

of the egg, a process that can last half a day or longer. At the same time, adults

identify with their little ones by smell, but maybe there are other clues, such as

behaviors and appearance. Afterall, every Albatross chick does not hatch at the same time, and so,

feathering differences may be clues that help sort out young when adults return

from 1,000 mile or longer feeding flights.

I watched adults soar onto Midway, land, and strut to their chicks as if nothing

could steer them from the correct young one...........This ability to locate also

reinforced by a nest site fidelity. The adult birds nest in the same location for as many

as 6 decades, a fact we know because Wisdom has been raising a chick that long!

When the above photo was taken, Wisdom's chick was still a few weeks away from fledging, an event you may not fully appreciate without seeing in person..........

Adult albatross have these incredible runways around Midway. They walk then run, then lift off FROM LAND.............They take flight like a jumbo jet, quite elegantly.

Fledglings??????

I watched this take place and it is quite amazing because the young birds take a lot of time to

leave the island........At first, they make their way to the very edge of the sea. On Midway, this means

they pad across sand to a most beautiful turquoise lagoon.......they might hop in the water one morning, only to go back ashore for a time. Next day they might hop in again, but at long last, sometime in July for the most part...........they swim out into the vast lagoon surrounding Sand and Eastern Islands.

The young are occasionally, but not often, preyed upon by Tiger Sharks as they swim away from the

place of birth.

The fledglings swim nearly all the way or even beyond the atoll rim - the remains of the island perimeter..............and with wind assist, lift off after a long swim. I can only imagine they have evolved to do this because the next year or two will find them ONLY at sea. And so, they must have adapted over time to be able to lift off (with a seven foot wingspan) from the ocean surface, not from a runway like that used by adults.

We know Wisdom has been able to feed this young bird without adding a lethal dose

of plastic. We also know, according to John Klavitter, that Wisdom feeds in areas

with a great deal of plastic.

What we do not know is how she avoids the toxic trash.........She does so at a time when

approximatley one million seabirds die each year from this cause of mortality. Keys to

her survival will be unlocked as more and more birds are fitted with Satellite tags

and as more young people find ways of studying birds in the wild.

I can imagine studies of albatross feeding behavior using more

sophisticated devices than exist at present.........How about Apple and Google and

Amazon joining forces to equip Wisdom's little one with a cam so we can

follow this young bird through its own 60 years of life!!!

What will we report at SOAR in the year 2071?

I'll leave that up to you kids. 

  

OLDEST KNOWN WILD BIRD ON PLANET IS SUCCESSFUL MOM ONCE AGAIN

Legbands once worn by Midway Albatross.......Many died

of plastic ingestion........How has Wisdom avoided this fate?...... 

John Klavitter, USFWS biologist, has just confirmed the successful fledging of Wisdom's 2011 chick. Mother and offspring were in the news last spring when they survived tsunami waves that destroyed many other nesting birds on Midway Atoll within Papahanaumokuakea Marine National Monument. Successful fledging means Wisdom and her mate were able, once again, to find and return food to the nesting island where the chick was hatched early this year.

Wisdom, the oldest known wild bird on earth is a Laysan Albatross. She may well hold the key to success in an ocean filled with threats to survival of many kinds.I first learned about her amazing story when visiting Midway in 2009. Since then, FWS and NOAA staff have kept me in touch with Wisdom and other issues within the Northwestern Hawaiian Islands, especially those on Midway's nesting grounds.

Wisdom was first banded by Chandler Robbins on 10 December 1956. He estimated she was at least five years old at that time. Since then, Wisdom has been rebanded several times, the last when she was "rediscovered" by USFWS volunteers and staff on 6 December 2006. She now wears stainless steel band number 1517-62900 on her left leg and a red plastic band Z333 on her right leg. These are the same kind bands worn by Fred and Friends in our project to help kids learn more about the ocean and how to protect species like the Laysan Albatross.

Chandler Robbins helped biologists relocate Wisdom after he had returned to Midway in 2002 to band more albatrosses and observe them up close in a setting where more than 800,000 Laysans sit at nests during the January to July on island season. The rest of the year, albatrosses soar across the ocean in amazing journeys that find individuals covering more than a million miles in a lifetime. Birds living as long as Wisdom might clock well over ten million miles or more.........who knows for sure?

When Robbins came back, he was so busy banding, he wasn't aware of the rebanding of Wisdom. But he later noted her presence in his log of band data and when USFWS staff caught up with him in 2006, they learned where he had snapped an identifier on her leg. Resilient, Wisdom was now wearing yet another piece of metal. A great gift to science, she was found in 2006 and fitted with her current Z333.

