A Westland Petrel in the breeding colony

NOTE:  This post continues an occasional series that features photographs of the 31 ACAP-listed species, along with information from and about their photographers.  Here, Kerry-Jayne Wilson MNZM* of the West Coast Penguin Trust features the globally Endangered and nationally Naturally Uncommon Westland Petrel or Tāiko Procellaria westlandica, endemic to New Zealand.  Because of the difficulty of photographing the bird at night in its densely forested breeding sites, photographs taken by Kerry-Jayne’s colleagues are included.

* Member of the New Zealand Order of Merit (click here).

 
Kerry-Jayne Wilson with a Westland Petrel, photograph by Susan Waugh

The Westland Petrel (Māori name Tāiko) only nests in mixed podocarp forest in the foothills of the Paparoa Mountains a few kilometres south of the tourist town of Punakaiki on the west coast of New Zealand’s South Island.  It is considered the tenth most threatened seabird by fisheries in New Zealand waters - and that is just one of many threats facing the species.

 
An adult Westland Petrel inside its burrow, photograph by Kate Simister

The all-black petrel was only brought to the attention of scientists in 1945 when Bob Falla (later Sir Robert Falla KBE CMG, 1901-1979) gave a talk on muttonbirding on national radio.  He told of the muttonbirders heading to the breeding islands in April and May.  The children of the tiny, rural Barrytown School told their teacher that Falla must be wrong because their dads go muttonbirding (illegally) in November.  They wrote to Falla, who not knowing of a petrel that would fledge young in November, investigated and ‘discovered’ and then named the Westland Petrel.

 
A Westland Petrel guards its egg, photograph by Kate Simister

The Westland Petrel came to my own attention in the 1970s when I went caving at Punakaiki.  At the time a mining company had established their plant directly beneath the main flyway used by the petrels when traversing between sea and colony.  They were prospecting for gold, titanium and other minerals in the adjacent Barrytown Flats and if economic the brightly lit processing plant would have operated 24 hours a day.  Sandy Bartle, then a curator at the then national Museum of New Zealand, was researching the petrels and began a one-person campaign to raise awareness and protect the birds.  As more people came on board the dispute continued for decades until eventually the company gave up plans to mine and gifted the land and disused buildings to the Department of Conservation.

 
A female Westland Petrel with its month-old chick, photograph by Kate Simister

The annual banding begun by Sandy in the 1970s continues; like a relay the baton handed from person to person.  In 1995 my student Amanda Freeman began her PhD thesis on the petrels.  This was my chance to get involved with a species that had interested me for 20 years.  Over the next few years we spent some memorable days and nights in the colony.  We became the first people to track something smaller than an albatross at sea.  There were some anxious times when one tracked bird did not return for 14 days.  To our enormous relief we did eventually retrieve the borrowed US$ 5000-unit it was carrying.  The Department of Conservation (DOC) managed the banding until Susan Waugh, then employed at the Museum of New Zealand Te Papa Tongarewa began her demographic studies.  By then I had taken early retirement, living in nearby Charleston.  I took every opportunity to join Sue in the field and filled in for her when work commitments kept her in the office.  During our watch the area was struck by three ex-tropical cyclones, two of which caused extensive treefall and landslides in the petrel colonies.  A third of one study colony was lost to a single landslide, with treefall obliterating part of what remained.  So much for further demographic studies.  Fortunately, the main study colony lost a few trees and some minor landslides around the perimeter, but few birds were killed or nesting burrows lost.  Once Sue Waugh moved on from Te Papa and my aging hips precluded further fieldwork in the steep, tangled rainforest in which they breed the baton was returned to DOC with fieldwork led by a young super-fit, super-keen ranger by the name of Kate Simister.  Under her guidance the annual banding begun by Sandy Bartle in the 1970s continues.

