A Laysan Albatross incubates within the Kilauea Point National Wildlife Refuge in the current 2024/25 breeding season, photograph from the Friends of Kauai Wildlife Refuges

UPDATE:  The final total for the 2024/25 breeding season was 44 fertile Laysan Albatross eggs given.to birds elsewhere on Kauai that had infertile eggs for a translocation programme that commenced in 2005, according to Brooke Mcfarland, Natural Resources Manager, Pacific Missile Range Facility.

As of 12 December, 27 fertile Laysan Albatross or Mōlī Phoebastria immutabilis eggs from occupied nests in the Pacific Missile Range Facility had been successfully swapped with infertile eggs (often laid by female-female pairs) on the Hawaiian island of Kauai.  "The Pacific Missile Range Facility on the west side of Kauai [is] where nesting is dangerous for aircraft and albatross.  Eggs there are confiscated, put into an incubator, candled for fertility and adopted out.  Placed on both federal and private lands, the project means more than two dozen additional chicks may fledge from the island in the current breeding season”. Information from the Facbook page of Hob Osterlund.  Watch a video of candling an egg in the field to test for viability here.

Egg swaps have been a regular activity on Kauai for some years (click here).

A Laysan Albatross pair inspects their egg within the Kilauea Point National Wildlife Refuge in the current 2024/25 breeding season, photograph from the Kilauea Point Wildlife Reserve

Within the Kilauea Point National Wildlife Refuge on Kauai, the Facebook page of the Friends of the Kaua'i National Wildlife Refuges reports that 151 Laysan Albatross occupied nests have been counted  within two breeding colonies.  These birds now breed behind predator-proof fencing.  In the previous (2023/24) breeding season the 158 eggs counted constituted  a record number (click here). A more recent total is given as 153,  An article by Hob Osterlund adds "We have an estimated 388 nests [for Kauai], a first-place photo finish with [2017/18], when there were 392 nests. Of those, thirty-nine percent (153 nests)  are on US Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS) federal land at Kīlauea Point National Wildlife Refuge. Sixty-one percent (235 nests) are on private lands. Private land colony sizes vary from as few as one nest to as many as 63 nests". 

With thanks to Brooke Mcfarland and Hob Osterlund.

John Cooper, Emeritus Information Officer, Agreement on the Conservation of Albatrosses and Petrels, 08 January 2025, updated 09 January 2025

The 2024/25 count is underway behind this incubating Laysan Albatross

In an article entitled “Experiences of a Volunteer Bird Counter” Dan Rapp has written and posted his videos on the website of the Friends of Midway Atoll National Wildlife Refuge of the 2024/2025 count.

 Dan’s edited text follows:

“0n 9 December, bird counters arrived at Kuaihelani.Pihemanu.Midway Atoll as they do every year. They arrived after dark which greatly minimizes albatross disturbance and especially the likelihood their small plane does not strike any of the hundreds of thousands of seabirds in the height of the nesting season on the Midway Atoll National Wildlife Refuge.  This year their manual count will be compared and tested against the ability of a drone to document accurately the number of albatross nests throughout three islands within the Atoll.  A bird counter's time and energy working 48 hours a week for a month in December through mid-January contributes to one of the longest and most consistent monitoring seabird data sets in the world.  Precision and focus are critical, and one must have the physical stamina, agility and ability to walk on uneven ground without harming or disturbing nesting albatross or collapsing Nunulu or Bonin Petrel Pterodroma hypoleuca nests under a shifting sandy surface.

 
"The Bird Counters are headed to a sector on Eastern Island at daybreak on their daily sojourn to count albatross nests"

“Each burrow-shaped entrance or tunnel, that appears to run along the surface of the sand, is excavated by a nesting Bonin Petrel pair which makes its nest by digging a deep burrow that runs parallel to the surface before the burrow runs deeper to create a safe nest cavity.  The weight of one human foot can easily collapse one of these burrows unless so-called burrow shoes distribute a person's weight evenly.   The counter must also be constantly aware of where to carefully step next.  Often stepping next to the lower side of a burrow entrance is usually the safest bet for both birds and counters.

