Short-tailed Albatross Chick Eating Well

  Sometimes albatross will hānai, or adopt, another bird's egg.  Hhhhhmmmm, maybe the Short-tailed Albatross adults on Midway's Eastern Island had been incubating a Laysan Albatross egg instead of one of their own?  Maybe the chick that hatched from the egg on January 14 is really a Laysan Albatross? 

Careful scientists at the US Fish and Wildlife Service wanted to be sure their young bird was really a STAL.  So, the bird scientists (ornithologists) sent pictures of the baby bird to experts at the Yamashina Institute of Ornithology in Japan.  Result -->; the Japanese experts said, "Hai!  Yes!"...the young chick really does look like a Short-tailed Albatross!  In the video below you'll notice the chick has a very chunky bill, which is a STAL characteristic.  

Also, the baby STAL should grow faster than chicks of other kinds of albatross, like Black-footed Albatross.  The video shows the heads of a pair of BFAL adults in the front...but that's a STAL decoy, or model, on the right.

The STAL chick is almost a month old, and it seems to be doing well.  How would you like your dad to feed you this way?!  Yum!--

video by Pete Leary, Midway Atoll NWR Biologist

Happy Hatch Day, Baby Short-tailed Albatross!

photo of male STAL and chick by Pete Leary, 1-17-11

Hau`oli Lā Hānau, baby bird!  See him or her, under the parent?  For the first time, a Short-tailed Albatross (STAL) hatched on Midway Atoll NWR!  The big event happened on Friday, January 14, 2011.

Sing along with the US Marine Corps band as it performs the Happy Birthday song:

Happy hatch day to you!

Happy hatch day to you!

Happy hatch day baby STAL!

Happy hatch day to you!

>>Hana hou (= repeat; sing it again)!

For more information, see:

• Pete at Midway
• USFWS "Short-tailed Albatross" Flickr website

Short-tailed Albatross Nest on Midway for the First Time!

 photo of female STAL on nest by USFWS volunteer Sarah Gutowsky, Midway, 12/1/10

That's right!  This is the very first time a pair of this endangered albatross has made a nest on Midway Atoll National Wildlife Refuge!  To see volunteer Joanna's video of what a Short-tailed Albatross looks like, visit FOAM's Nov. 14 post, "Golden Gooney seen on Midway Atoll!"

As acting Refuge Manager John Klavitter writes, "On Nov. 16, refuge staff observed an adult short-tailed albatross incubating a freshly laid egg on Eastern Island...."  [Look at the aerial view of Midway Atoll at the top of this page; Eastern is the triangle-shaped island on the southeast side of the Atoll.]  "Since then, the refuge staff members have observed the male and female trading off incubation duties."

During modern history, Short-tailed Albatross (STAL) have been found only in territory belonging to Japan; their main nesting grounds are on Torishima Island.  In fact, Midway's "Mr. and Mrs. STAL,"(if we can call them that!) were hatched on the Japanese island; Mr. in 1987, and the younger Mrs. just seven years ago in 2003.   But it's a good thing these adult birds have come to nest on Midway.  As the picture below shows, their home island is an active volcano!  (On the map, Midway Atoll is one of the small dots in the Hawaiian Island chain; it's probably a dot near the right-hand edge of the photo.)

map, by Hiroshi Hasegawa, located on the Wake Forest University Albatross Project website

Isn't it wonderful that this pair of Short-tailed Albatross has chosen to nest on Midway, where there's no volcano?  Wouldn't it be terrific if their egg hatches, and they return in the future to lay more eggs?  And wouldn't it be REALLY GREAT if this pair were joined by more STAL and they establish a colony in the Refuge?!

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.

Final Post -- Aloha, Midway Atoll!

Midway Atoll's Eastern Is. and the emergent reef "lei"

It's the end of August, and my time on Midway has come to an end.  I'm now back home in Waimānalo on the island of O`ahu.  I had a WONDERFUL three months on the Atoll, and my sincere thanks go to the US Fish and Wildlife Service for allowing me to serve as a volunteer.  I had an opportunity to help with many different kinds of wildlife management projects, and I learned a lot.

So, this is my last post, at least for the foreseeable future.  I'd love to volunteer again, especially at a different time of year, to be able to see the albatross, Laysan Ducks, and other wildlife at a different season in their life cycles.  If I do get another volunteer opportunity, I'll certainly re-open FOAM; I've enjoyed creating it very much!

Aloha nui loa, Midway...a hui hou?!
Barb

a few pictures taken from the plane as we flew back to Honolulu--

Pearl and Hermes Atoll

Laysan Atoll

Maro Reef

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.