Stripped to bedrock.  A landslide caused by an ex-tropical cyclone; note person for scale

 
Westland Petrel at sea
Photographs by Kerry-Jayne Wilson, unless stated

In 2015 the annual Taiko Festival began to welcome the Westland Petrels home from their sojourns in South American seas.  The weekend festival begins with a walk down to the beach to wait beneath the flightpath for the birds to fly over at dusk.  While we wait, I give a talk about the birds, describing where they might have been and what they will do once ashore.  The birds have never let us down with several hundred appearing on cue, a sight to remember for the 80 or so people waiting below.  Next day there is a market, tree planting, clowns, and a children’s programme.  Late afternoon the music starts with a succession of bands, over the years attracting some of New Zealand’s biggest acts.  Between bands I take to the stage with another talk about the petrels, this time to hundreds of punters there for the music.

 
On stage at the Taiko Festival: Kerry-Jayne lectures on Westland Petrels, photograph by Jed Findlay

The Westland Petrel is unique among the 31 ACAP species breeding on the mainland just 2.5 km from a town.  Streetlights and road collisions, dogs, feral pigs and tourism developments pose current or potential threats.  Dogs have entered the colonies from time to time and killed birds, pigs have been released nearby by aspiring hunters but so far they have been killed before reaching the petrels.  Conservation on the colonies relies on the goodwill of locals, including Paparoa Nature Tours and the Westland Petrel Conservation Trust.  Perhaps the Taiko Festival has done more than anything else to raise their profile and engender among the local people respect and guardianship of what many now consider ‘their special birds’.

With thanks to Kate Simister, Ranger, Biodiversity, Department of Conservation for photographs.

Kerry-Jayne Wilson, West Coast Penguin Trust, Charleston, New Zealand, 16 September 2021

Grey Petrel, ink wash by Lea Finke for ACAP, after a photograph by Hadoram Shirihai

Daniel Jones (British Antarctic Survey, Cambridge, UK.) and colleagues have published in the journal Global Change Biology on the characteristics of two ocean habitats utilized by separate populations of Near Threatened Grey Petrels Procellaria cinerea.

The paper’s abstract follows:

“Ocean circulation connects geographically distinct ecosystems across a wide range of spatial and temporal scales via exchanges of physical and biogeochemical properties. Remote oceanographic processes can be especially important for ecosystems in the Southern Ocean, where the Antarctic Circumpolar Current transports properties across ocean basins through both advection and mixing. Recent tracking studies have indicated the existence of two large-scale, open ocean habitats in the Southern Ocean used by grey petrels (Procellaria cinerea) from two populations.

during their nonbreeding season for extended periods during austral summer (i.e., October to February). In this work, we use a novel combination of large-scale oceanographic observations, surface drifter data, satellite-derived primary productivity, numerical adjoint sensitivity experiments, and output from a biogeochemical state estimate to examine local and remote influences on these grey petrel habitats. Our aim is to understand the oceanographic features that control these isolated foraging areas and to evaluate their ecological value as oligotrophic open ocean habitats. We estimate the minimum local primary productivity required to support these populations to be much <1% of the estimated local primary productivity. The region in the southeast Indian Ocean used by the birds from Kerguelen is connected by circulation to the productive Kerguelen shelf. In contrast, the region in the south-central Pacific Ocean used by seabirds from the Antipodes is relatively isolated suggesting it is more influenced by local factors or the cumulative effects of many seasonal cycles. This work exemplifies the potential use of predator distributions and oceanographic data to highlight areas of the open ocean that may be more dynamic and  previously thought. Our results highlight the need to consider advective connections between ecosystems in the Southern Ocean and to re-evaluate the ecological relevance of oligotrophic Southern Ocean regions from a conservation perspective.”

With thanks to Richard Phillips, British Antarctic Survey.