"Near the fringing reef at Midway Atoll where Ka’upu (Black-footed Albatross) nest along side the Laysan Albatross"

“By general observation it appears there are more Mōlī (Laysan Albatross) this year than the past couple of years.  Time will tell when the cumulative daily numbers are tallied after counters finish walking in a methodical pattern step-by-step, click-by-click in their clumsy homemade shoes on each square foot of three islands within the Midway Atoll National Wildlife Refuge.”

Burrow shoes, also known as”clown shoes”, are  worn during the Annual Bird Count

In response to a query posted to the Facebook page of the Friends of Midway Atoll National Wildlife Refuge on using drone photography instead of counting by foot, a reply by an experienced Midway counter states “It has been tried.  Winter winds, bushes and trees, resting but not nesting birds, etc, all make for drone challenges.”  Collisions with flying albatrosses could also be an issue when flying drones in daylight hours, which could lead to mortalities, as has occurred in the past with daytime airplane flights in the Northwestern Hawaiian Islands (click here).  Night-time landings are clearly safer for both the birds and the plane’s occupants!

A satellite view of Sand (left) and Eastern Islands in the Midway Atoll

The annual counts commenced in 1992, so the current count is the 34th.

John Cooper, Emeritus Information Officer, Agreement on the Conservation of Albatrosses and Petrels, 07 January 2025

The yellow north-eastern section is the first target of Predator Free Chathams

I have visited Aotearoa New Zealand on seven occasions between 1988 and 2017 from my home in South Africa to attend conferences, workshops and ACAP meetings, and once on sabbatical.  On these trips I have arranged things to find the time to visit no less than 11 of New Zealand’s offshore and sub-Antarctic islands to view seabird colonies and to gain first-hand experience of restoration efforts to remove introduced predators.  In a truly ambitious effort, Predator Free 2050, aims to achieve the New Zealand Government’s goal of eradicating Common Brushtail Possums Trichosurus vulpecula, mustelids (Stoats Mustela erminea, Ferrets M. furo and Weasels M. nivalis) and rats (Norway Rattus norvegicus, Black or Ship R. rattus and Kiore or Polynesian R. exulans) by 2050 across the whole country.   Feral cats Felis catus are not a target species.  Predator Free 2050 has led to the establishment of many local environmental trusts (with some including feral cats as targets) and the development of innovative trapping equipment and methods,

In this ACAP Monthly Missive I highlight activities or plans by trusts to rid three of New Zeaaland’s largest offshore islands, all inhabited, of their introduced predators.  Two of them, Great Barrier and Stewart, I have visited, the third, the Chatham Islands, I have not (but of course would like to).

Great Barrier Island

A Black Petrel pair in the monitoring colony on Hirakimatā or Mount Hobson, Great Barrier Island, photograph by ‘Biz’ Bell

Following my attendance at the 10th Meeting of the ACAP Advisory Committee (AC10), held in Wellington September 2017, I flew to Auckland and then by small plane to Great Barrier Island (Aotea) on the edge of the Hauraki Gulf.  Once there I hiked the three-day Aotea Track staying overnight in Department of Conservation field huts to visit the main breeding site of the Vulnerable Black Petrel Procellaria parkinsoni on Mount Hobson (Hirakimatā).  Unfortunately, my visit was outside the summer breeding season, but I took note of the many numbered burrows among the tree roots and the traps set for introduced predators on the upper slopes of Mount Hobson, the island’s highest peak.

 
A view of 627-m Mount Hobson from the Aotea Track, home of the ACAP-listed Black Petrel

Great Barrier Island is fortunately free of free of Possums, Stoats, Weasels and Norway Rats (and European Hedgehogs Erinaceus europaeus, feral goats and deer).  It does support feral cats, feral pigs (of which I saw evidence of their rooting), Black Rats, Kiore and House Mice Mus musculus.  My host before and after the hike told me he regularly put out food for two feral cats that visited his kitchen door – and did not seem to be that concerned of their likely depredations of the island’s native fauna.

