Laysan Albatross Return to Midway Atoll: You Are There

Laysan Albatross Photo Gallery; James Lloyd, 2007

What a difference a month makes!  Have a look at this ~30-second video that Joanna recorded on October 17.  See any albatross?  Nope, because there aren't any on the entire Atoll.  There's no audio to this video, but if there were, you probably would hear only the breeze and maybe some White Tern "rubber-band" calls, since these birds live on the Atoll year around.
Midway Atoll, October 17, 2010 from Barb Mayer on Vimeo.

Now watch Joanna's video from a windy day on Sunday, November 14.  Can you see that there are now albatross present?  And she says only a little more than half of them are back; more are arriving every day!  In the video, you can hear the wind...and albatross whistles.
Midway Atoll, November 14, 2010 from Barb Mayer on Vimeo.
 _______________________________________________________________________________ 
December 2010 update:
Here's the newest video by Joanna; LOOK AT ALL THE LAYSAN ALBATROSS!!!  Pretty amazing, huh?!  And do you hear them?!  Albies: welcome back to Midway, your largest nesting colony in the world!

Midway Atoll, December 14, 2010, from Barb Mayer on Vimeo.

Golden Gooney seen on Midway Atoll!

Short-tailed Albatross Gallery; James Lloyd, 2007

I'm no longer on Midway, but my friend Joanna is.  She's one of two volunteers now on the Atoll, and she's experiencing the return of thousands of albatross.  It's getting quite noisy!

Wow; she spotted the very rare Short-tailed Albatross (STAL) on Sand Island!!  The photo to the left shows an adult bird.  With that golden head, you can certainly understand why it's also called the Golden Gooney.

Below is a video of the STAL taken by Joanna.  The caption says the video is mine, but she's the videographer, not me. We're just storing the video on my Vimeo account.

Enjoy Joanna's video!  You'll notice the bird doesn't have the same golden head and neck as shown in the photograph to the left.  That's because the bird that James photographed back in 2007 is an adult, and Joanna's bird is younger, not fully adult yet.  However, it's still a big bird; notice how much bigger it is than the Black-footed Albatross, with which it doesn't seem to get along--


Short-tailed Albatross from Barb Mayer on Vimeo.

Goooooooo! Laysan Albatross Takeoff!

Imagine you're a Laysan Albatross chick. 

I know it's hard, but try.  You started life inside an egg.  Sure, a Laysan Albatross egg is bigger than the egg in your refrigerator.  But it's still an egg, and you're crammed in there for 2 months.

Then you hatch out of the egg; whew!  But the view doesn't get much better because you're so close to the ground, you can see the sky only when you look straight up.  And that's only when a parent isn't sitting over you.

About 5 months after hatching, you "fledge," meaning you lose the last of your downy feathers and you grow flight feathers.  Now you're ready for a long life spent mostly flying over the ocean!

But right now you're on the ground.  You've never, ever flown before.  How do you do it?  Well, first of all, you practice, like the albatross in the picture above.  Stretch out your wings, and get the hang of it, as shown in this practice video--

Laysan Albatross PREPARE to Fly from Barb Mayer on Vimeo.
Once you get the hang of it, you'll take off on this "albatross runway," like these adult birds.  Off you goooooooooo!

Albatross Runway, Midway from Robert OToole on Vimeo.

Quack Patrol

photo by Cari

Come along with the Quack Patrol!

In the hot summer months the Quack Patrol conducts almost daily checks of every wetland on Sand Island for deadly bird botulism.  If we find a dead duck, we'll collect it carefully and put it in a ziploc bag with information about where and when we found it.  Then we put the bag in a freezer until a veterinarian can examine it to find out if botulism poison really did kill the duck. 

If we find a sick bird -- good news! -- we wrap it in clean towels and take it into the US Fish and Wildlife Service lab, where the duck is cared for.  You can read more about the care of botulism-sick ducks in the July 3 post "Laysan Ducks: Battling Botulism."

As you can see in the picture, I and my bicycle are loaded down with equipment.  My binoculars, with sunglasses hooked on, are strapped across me.  In my pocket is a pencil...and even a second one, in case I lose the first one.  I'll stuff the clipboard with its data table into the bike basket. The net (for scooping dead ducks out of the water) will be stuck through the basket's handle.  My metal water bottle is already in the bike basket, along with my backpack.  The pack contains clean towels for sick birds...and ziploc bags for dead birds, which I hope we don't find!  

We're ready to ride to the first wetland, called Ball Field Big; let's go!  After seeing the 5-minute video, perhaps you'd like to check out any of these 3 FOAM Activity Pages:  

• Laysan Ducks #1 -- Bands
• Laysan Ducks #2 -- Who's Who?
• Duck Project

Bike Ride to Laysan Ducks from Barb Mayer on Vimeo.

