UPDATE:  "After three weeks since it hatched on January 2, the downy chick appears healthy and is growing everyday while its cousins — the Laysan and Black-footed chicks — are still in hatching mode. The remote camera revealed that the chick is being fed by both George and Geraldine as they swapped their parental feeding and care taking duties three times during the last two weeks".  News from the Friends of Midway Atoll NWR.

Top: Short-tailed Albatross chick. Bottom: chick with adult Black-footed Albatrosses in the background. photographs by Jonathan Plissner

George and Geraldine, the globally Vulnerable Short-tailed Albatross or ‘Golden Gooney’ Phoebastria albatrus solitary pair on Midway Atoll’s Sand Island, hatched their latest egg on 2 January.  George had taken up the final incubation shift from Geraldine just four days earlier on 29 December; the egg is reported as being laid on 28 October (click here).  Both birds were first seen in the current breeding season on the same day of 23 October last year.  ACAP Latest News assumes they had arrived unnoticed earlier than this to allow for mating and the usual (for procellariiforms) egg-making ‘honeymoon’ trip or pre-laying exodus of around 10 days or more to sea by the female.

George with its recently hatched chick, photographs by V. Ternisian

Read what is known of George and Geraldine’s history and previous breeding attempts (they successfully fledged their first chick in the previous 2018/19 season) here.  Intriguing to note the synchrony of breeding between the two seasons, in 2018/19 their egg hatched on 3 January (although it should be noted hatching can be a lengthy process lasting more than a day, so the exact day of the chick finally leaving the shell may be difficult to record).

Meanwhile, Midway's other famous pair, 69-something Wisdom and mate Akeakamai, the Laysan Albatrosses P. immutabilis, are taking a 'gap year', having not laid an egg this season after being seen back together in Sand Island last November (click here).

John Cooper, ACAP Information Officer, 10 January 2020, updated 30 January 2020

UPDATED with photographs of Black-vented Shearwaters by J.A. Soriano, courtesy of Federico Méndez, Executive Director, GECI

 Yuliana Bedolla-Guzmán and colleagues (Grupo de Ecología y Conservación de Islas, Ensenada, Baja California, Mexico.) have published in the Island Invasives: Scaling up to Meet the Challenge conference proceedings on the conservation of seabirds on Mexican islands, including the Near Threatened Black-vented Shearwater Puffinus opisthomelas.

The paper’s abstract follows:

“The Baja California Pacific Islands, Mexico, are globally important breeding sites for 22 seabird species and subspecies. In the past, several populations were extirpated or reduced due to invasive mammals, human disturbance, and contaminants.  Over the past two decades, we have removed invasive predators and, for the last decade, we have been implementing a Seabird Restoration Programme on eight groups of islands: Coronado, Todos Santos, San Martín, San Jerónimo, San Benito, Natividad, San Roque, and Asunción.  This programme includes monitoring; social attraction techniques; removal of invasive vegetation; reducing human disturbance; and an environmental learning and biosecurity programme.  Here, we summarise historical extirpations and recolonisations during the last two decades of restoration actions, and we update the status of breeding species after more than a decade.  To date, from 27 historically extirpated populations, 80% have returned since the first eradication in 1995.  Social attraction techniques were key in recolonisations of Cassin’s auklet (Ptychoramphus aleuticus), royal tern (Thalasseus maximus), and elegant tern (T. elegans). A total of 19 species breed on these islands, four more species than a decade ago, including 12 new records.  The most abundant seabirds, black-vented shearwater (Puff nus opisthomelas), Cassin’s auklet, western gull (Larus occidentalis), and Brandt’s cormorant (Phalacrocorax penicillatus), have shown a remarkable population increase.  Current threats include the potential reintroduction of invasive mammals, guano mining, recreational activities, pollution, and commercial fisheries.  To maintain these conservation gains in the long-term it is necessary to continue implementing restoration actions and reinforcing protection on these important natural protected areas.”

Reference:

Bedolla-Guzmán, Y., Méndez-Sánchez, F., Aguirre-Muñoz, A., Félix-Lizárraga, M., Fabila-Blanco, A., Bravo-Hernández, E., Hernández-Ríos, A., Corrales-Sauceda, M., Aguilar-Vargas, A., Aztorga-Ornelas, A., Solís-Carlos, F., Torres-García, F., Luna-Mendoza, L., Ortiz-Alcaraz, A., Hernández-Montoya, J., Latofski-Robles, M., Rojas-Mayoral, E. & Cárdenas-Tapia, A. 2019.  Recovery and current status of seabirds on the Baja California Pacific Islands, Mexico, following restoration actions.  In: C.R. Veitch, M.N. Clout, A.R. Martin, J.C. Russell & C.J. West (Eds). Island Invasives: Scaling up to Meet the Challenge.  Occasional Paper SSC No. 62. Gland, Switzerland: IUCN. pp. 531-538.