Great Barrier Island inhabitants now support eradicating the island’s introduced predators, photograph from Tū Mai Taonga

However, it seems things have changed in the seven years since my visit with the attitudes of the c. 1000 inhabitants (click here for a video).  The Aotea Great Barrier Island Environmental Trust and the Ngāti Rehua Ngātiwai ki Aotea Trust with support from the Department of Conservation as part of the Predator Free 2050 project are working via a large-scale project called Tū Mai Taonga towards eradicating feral cats and rats from the 28 000-ha Island, to allow the return of native birds that have become locally extinct (click here for a 2022 project report).  I would love to hike the Aotea Track again after the cats and rats have gone; but unrealistic really, as I head towards my ninth decade.

Stewart and Ulva Islands

 
Ulva Island from the air

In February 2010 I attended a conference on Island Invasives: Eradication and Management, held at the University of Auckland.  Once the meeting was over, I flew to Invercargill at the bottom of South Island and then took the ferry across the Foveaux Strait to Stewart Island (Rakiura), New Zealand’s third largest island at 174 600 ha.  My purpose was to visit Ulva Island/Te Wharawhara, a Department of Conservation open sanctuary that is part of the Rakiura National Park.  Although Ulva does not support breeding seabirds I wanted to visit an island that had been cleared of its Norway Rats, as it was in 1997.  As well as appreciating the resurgent bird song, and an inquisitive  Stewart Island Weka Gallirallus australis scotti that run up after my sandwiches (I did not feed it), I noticed the many rodent traps spaced around the island, kept ready in case of reinvasions (Ulva is only 780 m off Stewart Island, well within the reach of swimming Norway Rats).

After my lunch!  A Stewart Island Weka, photograph from Wikimedia Commons

Incursions of Ulva by rodents have occurred at least 20 times.  In August 2023 following signs of rats, the rodenticide brodifacoum was aerially dispersed over the island’s 267 hectares.  A previous aerial bait drop occurred in August 2011 in response to a December 2010 rat incursion when a breeding population became established.  The island was declared rodent free in March 2024 after a dead rat was found in a trap in February and a month-long incursion response with detection dogs, trapping and trail cameras.  The island is co-managed with Department of Conservation by the Ulva Island Charitable Trust, which funds an annual bird survey.“Tiakina Te Wharawhara” - a guide to protecting Ulva Island produced by children of Stewart Island's Halfmoon Bay School in 2020

Keeping Ulva Island rodent free will continue to be a challenge as long as rats are present on Stewart Island.  The Rakiura Community & Environment Trust (SIRCET) was founded in 2002 to promote projects that benefit the Stewart Island/Rakiura community and its environment.  Its focus is predominantly ecological restoration through control of pests and weeds and planting.  The Predator Free Rakiura trust, according to its website, will tackle predator removal in stages, with each step informing the design of the next.  The first stage is expected to begin in 2025 with a 10 000-ha block at the southern end of the island where the aim will be to remove Possums, feral cats, rats and Hedgehogs.  Stoats, Weasels, Ferrets, House Mice, pigs and goats are not present on Rakiura.  Deer and domestic pet cats are not targets for removal.

Although I did not see any procellariiform seabirds ashore on my short visit to Stewart Island, removing Rakiura’s alien predators will surely help its land birds, as it has on Ulva.

Chatham Islands

Chatham Albatross chicks on their plastic bucket nests at the Point Gap translocation site; the birds with yellow bills are adult decoys. Photograph from the Chatham Island Taiko Trust

Predator Free Chathams is a community-driven conservation project that aims to eliminate five tintroduced predators (Possums, three species of rats. and feral cats) from the main Chatham Island (71 947 ha), also known as Rēkohu (Moriori) and Wharekauri (te reo Māori).  The project is commencing in the 7621-ha north-east (the yellow area on the above map) with the establishment of a trapping network.  The project notes that “In the Chatham Islands we’re lucky not have some of the other introduced pests that are causing havoc on mainland New Zealand.  For example, mustelids like ferrets, stoats and weasels were never introduced here.  We also don’t have non-predator introduced species like deer and rabbits, which also damage native ecosystems.”  The introduced feral pigs are stated as not being a target for Predator Free Chathams.

