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

An old adult male Wandering Albatross on Marion Island

NOTE:  This is the sixth in an occasional series that aims to feature photographs of the 31 ACAP-listed species, along with information from and about their photographers.  Here, Alexis Osborne writes about his sojourns on two sub-Antarctic islands which included studying moult in the globally Vulnerable Wandering Albatross Diomedea exulans towards his M.Sc. degree.

Alexis Osborne approaches a non-breeding Wandering Albatross under research permit as part of his M.Sc. study on moult

Photographing wing moult in a Wandering Albatross on Marion Island, photograph by Kim Stevens

I started my journey to my first sub-Antarctic island in 2014, not knowing that this was going to be the start of big things.  As a young boy growing up in the arid Northern Cape of South Africa, I never dreamt of travelling at sea for days on end, let alone living on islands for major parts of my life.  My first voyage was to Marion Island where I spend a year and where I also fell in love with seabirds.  On Marion I was largely responsible for setting up a project examining moult patterns in Northern Giant Petrels Macronectes halli and Wandering Albatrosses.  Upon my return to South Africa I obtained a B.Sc. Honours in Biological Sciences at the University of Cape Town and followed this with a M.Sc. through the university’s FitzPatrick Institute of African Ornithology that was based on the moult study I had worked on at Marion Island previously .  During 2017 I had the opportunity to travel back to Marion for a month to collect more data for my Master’s project and later in the year to Gough Island on the annual takeover.  I also spent the 2017/18 summer in Antarctica assisting the Department of Forestry, Fisheries and the Environment (DFFE) to collect data on seabirds.

Young Wandering Albatrosses display in a group, known as a ‘gam’

During my visit to Gough Island I knew immediately I wanted to stay for longer and when the opportunity presented itself in 2018 to return to Gough Island for a year, I grabbed it with both hands.  I was employed by the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds (UK’s BirdLife partner) as a seabird biologist monitoring the island’s threatened birds.  I enjoyed my time on the island so much that I decided to extend my stay for another year.  In 2020 I was awarded my Master’s degree, publishing my first paper from the thesis this year

A breeding pair; the larger and whiter male (left) incubates the single egg

In 2020 I returned to South Africa for a few months before I headed back to Gough Island to be part of the Gough Island Restoration Programme (GIRP), which entails an international team of experts working to eradicate invasive House Mice Mus musculus from the island.  I have recently returned from Gough Island once more.  Being part of the mouse eradication team has been such an amazing experience, just to be able to see no mice in sight has been the best feeling and I can’t wait for the rest of the wildlife to experience this and - if the eradication effort is proven successful in two years’ time - to see the island being restored to what it was before the mice arrived.

The sun sets on a pair of Wandering Albatrosses on Marion Island
Photographs by Alexis Osborne

Next, we will be focusing our attention via the Mouse-Free Marion Project back to Marion Island where we hope that species such as the Wandering Albatross that I studied will also be able to experience a mouse-free environment.

References:

Dilley, B.J., Hedding, D.W., Henry, D.A.W., Rexer-Huber, K., Parker, G.C., Schoombie, S., Osborne, A. & Ryan, P.G. 2019.  Clustered or dispersed: testing the effect of sampling strategy to census burrow-nesting petrels with varied distributions at sub-Antarctic Marion Island.  Antarctic Science  31: 231-242.  [click here]

Dilley, B.J., Schoombie, S., Stevens, K., Davies, D., Perold, V., Osborne, A., Schoombie, J., Brink, C.W., Carpenter-Kling, T. & Ryan, P.G. 2018.  Mouse predation affects breeding success of burrow-nesting petrels at sub-Antarctic Marion Island.  Antarctic Science 30: 93-104. [click here]

Osborne, A. 2020.  Understanding Moult Patterns in Albatrosses and Petrels breeding on Marion and Gough Islands.  MSc thesis.  Department of Biological Sciences, University of Cape Town.  82 pp.  [click here]

Osborne, A. & Ryan, P.G. 2021.  Using digital photography to study moult extent in breeding seabirds.  Ostrich  doi10.2989/00306525.2021.1897699 plus two photographs in supplementary information.  [click here]

Ryan, P.G., Ferreira, C., Perold, V., Osborne, A. & Jones, C.W. 2015.  Failure to launch: evidence of protracted parental care in albatrosses.  Seabird 28: 48-51.  [click here]

Alexis Osborne, 10 September 2021

 
“A colour-banded Northern Royal Albatross pair at the start of the breeding season”

NOTE:  This is the fifth in an occasional series that aims to feature photographs of the 31 ACAP-listed species, along with information from and about their photographers.  Here, Sharyn Broni, a Department of Conservation Wildlife Ranger at Pukekura/Taiaroa Head, New Zealand, writes about the globally Endangered and nationally Naturally Uncommon Northern Royal Albatrosses Diomeda sanfordi she has been caring for and monitoring for many years in a mainland colony.