With thanks to Federico Méndez, Executive Director, Grupo de Ecología y Conservación de Islas, Mexico for photographs and information

John Cooper, ACAP Information Officer, 28 January 2020, updated 30 January 2020

By now regular readers of ACAP Latest News must know who Wisdom is, the famous 69-year old Laysan Albatross of Midway Atoll (see her ALN string).

The last post had the pair returning to their usual nest site on Midway’s Sand Island in November, but no egg ensued and the birds departed (click here).  This month they returned for a few days, raising hopes of an egg. However, news from the Friends of Midway Atoll National Wildlife Refuge seems to confirm the pair are taking a "gap year”:

“Wisdom and her mate Akeakamai were lately observed sitting together on Thursday, January 16.  Akeamakai was this time sitting tightly on a nest cup in the same spot as their 2018-2019 nest; which was a surprise and potentially a sign of a late egg.  However, neither bird was observed during the following days, and no egg was revealed in the nest cup. The pair is certainly skipping a nesting year.”

Wisdom (wearing red Z333) near her nest site on 13 January 2020, photograph by Theresa Geelhoed, Kupu Volunteer Crew Leader

Further news is that one of Wisdom’s youngsters has been returning:

“Interestingly, Wisdom’s chick from 2011 was that day walking a few feet away from the pair.  Since Wisdom's offspring were first banded in 2011, this is the only chick that has been observed returning to Midway.  It is important to note that Wisdom was able to rear this chick at a very late age, at least 59 years old.  The "youngster," who has not been given a name but bears a red and white color band with the unique code of "N333" was first spotted at the same location in March 2018 but has not yet been observed on a nest.  We know that albatrosses tend to return to their nesting ground to breed and nest. In the coming years, it will be interesting to witness the location chosen by Wisdom’s chick to continue the legacy of the family”.

ACAP’s Information Officer (who also has a Z333 band)  is already looking forward to the 2020/21 breeding season, when Wisdom will be joining him in the septuagenarian ranks.  You are only as old as you feel!

You can read more about Wisdom's history - and the threats she and her conspecifics face - here.

 John Cooper, ACAP Information Officer, 30 January 2020

Michelle Risi in front of breeding Sooty Albatrosses with Gough Island's WAD2020 Banner

Activities of the World Albatross Day Intersessional Group established at last year’s meeting of ACAP’s Advisory Committee have to date been concentrated on increasing awareness of the day within ACAP Parties and selected countries via the Agreement’s website and Facebook page and by correspondence with NGOs/NPOs and individuals involved with research on and/or the conservation of albatrosses.

Short statements of support in the form of quotes have been received from 96 out of c. 150 individuals approached, covering a broad field of disciplines and including artists and authors of books on albatrosses.  They are being posted for roughly five days at a time to the ACAP website’s homepage and are also grouped thematically and posted to ACAP Latest News.

Longer statements of support of WAD2020 received to date from 16 national and international organizations, including six BirdLife national partners in ACAP Party countries, have been posted to this website.  To increase awareness of WAD2020 further, these organizations are being requested to share ACAP’s posts to their own social media outlets.

A ‘WAD2020 Banner Challenge’ has so far obtained photographs of home-made banners or equivalents in all three ACAP official languages from 10 breeding islands and one trawler at sea; more are promised.  These have all been featured on the website.

A collaboration with ABUN (Artists & Biologists Unite for Nature) this and next month is leading to high-quality photographs and artwork being made available for ACAP’s use and will culminate in a poster and a short video with accompanying music made by ABUN for ACAP, along with one-page summaries of the biology and conservation of the 22 albatross species now being written by the Information Officer.  It is intended for the summaries to be available in French and Spanish, as well as in English.

A WAD2020 poster has been designed pro bono by renowned wildlife illustrator Owen Davey; also produced pro bono have been a WAD2020 logo and a cartoon series in four languages by Marc Parchow of Qual Albatroz.  The involvement of Michelle Risi with the first two products has been invaluable.

All the above products will be made freely available for activities and events at and around 19 June via a special World Albatross Day section on the ACAP website, currently being populated.  Offers of further support and ideas for WAD2020 will be appreciated!

John Cooper, Secretary, ACAP Word Albatross Day Intersessional Working Group, 29 January 2020