Marine Debris INSIDE Albatross

Here's a post by me: Auntie Moana Laal--

Adult albatross ready to feed its chick

Have you ever had a really bad stomach ache?

Have you ever had something stuck in your throat?

Imagine having both at once, and maybe you'll have an idea of what it's like for our albatross chicks to get too much marine debris in their stomachs!

It's pretty awful!  You can read about it in a reader's theater script about me "saving the day."  I won't spoil the ending by telling you how I saved the day, but I'm sure glad I did.  My nephew Kawika, Jr. almost died from too much plastic in his stomach!

Laysan Albatross carcass filled with plastic marine debris.

You see, albatross chicks are accidentally fed plastic by their parents, who have accidentally picked up plastic marine debris that's floating on the ocean.  I've made the mistake myself.  Sometimes a floating cigarette lighter looks like squid, and I eat the lighter.  Another time maybe one of my favorite foods, flying fish eggs, are stuck to a floating plastic bottle cap, and I swallow both.  Then, if I don't know I've made a mistake, I accidentally pass the plastic to my chick during feeding.  Auwe!

Let me tell you about a sad but important video made by my friend Paulo Maurin.   His 5-minute video "306 Punches" is about a Laysan Albatross chick on Kure Atoll that probably did die from swallowing too much plastic.  As you watch the video you see Cynthia Vanderlip, the Field Station Manager of Kure, performing an autopsy on the chick...and then you see how much plastic was inside that albatross!

Like I said, we saved my nephew Kawika.  The good news is that most albatross chicks don't die; they grow up to become adults, like me.  We can live for more than half a century, flying for hours over the beautiful ocean...but we need help.  Learn how you can help by visiting my cousin Makana, at the Monterey Bay Aquarium.
Aloha; mahalo for your concern!

Rubber Band Birds

When they are on Midway, the peculiar whistling and clacking albatross calls are the loudest bird sounds of anybody.  Sounds from the Red-tailed Tropicbirds are also loud and squawk-y.  But what does Midway sound like when the albatross and Tropicbirds have flown away?

White Terns are year-around Atoll residents.  Don't you think they make a sound like the twanging of a rubber band?!


Rubber Band Birds from Barb Mayer on Vimeo.

A Curious Way of Walking

Here's a post by me, Edward Bfal.--

I know that Barb had quite a few FOAM posts about our cousins, the Laysan Albatross (LAAL)...but not quite as many about us, the Black-footed Albatross (BFAL.)  At the moment I'm not on Midway; I'm enjoying the open-ocean life in the North Pacific.  BBC Arkive's short video showing BFAL flight will give you an idea of what I think it feels like to soar over the sea: wonderful!

We BFALs return to Midway earlier than the LAAL, but that won't be until sometime in November.  Then I'll find Clarissa, we'll mate, and she'll lay our 2011 egg!

But I do have some photos from this summer at our Sand Island B8 neighborhood to share with you FOAM folks.  Above is a rather nice picture of me sitting in the native plant pōhuehue (beach morning glory, Ipomoea pes-caprae.)  Here's a larger picture of one of my nephews that makes me laugh, with his wild "haircut."  And I think you might enjoy this short video showing the rather curious way we BFALs walk.


Black-footed Albatross from Barb Mayer on Vimeo.

Albatross Have Big Feet

Barb's foot alongside bones from an albatross foot

Yes, albatross do have big feet.  For comparison, my foot is a size 8.  What size shoe do you think a Laysan Albatross would wear?

albatross footprints

live albatross feet

See what albatross feet can do in this half-minute movie--


Albatross Feet Underwater from Barb Mayer on Vimeo.

Snorkeling to Midway's Outer Reef

photo by Adam Fox

Take a look at the aerial picture of Midway Atoll at the top of FOAM's page.  Notice the "lei" of white surf around the atoll?  The surf is breaking on the emergent* coral reef that surrounds most of Midway.  (*above the sea surface)

A boat will take us to the northern part of the reef, which is at the top of FOAM's aerial photograph.  Come along with me as I snorkel from the boat to the reef.  We'll see purple coral and fish of many sorts.  There'll be several kinds of Uhu (Parrotfish), as well as 2 Butterfly fish that seem to be dancing together.  Manini (Convict Tangs, Acanthurus triostegus) are one of my favorite fish.  They have stripes, like the striped uniform that convicts, or prisoners, used to wear.  We'll see a whole school of hungry Manini!  

At the end of the short, 3-minute video we'll look in all directions and see only the emergent reef, lots of ocean surface...and the boat a long swim away!  

Snorkeling to Midway's Outer Reef from Barb Mayer on Vimeo.

