Continuing the series of occasional ALN postings on the roles of art and literature in the conservation of albatrosses and petrels, here is a poem by Australian albatross researcher, Melanie Wells, entitled The Way You Fly.

The Way You Fly

It’s in the way you fly
A transcendingly harmonious dance
A beacon of stillness among an ocean of chaos
You radiate grace and tranquillity from within and rise above the pandemonium of the outside world
You utilise the power of this wild energy, you harness the spirit of this unruly world and fly free and unfaltering
The power of this sea is your life force
Gliding boundlessly, remaining a fraction above the surface as to allow the ferocious spirit to enter you, but never overcome you
You remain within, poised and strong
Serene and still, a paradox of the outside world
Travelling where your urges may take you, the essence of your spirit infused with that of the wild sea.

Warrnambool, Victoria, Australia, August 2018

Melanie worked as a volunteer research assistant for the Tasmanian Department for Primary Industries, Parks, Water and Environment monitoring programme on the conservation and status of Macquarie Island’s albatrosses and giant petrels for a year over 2017/18.  She went back to‘Macca’ for the 2018/19 summer.  She writes:

“Macquarie Island is home to four species of albatross: wandering, grey-headed, black-browed and light-mantled breed here. The poem above was inspired by the flight of an albatross. These birds utilise the energy of the wild southern ocean and soar in the most controlled and graceful manner at an incredibly low energetic cost to themselves.

Being very long-lived and having low fecundity rates, these birds will spend years and years at sea and on the wing before ever returning to land. They may circumnavigate the globe multiple times and are able to partially shut down parts of their brain while on the wing in order to rest. They are perfectly adapted for life within the mighty Southern Ocean.

I spent a year here on Macca during 2017-18. Upon my return I was understandably overwhelmed by the society that I had so blissfully been removed from. Returning to a seemingly fast-paced, over-developed, disposable society, I found inspiration and internal refuge watching black-browed and shy albatross glide offshore from my home in south-west Victoria. I endeavour to harness the spirit of Southern Ocean albatross in order to help navigate my way through life in 'the real world'.”

Grey-headed Albatross on Macquarie Island, photograph by Melanie Wells

See more of Melanie’s Macquarie albatross photographs here.

With thanks to Melanie Wells – read more of her poetry here.

John Cooper, ACAP Latest News, 19 March 2019

Over 25 January – 2 February this year an island-based research team of the RSPB’s Gough Island Restoration Programme undertook the annual whose-island count of incubating Critically Endangered Tristan Albatrosses Diomedea dabbenena (read more on team member Chris Jones’ blog on the count).

This season the count is up from the total of 1453 breeding pairs counted last year - although year-to-year fluctuations are to be expected in a biennially-breeding species.  Tristan Albatrosses on Gough Island are at risk to attacks on their downy chicks by introduced House Mice Mus musculus, resulting in a very low breeding success every year, insufficient to maintain the population.  This should change if the planned poison bait drop set for next year succeeds.

A Tristan Albatross and its chick on Gough Island, photograph by Andrea Angel/Ross Wanless

The Gough Island Restoration Programme is being carried out by the RSPB in partnership with Tristan da Cunha, BirdLife South Africa, the Department of Environmental Affairs in South Africa and Island Conservation.  The programme is part-funded by the RSPB, the UK Government, the National Fish and Wildlife Foundation and other generous individuals and organisations.

John Cooper, ACAP Information Officer, 16 March 2019

On 31 January 2007 I arrived at Waterfall Camp below the island’s highest peak for that year’s Tristan Albatross count.  A significant day as it fell on my 60th birthday (I hiked with a celebratory fruit cake) and it was also my last day of academic employment.  Twelve years on and I am still enjoying retirement!  JCII

Over the five-year period (2014-2018) the Chatham Island Taiko Trust has collected globally Vulnerable and nationally Naturally Uncommon Chatham AlbatrossThalassarche eremita chicks from the Pyramid, the species’ sole breeding site and hand-reared them to fledging behind a predator-proof fence at The Gap on New Zealand’s Chatham Islands.  The aim is to establish a second breeding colony as an “insurance”, in the hope the fledged chicks – a total of 281 over five seasons – would return to The Gap rather than to their hatching site on the Pyramid.