Reference:

Jones, D.C., Ceia, F.R., Murphy, E.J., Delord, K., Furness, R.W., Verdy, A., Mazloff, M., Phillips, R.A., Sagar, P.M., Sallée, J.-B., Schreiber, B., Thompson, D.R., Torres, L.G., Underwood, P.J., Weimerskirch, H. & Xavier, J.C. 2021.  Untangling local and remote influences in two major petrel habitats in the oligotrophic Southern Ocean.  Global Change Biology doi.org/10.1111/gcb.15839.

John Cooper, ACAP Information Officer, 15 September 2021

 
The setting sun over Gough Island’s West Rowett lights up a Tristan Albatross in the Gonydale monitoring colony

NOTE:  This is the seventh in an occasional series that features photographs of the 31 ACAP-listed species, along with information from and about their photographers.  Here, Michelle Risi writes about the Critically Endangered and near-endemic Tristan Albatross Diomedea dabbenena which she has monitored and photographed on Gough Island over three seasons.

Michelle Risi records the band number of a displaying Tristan Albatross on Gough Island; photograph by Chris Jones

Having focused my Master’s degree in the intertidal zone on the KwaZulu-Natal coast of South Africa, I must confess that albatrosses were not on my radar.  I was incredibly lucky to make my way in 2014 to Gough Island in the South Atlantic, along with my now husband Chris Jones, as the conservation officer.  My main aim was to fight the invasive plant Sagina procumbens and do some bird monitoring work on the side.  Little did I know then that seabirds would become a true steering force in my life.  Ever since 2014 I have spent most of my time on far-flung islands working to study the amazing animals that live there and contribute research to the global efforts to protect the species that call these islands home.  I always have a camera on me and have been privileged to capture so many photos of these incredible birds, but it’s really not difficult when something so big and beautiful comes up to you simply begging to be photographed!

Sky Point.  An adult male Tristan Albatross displays

Of the last seven years, just under four of those have been spent on Gough Island. After my first overwintering on Gough in 2014/15, I returned in 2018 as a field assistant to be a part of the mice eradication project.  The baiting phase was initially planned to go ahead in 2019 but was postponed to 2020 to allow for a solid logistical planning phase.  I stayed on Gough for two consecutive years to then be on the island in 2020, but our hopes were thwarted again due to the COVID-19 pandemic, which made it impossible for the rest of the team to travel to Gough with the global hard lockdowns in place.  So it is with huge satisfaction that I am currently typing this after returning from Gough in August 2021, having been part of the eradication team and witnessing the successful completion of the baiting phase of the project earlier this month.

At risk to mice no more?  A Tristan Albatross chick in the Gonydale monitoring colony in Gough’s highlands

After monitoring the dismal breeding success of the Critically Endangered Tristan Albatrosses for three seasons and watching countless chicks die after having mouse wounds, it was an extremely emotional moment when we visited the Tafelkop monitoring colony in July this year after the first bait drop by the Gough Island Restoration Programme had been completed and not a single nest had failed in the intervening period, especially as the majority of mouse attacks happened during this time in previous seasons.  Tristan Albatrosses hold a special place in my heart so I look forward to following the monitoring updates of this species on a now hopefully mouse-free Gough Island.

Celebrating the bait drop.  A Tristan Albatross flies over Michelle in a moment of excitement; photograph by Chris Jones
All photographs by Michelle Risi unless stated

I also look forward to celebrating World Albatross Day on the 19th of June each year.  The idea for this day was initially suggested by me to the Agreement on the Conservation of Albatrosses and Petrels (ACAP) to raise awareness for albatrosses and the various challenges they face.  It is impossible to work with albatrosses and not fall in love with them, so the next step is to bring albatrosses to the world and make everyone else fall in love with them.  We need everyone to get behind the initiatives that are in place to protect these birds, such as fighting illegal fishing, climate change, plastic pollution and invasive species.