Laysan Albatross return to the exact location time and time again. They can find their chick by scent in an amazing search starting with a wing set soar as they approach the island...........They only move a nesting site when trouble lurks such as the invasion of obnoxious weeds.  This happens on Midway because of a true pest, Verbesina. I can attest to its tenacity, having pulled many stems while on island in 2009. Thanks to the USFWS and wonderful volunteers, the plants are being removed and replaced with natives that don't hinder nesting success. Verbesina towers over the birds, clogging access to adults coming and going with food for their offspring.

As for Wisdom and her chick.............She has apparently found a way to seek food in the ocean where few pieces of plastic bob and bounce on waves. Or, she is extremely good at distinguishing squid and the eggs of flying fish from bottle caps, strands of rope, and other marine debris. Regardless, she has survived and continues to give birth to chicks that survive to fledge. I am about the same age as Wisdom and marvel at how she can continue..........Our daughter. One child. She is a happy and successful person and I can not for the life of me relate to giving life support for new children every year for more than fifty..............

Think on this. She and her mate flew off the island at Midway from January to July, more or less once a week. Each flight was about a thousand miles round trip. They caught food for themselves and their one chick. They shuffled flights, sometimes stopping on island for a single day, then off again...........Thousands of miles of flying to fetch food in the Bering Sea. Perch on the waves for a time, snatch a squid, shuffle off to Midway..............Feed baby. Fly again...........

After 60 years of life, one would think a bird known as Wisdom would wise up and call it a time for retirement.............It must be in her genes to be one who makes the difference in survival. As any student of ecology knows, it is all about passing along those genes. That and learning in a world of change.  

A NEW SPECIES OF SHEARWATER AND OTHER SEABIRD NEWS

These articles recently appeared in journals, including the announcement of a proposed new species! Discovering a new bird on the planet may seem unlikely, but researchers are sure they have found a previously unknown Shearwater, one of the most amazing seabirds. Like Albatrosses, Shearwaters soar out over the ocean, clocking hundreds and even thousands of miles on feeding flights. The new species, Bryan's Shearwater needs attention.............Here is the citation along with two other articles:

Pyle, P., Welch, A.J., and R.C. Fleischer. 2011. A new species of shearwater recorded from Midway Atoll, Northwestern Hawaiian Islands. Condor 113 (3): 518-527.

The authors are proposing a new species based on a specimen collected on Midway in 1963. This small shearwater's breeding and nonbreeding ranges are not known and the authors call for more investigation. The ocean is vast and research opportunities like this might call a young scientist to seek information needed to possibly save this bird from disappearing before we know much about it.


Doughty, R.W. 2010. Saving the Albatross: Fashioning an environmental regime. Geographical Review. 100 (2): 216-228.

I have to say I've only been able to read an abstract of this article, but look forward to a trip to the UW library to read more of what Doughty has to say in this review of the history of exploitation as well as  protective efforts meant to save albatrosses, one of the most threatened of all bird groups. Saving Albatrosses is all about saving the world oceans since these birds reflect so many of our impacts, both negative and postive.


Volter, S.C., Archibald, K., Morgan, G., and Morgan L. 2011. The use of plastic debris as nesting material by a colonial seabird and associated entanglement mortality. Marine Pollution Bulletin. 62 (1): 168-172.

Plastics appear in nests of many birds. Check out an Osprey nest in Wyoming or Montana, and you might see some orange baling twine dangling from the stick structure. Out at sea, many birds pick plastic as food, but, as these authors report, Northern Gannets gather great quantities for their nesting material. They studied a Gannet colony at which nests were found to contain an average of about 470g of plastic, mostly rope, for a colony total of more than 18 tons. Yearly entanglement in the colony ranged from 33-109 birds, mainly nestlings. 

As more and more plastics enter the sea, it is not surprising to see birds "repurpose" the material. Most of us can remember photos of those six pack rings entangling sea creatures, including birds, turtles, and marine mammals. Rope tangles wash ashore on all ocean beaches and so,

THANK YOU TO ALL WHO WILL BE PARTICIPATING THIS WEEKEND IN THE INTERNATIONAL BEACH CLEANUP.

If you live away from the ocean, help out by cleaning a stream, lake shore, or other waterway. You might be saving an Albatross and removing rope that would otherwise become a hazard for young Gannets!