 The Trust has been expecting the first translocated juveniles to start returning after five years (i.e. this or next year for the 2014 cohort of 50 birds).  So far none has been seen back at The Gap; the Trust states on its Facebook page “monitoring is limited to two fixed cameras taking hourly photos of two parts of the colony, so it is possible we are missing the action.”

However, a recent field trip to the Pyramid has resulted in no less than eight translocated birds - all of the first 2014 cohort - being seen ashore in the breeding colony. “The find was a real surprise, as we thought the birds were at least a year off starting to return, they are only just turning five years old now. Interestingly, 7 of the 8 birds were male, which may suggest that males return at a slightly younger age than females, and perhaps are less likely to shift to new areas.”

Translocated Chatham Albatross A30 ((Rocco, fledged 12 April 2014) seen back on the Pyramid five years later;  the other seven 2014 juveniles seen on the Pyramid this year, along with the names given them by sponsors, were A04 - Jcap, A07 - Bunny, A25 - Alec, A34 - Rimu, A39 - Dough Boy, A44 - Angus and A48 - Joney

So what does this mean for the project’s chances of success? The Trust gives it opinion: “Obviously this unexpected discovery raises some interesting questions for our translocation project - we are currently digesting this information and trying to determine what it means and where to from here”.

E17 of the third (2016) cohort (sponsored as Come-on-Eileen and fledging on 13 April) was photographed at sea off Valparaiso, Chile on 10 December 2016 (click here).

 Translocated Chatham Albatross chick E17 at The Gap, seen at sea off Chile eight months after fledging

Photographs from the Chatham Island Taiko Trust

The only other bird so far reported after fledging was from the final (2018) cohort; it was found dead on a Chatham Island beach two weeks later.  See earlier ALN postings on the translocation project.

The Chatham Island Taiko Trust is a non-profit community conservation trust, established in 1998 by Chatham residents, to protect and recover our unique and precious island's wildlife with the support and involvement of the Chatham Island community.

With thanks to Dave Boyle, Chatham Island Taiko Trust.

John Cooper, ACAP Information Officer, 15 March 2019

ACAP Latest News has previously posted on plans to provide fencing to keep out introduced mammals from entering globally Vulnerable Pink-footed Shearwater Ardenna creatopus (PFSH) breeding sites on Chile’s Robinson Crusoe Island, part of the Juan Fernández Archipelago.

News of recent progress comes from Verónica López of Oikonos Ecosystem Knowledge’s Pink-footed Shearwater Team who writes to ALN:

“With support from NFWF [National Fish and Wildlife Foundation] and partners, Oikonos is installing an upgraded fence around one of the largest PFSH colonies in the Juan Fernández Archipelago to exclude cows, rabbits, cats, and dogs. The colony, called Piedra Agujereada (which means “rocks full of holes”!), hosts an estimated 1,000-1,500 pairs, and currently has a cattle fence around it to prevent trampling of shearwater burrows.

We hope this effort will encourage fence solutions in other remote colonies with limited infrastructure similar to the Juan Fernández Islands: (1) no car or helicopter access (only by foot or mules), (2) no on-site water source, (3) no electricity, (4) severe seasonal weather conditions (routinely exposed to hurricane-force winds), and (5) a cost investment acceptable to the island residents. To explore affordability, LandCare (New Zealand) also joined the effort and completed a cost-benefit analysis for protecting breeding pairs in this colony.

Mike Bell, Wildlife Management International, is designing the fence, bringing his expertise from the remote Chatham Islands and other projects in New Zealand.  Mike recently visited Robinson Crusoe Island with the Oikonos team to assess the site and share the value of conservation fences with the National Park agency CONAF.  Lindsay Young at Pacific Rim Conservation has also been advising the project on design and material cost options.

PFSH chicks have recently hatched and we have begun pre-fence monitoring that includes continuing the breeding time-series (begun in 2015 at Piedra Agujereada) and documenting predator encounters using cameras and carcass transects. After just a few days of camera monitoring, we have detected not only many rabbits, but also more cats and dogs at the site than expected.  This fence will be timely!”

Planned fence line at the Piedra Agujereada colony on Robinson Crusoe Island

Ussie time! Mike Bell of Wildlife Management International and the Juan Fernández Islands Pink-footed Shearwater crew in January

ALN will endeavour to make further postings on the fencing plan for ACAP’s most recently listed species.

With thanks to Verónica López.

John Cooper, ACAP Information Officer, 14 March 2019