Tim Lynch (CSIRO Oceans and Atmosphere Flagship, Hobart, Australia) and colleagues have published in the journal Methods & Statistics in Ecology on using a remote camera to study breeding Shy Albatrosses Thalassarche cauta.

The paper’s summary follows:

“1. Obtaining accurate and representative demographic metrics for animal populations is critical to many aspects of wildlife monitoring and management. However, at remote animal colonies, metrics derived from sequential counts or other continuous monitoring are often subject to logistical, weather and disturbance challenges.  The development of remote camera technologies has assisted monitoring, but limitations in spatial and temporal resolution and sample sizes remain.

2. Here we describe the application of a robotic camera system (Gigapan) which takes a tiled sequence of photographs that are automatically stitched together to form high-resolution panoramas.  We demonstrate the application of the Gigapan using data collected during field-testing at a shy albatross colony on Albatross Island in northwest Tasmania.

3. We took daily panoramas over five days to estimate mean incubation shift-duration, an indirect measure for foraging trip duration, in an existing study area.  Similar numbers of occupied nests could be observed at a distance of ~100m in the Gigapan panoramas compared to ground-based counts (115 and 117 respectively).  Of these, birds on 90% of nests visible in the panoramas could be unambiguously identified as marked or unmarked with a small daub of paint throughout the study period and thus a shift change reliably recorded.  Gigapan-based shift duration was estimated using a novel instantaneous statistical method and were longer than estimates earlier in the egg brooding period, potentially revealing a new pattern in shift duration.

4. This example field application provides proof-of-concept and demonstration that the relatively low cost Gigapan system provides the spatial advantages of satellite or aerial photos with the detail and temporal replication of land-based camera systems.  The Gigapan system can extend or enhance traditional data collection methods, particularly for simultaneous observations, at distance, of the behaviour of many surface nesting colonial seabirds.”

Shy Albatross on Australia's Albatross Island, photograph by Drew Lee  

Reference:

Lynch, T.P.,  Alderman, R. & Hobday, A.J. 2015. A high-resolution panorama camera system for monitoring colony-wide seabird nesting behaviour.  Methods & Statistics in EcologyDOI: 10.1111/2041-210X.12339.

John Cooper, ACAP Information Officer, 27 January 2015

It seems that 2015 is to be a bumper year for Near Threatened Laysan Albatrosses Phoebastria immutabilis in the USA’s Hawaiian Islands due to favourable oceanographic conditions.  Kure Atoll has a record population of 38 307 breeding pairs this year and Pacific Rim Conservation reports a similar situation in the Kaena Point Natural Area Refuge on Oahu.  Numbers of Laysans are also well up on Midway Atoll (click here).

Laysan Albatrosses at Kaena Point, photograph by Lindsay Young

Perhaps partially related is that some Laysan Albatrosses have started breeding at a young age as Pacific Rim Conservation has reported on its Facebook page and to ACAP Latest News.

"[N]ot only is this shaping up to be a record year at most Laysan Albatross colonies for number of birds nesting, we have also set another record at Kaena- we have a four year old male breeding for the first time as well as multiple five year old birds. This is the youngest recorded breeding age for a male Laysan Albatross."  A female was recorded breeding at Kaena Point a few years ago as a four-year-old.  Both birds had fledged from Kaena Point.

Age of first breeding for this species of albatross in one study conducted on Midway Atoll with large samples was from five to 16 years (mean nine years), but with very few birds of either sex recorded commencing breeding as five-year-olds – or after 12 years.  Females tend to lag one year behind males.

With thanks to Lindsay Young, ACAP North Pacific News Correspondent for information.

Reference:

Van Rizen, M.T. & Fisher, H.I. 1976.  The age of Laysan Albatrosses, Diomedea immutabilis at first breeding.  The Condor 78: 1-9.

John Cooper, ACAP Information Officer, 26 January 2015

Fernando Azevedo Faria (Instituto de Ciências Biológicas, Universidade Federal do Rio Grande, Brazil) and colleagues have published in the journal Waterbirds on a stranding of procellariiform seabirds in Brazil.

The paper’s abstract follows:

“Mass strandings of seabirds occur frequently on many beaches worldwide and commonly involve penguins, petrels, shearwaters, and prions, among others.  Large numbers of stranded albatrosses are rarely reported.  In this paper, an unusual stranding event that involved five species of Procellariiformes, predominantly the Atlantic Yellow-nosed Albatross (Thalassarche chlororhynchos), is described in southern Brazil.  Carcasses and debilitated specimens of Atlantic Yellow-nosed Albatrosses (n = 125), unidentified petrels/shearwaters (Procellariidae; n = 63), White-chinned Petrels (Procellaria aequinoctialis; n = 52), Great Shearwaters (Puffinus gravis; n = 11), Manx Shearwaters (Puffinus puffinus; n = 4) and Cory's Shearwater (Calonectris borealis; n = 1) were found stranded between 15 and 22 March 2013.  Atlantic Yellow-nosed Albatrosses (n = 20) and White-chinned Petrel (n = 1) were found alive and remained in the rehabilitation center for a few days before being released.  A total of at least 256 birds were affected during the 8 days of the event, but a larger number likely remained undetected.  Rescued Atlantic Yellow-nosed Albatrosses were not emaciated, and the causes of their stranding remain unknown.  Equal or greater numbers of stranded petrels had been recorded previously in the area, but strandings of a large number of albatrosses are unusual in southern Brazil and elsewhere.”

Atlantic Yellow-nosed Albatross, photograph by Peter Ryan

Click here for a report of another albatross stranding in Brazil.

Reference:

Faria, F.A., Burgueño, L.E.T., dos Santos Weber, F., de Souza, F.J.& Bugoni, L. 2014.  Unusual mass stranding of Atlantic Yellow-nosed Albatross (Thalassarche chlororhynchos), petrels and shearwaters in southern Brazil.  Waterbirds 37: 446-450.

John Cooper, ACAP Information Officer, 25 January 2015

On 24 December last year the Hawaiian Department Land and Natural Resources (DNLR) field crew on Kure Atoll in the USA’s North-western Hawaiian Islands photographed an immature Short-tailed Albatross Phoebastria albatrus (foreground in photograph below) visiting the nest site of the well-known female-female pair.

The partially-obscured golden-headed bird appears to be a decoy 

This pair has been present on Kure since 2010 when observations began (click here).  Two eggs are laid in the same nest each year but do not hatch. The resident albatross incubating on the nest (banded 13A-1456) in the photo is the youngest of the pair.  She was banded in 2000 as a chick.  Her female partner (banded 13A-0703), who was then away at sea foraging after taking the previous incubation shift, was banded in 1993.  This is considered a promising sign that the six recently installed Short-tailed Albatross decoys may have played a role in attracting the new bird.

The Kure crew sighted a second new Short-tailed Albatross on the atoll on 10 January this year (below).   The bird is an immature with predominantly brown plumage and a pink bill.

The Short-tailed Albatross below photographed in flight over the atoll is in an intermediate plumage and is one of the regular visitors to Kure.

There are only six other records of individual Short-tailed Albatrosses on Kure, although some of these may be of resightings.

As for other albatross breeding sites in the Hawaiian Islands (click here), Kure Atoll is also having a bumper breeding season in 2014/15.

With acknowledgement to the Kure Atoll Conservancy Facebook Page for information and photographs. 

John Cooper, ACAP Information Officer, 24 January 2015