Tending their chick on a misty Gough day; the browner female is on the left

It would be another dream come true to use the skills I have learnt working on the Gough Island Restoration Programme on South Africa’s Mouse-Free Marion Project; another huge milestone project which if successful will contribute to saving the lives of millions of seabirds, including albatrosses, in the years to come.

Selected Scientific Publications:

Jones, C.W., Risi, M.M., Cleeland, J. & Ryan, P.G. 2019.  First evidence of mouse attacks on adult albatrosses and petrels breeding on sub-Antarctic Marion and Gough Islands.  Polar Biology 42: 619 -623.

Jones, C.W., Risi, M.M., Osborne, A.M., Ryan, P.G. & Oppel, S. 2021.  Mouse eradication is required to prevent local extinction of an endangered seabird on an oceanic island.  Animal Conservation 24: 637-645.

Jones, M.G.W., Techow, N.M.S., Risi, M.M., Jones, C.W., Hagens, Q.A., Taylor, F. & Ryan, P.G. 2020.  Hybridization and cuckoldry between black-browed and grey-headed albatrosses. Antarctic Science  32: 10-14.

Risi, M.M., Jones, C.W., Osborne, A.M., Steinfurth, A. & Oppel, S. 2021.  Southern Giant Petrels Macronectes giganteus depredating breeding Atlantic Yellow-nosed Albatrosses Thalassarche chlororhynchos on Gough Island. Polar Biology 44: 593-599.

Risi, M.M., Jones, C.W., Schoombie, S. & Ryan, P.G. 2019.  Plumage and bill abnormalities in albatross chicks on Marion Island. Polar Biology 42: 1615-1620.

Michelle Risi, Durban, South Africa, 14 September 2021

 
Tiaki, the Royalcam chick gets a satellite tracker; photograph by Theo Thompson

The Royal Albatross Centre at Pukekura/Taiaroa Head has announced that the annual ‘ringing of the bells’ across the city of Dunedin will be taking place today to celebrate the first globally Endangered Northern Royal Albatross Diomedea sanfordi returning to the mainland colony for the new breeding season and heralding the arrival of spring.  The centre writes on its Facebook page: “The city Churches and Schools will ring bells at 1pm [New Zealand Time Zone] on Monday the 13th September 2021 and we’d love lots of bell-ringers throughout Dunedin to join in and ring their bells as well to help us celebrate.”  View a video of the bell of Dunedin's St Paul's Cathedral sounding out.  Unusually, the first bird to return is a young male, colour banded as YL (yellow lime) on 7 September soon after its arrival - and not a bird that had already bred in an earlier season.  The bird had fledged in September 2017 from the colony and not been seen ashore previously.

Back from travels.  The four-year old YL; photograph by Theo Thompson

To add to the excitement the 2020/21 season’s livestreaming ‘Royalcam’ chick, named Tiaki and identified by DNA as a female, was fitted with a solar-powered GPS tracker on 9 September (at an age of 228 days) shortly before its expected fledging by researchers from Parker Conservation and Department of Conservation (DOC) ranger Theo Thompson.  Tiaki forms part of a wider study of the at-sea movements of Northern Royal Albatrosses, including the birds nesting on the Chatham Islands where most of the species’population breeds.  “Tiaki's parents LGL and LGK received the same type of tracker earlier this year, both of which have given us valuable data.”  The first of this season’s 30 surviving chicks was thought to have fledged on 6 September.

Soon to fledge: Tiaki spreads her wings, exposing the back-mounted satellite tracker; Royalcam photograph

Metal- and colour-banded Tiaki on 12 September, photograph by Sharyn Broni
Still present on 14 September when she regurgitated a bolus and weighed in at 8 kg in the morning, 233 days since hatching on 24 January 2021 (click here)

The back-mounted satellite tracker with its extended aerial in place; photograph by Theo Thompson

Read more about the management of the Northern Royal Albatross colony from DOC Ranger Sharyn Broni here.

John Cooper, ACAP Information Officer, 13 September 2021, updated 14 September 2021