Albatross Barf

Before albatross fledglings (the grown-up chicks) leave Midway Atoll National Wildlife Refuge, they have to get rid of any stuff they have in their stomachs that can't be digested.  Their stomachs pack it all together into what's called a "bolus."  Then the bolus gets thrown up and out of the chick's wide-open beak.

Can you see the difference in the neck size between these two Laysan Albatross?  The left-hand albatross is trying to pass up a bolus.  Notice how much wider its neck is; it must be very uncomfortable!

For the first 5 months or so of their lives, albatross chicks are fed food which their parents bring them from the ocean.  Albatross especially like to eat flying fish eggs and squid; yum!  But the squid mouths, called beaks, can't be digested because they're made out of tough material, sort of like a finger nail.  Since flying fish eggs are usually attached to floating objects, the albatross often swallow floating volcanic rocks (called pumice) and sticks. which the fish eggs are attached to.  So, squid beaks, pumice and sticks are natural parts of bolus barf.

But there are also some man-made items in boluses.  This short video shows a Laysan Albatross chick throwing up a bolus, or maybe just part of one.  I think you'll be surprised to see what I found inside this bolus.

Albatross Barf from Barb Mayer on Vimeo.

Red-tailed Tropicbirds are NOT Songbirds

FOAM has had a lot of posts about albatross.  As of today, July 20, there have been a total of 29 albatross posts.  That's okay.  After all, FOAM means Friends of Albatross on Midway.

But there are other birds here as well.  I have sort of a "love-hate" relationship with the Red-tailed Tropicbirds.  I love how beautiful they are.  Look at these pictures of adult RTTR.  What a glossy white bird, with striking black feathers around the eye!  And isn't that a beautiful red bill?  If you look closely at the top picture and the one to the right left-hand picture, which shows an adult resting in the native `Akulikuli (Sea Purslane, Sesuvium portulacastrum), you can see the red tail-feather that's present only during mating season.  After mating season the feather falls off.

But I hate the Tropicbird's call.  If you get too close to one of these birds it screams at you with a really loud, raspy squawk.  The video below was taken from the porch of Midway Atoll's Clipper House, a lovely place where our meals are served.  If you look closely, you'll see the famous circular mating flight of some RTTR in the distance.  They fly in a vertical circle: flying up toward the sky, then backwards, then down toward the ocean, forward, and then repeat.  (I know, I know; you wish I would zoom in on those white specks that are birds!  I have a really, really simple camera, and if I use the zoom, the video gets fuzzy.)  The good thing about the video is its audio, which gives you an ear-full from the Red-tailed Tropicbirds sailing overhead.  They definitely are not songbirds!


Strange Flight of the Tropicbirds from Barb Mayer on Vimeo.

Come Along on a Bike Ride

I strapped my camera to the back of my headlamp, put it on, hopped on my bike, and switched the camera to video mode.  Come along as I ride to work!

You'll see LOTS of Laysan Albatross.  Most of the sounds are made by them.  At the beginning of our ride, near my house, there's a chick pestering its parent for food.  Along the way we see many black-and-white albatross chicks stretching their wings and practicing to fly.  We also catch a glance of some white terns; there's a pair that flies ahead of us as we turn the corner toward the island's vegetable garden.  A person going to work in a golf cart waives to us.  As we travel, we have to be careful not to bump into the many albatross that are standing all over.  At the end of the ride, we pull into the US Fish and Wildlife Service garage...and we're ready to go to work!


Midway Atoll Bicycle Ride from Barb Mayer on Vimeo.

360-degree View from an Atoll Island

 

Midway Atoll is...well, about midway between Asia and North America in the North Pacific Ocean. Imagine you're standing on an old World War II runway in the center of Miday's Eastern Island and you turn slowly around in a circle.  You'll hear the wind and LOTS of Sooty Terns, `Ewa`ewa (Terna fuscata oahuensis.)

360-degree View from Midway Atoll's Eastern Island from Barb Mayer on Vimeo.

Surrounded by 175 Spinner Dolphins

Spinner Dolphins at Midway Atoll from Barb Mayer on Vimeo.

Adam and I went on a dolphin survey. It was truly an amazing experience. In my next post, I'll concentrate on the science of the survey, but for now I'm hoping I've successfully uploaded a short video. My camera is really just for snapshots, but it does have a video setting. I hope this simple video gives you an idea of how amazing the experience was.

What's your food? --brine flies?

Btw, Happy Mothers Day everybody! My ducklings let me sleep a little longer than usual this morning.
I'd like to see lots of photos and videos in our blog. This video shows some of my relatives eating flies. It might take a bit of time to load, but I think BBC Arkive's video "Laysan Ducks feeding on swarms of flies at Laysan Atoll" is really funny!