Wandering Albatrosses
The huge Wanderers did most of their
laying while I was away. Jess and Steph, with help from the others,
covered the whole island mapping nests and trying to get ring numbers
of the adults. This is a huge job that we are only just finishing off
now as we go around checking on how many of the nests contain chicks.
The eggs are roughly hand-sized and when checking them you
occasionally hear a few peeps or get lucky enough to see a small hole
with a beak poking through as they try and break for freedom. At only a few days old the chicks sit under the adults, white, fluffy,
kitten-sized with an overly-long beak.
While half the breeding birds are sat
with their eggs or chicks the other half are out at sea, travelling
hundreds of miles in search of squid, crustaceans, krill and fish to
sustain thmselves and feed their youngster. Meanwhile the
non-breeding birds, maybe young ones who have travelled round the
globe for five to eight years or maybe birds whose partners haven't
returned, are performing some spectacular dances on the ridges and
meadows in the hope of attracting new partners and claiming nest
sites.
They face off against each other,
spread their wings to their full 3m+ span and throw back their head,
calling to the sky and anyone close enough. Sometimes males will
chase other males away, sometimes the females just aren't interested
but often a pair will walk round and round each other, hopefully
seeing something in the other they like.
Black-browed and Grey-headed
Albatrosses
The mollymawks, the smaller albatrosses
(how to tell you've been here too long part 1; you start thinking of
these birds as small – with their only 2m wingspan), are also
nesting, although their chicks develop far quicker than the
Wanderers. They are just getting past the completely fluffy,
skittle-shaped phase and are developing proper adult feathers on
their wings and chests. Soon they'll be jumping up and down and
flapping like crazy.
Jess's work with them has mainly been
checking on the success of several colonies round the island, but she
will soon start weighing the chicks at dedicated ages. As with the
penguins, weighing is a simple way to assess the health of the
species and if it is done a specific number of days after hatching it
can easily be compared with previous years.