Procellariiform seabirds that breed on the main Chatham Island and would thus benefit from the actions of Predator Free Chathams include the rare and Critically Endangered Magenta Petrel or Taiko Pterodroma magentae, the conservation target of the Chatham Taiko Trust.  In 2006 the Trust built an 800-m predator proof fence protecting 2.4 ha of forest to create a secure breeding site for Taiko.  Known as Sweetwater, it is now occupied by a small but growing population of the petrel.   The Vulnerable Chatham Islands Petrel P. axillarish also breeds on the main island within the Sweetwater Conservation Covenant.  It also breeds on nearby Pitt Island (Rangiaotea).

The late David Crockett who rediscovered the Magenta Petrel, then thought to be extinct (and whom I had the pleasure of meeting at a 1982 conference)

An attempt was made to create a new colony of Vulnerable Chatham Albatrosses Thal assarche eremita on Main Chatham by translocating nearly 300 chicks over five years over  2014 to 2018 from the species’ sole breeding locality on the Pyramid to a protected site at Point Gap.  So far, it appears to have been unsuccessful, given the lack of reports of any juveniles returning to the site following their fledging from it.

I remain inspired with what New Zealand is trying to do.  It is a part pf the world I have grown to appreciate; I wish it well, and the best of luck, as it works towards becoming a predator-free country.

I am grateful to Nigel and Claudia Adams, Biz Bell, Lloyd Davis, Paul Dingwall, Chris Gaskin, David Hemmings, Peter McClelland, Chris Robertson, Dick Veitch and Susan Waugh who facilitated my visits to seabird colonies and islands by variously providing advice, accommodation, transport and guidance during my visits to New Zealand.  Apologies to anyone left out due to a fading memory.

John Cooper, Emeritus Information Officer, Agreement on the Conservation of Albatrosses and Petrels, 06 January 2025

Luciana Gallo (Instituto de Biología de Organismos Marinos, Puerto Madryn, Argentina) and colleagues have published in the Marine Pollution Bulletin on  ingested plastic levels in 192 procellariiform carcasses examined. from the south-western Atlantic Ocean.  Seven of the 17 species examined were ACAP-listed, including a single Critically Endangered Tristan Albatross Diomedea dabbenena,  Among ACAP-listed species Black-browed Albatross Thalassarche melanophris (45) was the most abundant species examined, followed by Southern Giant Petrel Macronectes giganteus (36) and White-chinned Petrel Procellaria aequinoctialis (22).

A juvenile Black-browed Albatross in Brazilian waters, photograph by Nilson Coelho

The paper’s abstract follows:

“Ocean pollution by plastics is a growing concern for marine wildlife conservation, and seabirds are particularly prone to ingest plastics.  We report baseline information on plastic ingestion in 17 procellariiform species along the coast of Brazil and Argentina.  Through a collaborative regional effort we found plastic items in 30.2 % of seabird carcasses examined (n = k192), comprised predominantly by mesoplastics (5–25 mm), user plastics, polypropylene, polystyrene and polyethylene.  Considering the most representative source--site cohorts, the frequency of occurrence of plastic items varied significantly between sampling site and source of carcasses.  Ingestion was highest in petrels and shearwaters.  Immature birds ingested the largest number (and total mass) of plastic items followed by chicks and adults.  Long-term programs applying standardized sampling protocols are needed to detect spatiotemporal patterns of plastic ingestion across species, and assess the potential effectiveness of remediation actions.  Further studies are necessary to assess currently unrecognized health effects of plastic ingestion.”

Plastic loads from studied birds

With thanks to Patricia Serafini.

Reference:

Gallo, L., Serafini, P.P., Vanstreels, R.E.T., Tamini, L.L., Kolesnikovas, C.K.M., Pereira, A., Neves, T., Nascimento, G.D., Rodriguez Pirani, L.S., Picone, A.L., Romano, R.M., Alvarez, , C.K., Chavez, L.N., Dellacasa, R.F. & Uhart, M.M. 2024,  High frequency of plastic ingestion in procellariiform seabirds (albatrosses, petrels and shearwaters) in the Southwest Atlantic Ocean.  Marine Pollution Bulletin 209(8) 117094.

John Cooper, Emeritus Information Officer, Agreement on the Conservation of Albatrosses and Petrels, 03 January 2025