Sharyn Broni, Wildlife Ranger, Pukekura/Taiaroa Head

My start in conservation work occured in 1990 when on a youth development conservation programme in the Catlins area of  New Zealand’s South Island.  I discovered a passion for marine mammals and penguins and spent much time helping out as a volunteer for the Department of Conservation.  Prior to working with albatrosses I had spent three summers working at the Burwood Takahē Breeding Centre with the globally Endangered and nationally Vulnerable South Island Takahe Porphyrio hochstetteri (click here).  Although they are not a seabird, they are seriously cool!  I was travelling overseas during 1997 when offered  position at Pukekura/Taiaroa Head; I came back and have been there ever since.

“Adolescent Northern Royal Albatrosses spend the summer months looking for a mate.  The process takes three years before they mate for life”

I have been a wildlife ranger with the Taiaroa Head albatross team for 24 years.  The team is typically three to five people on a seven-day roster with overlap for two-person work and additional shifts during chick hatching.  Our tasks with the Northern Royal Albatrosses include banding, egg incubation, fostering, weighing, supplementary feeding, introduced pest trapping and irrigation of hot albatrosses to prevent heat stroke. Hatching of chicks is completely carried out in incubators these days to protect the vulnerable hatching chicks from almost certain and fatal fly strike.  Egg candling and DNA sampling also help us get the best results out of each nest, being able to foster eggs or young chicks increases chick fledging numbers.

“Eggs are candled to determine fertility and viability.  A failed egg is replaced with a dummy egg so the pair can be held as a potential foster pair” [LEFT]
“DNA is collected from egg shells to determine the sex of each chick.  This is helpful when supplementary feeding as male chicks will be up to 2 kg heavier than females during winter” [RIGHT]

In 2016 the live streaming event, Royalcam, was set up. The world can now see a nest of a Northern Royal Albatross, close up, and in real time.  As breeding takes nearly a year there is nearly always some albatross activity to watch on the live stream.  In 2019 the Department of Conservation partnered with the Cornell Bird Lab who provided a camera with panning options and night vision which has increased the advocacy for the Northern Royal Albatross hugely.  Big news this season is the GPS tracking of the Royalcam parents: click on the Interactive map tab and scroll down for LGK and LGL [named for their lime, green and black colour bands] at Taiaroa Head under ‘Choose a Bird’.

“A newly hatched chick ready to be returned to the nest.  Hatching in the incubator prevents fly strike”

I had spent seven years on the Education Team at the Royal Albatross Centre delivering albatross education programmes to school groups from ages three to 20.  This work and the sheer length of time spent working at Taiaroa Head has meant that by 2018 I had become the Royalcam spokesperson on the team.  You can find the Royalcam discussion page here. where I provide regular updates of the featured Royalcam family as well as occasional ‘Colony’ news.

“The Richdale Observatory overlooks part of the albatross colony.  Here is where visitors can take a tour with the Royal Albatross Centre”
Photographs by Sharyn Broni

The Northern Royal Albatross colony and its history are quite unique in the albatross world as it is situated on a mainland not too far from Dunedin, a sizable city.  This led to early research which greatly improved the understanding of albatrosses at a time when most colonies had huge accessibility issues.  The population at Pukekura/Taiaroa Head has grown from seven adults and one fledging chick in 1938 to over 250 adults and 30 chicks due to fledge in September 2021.  This colony growth would not have been possible without the protection they received in 1938 (prior to this there had been 20 years of complete breeding failure due to human interference) and the ongoing conservation efforts, first by the New Zealand Wildlife Service and then by the Department of Conservation.

Outgrowing the laundry basket? Sharyn Broni helps weigh a Royalcam chick at Pukekura/Taiaroa Head
Department  of Conservation webcam photograph

South Island, New Zealand, 09 September 2021