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News: Seabirds
The Peregrine Chick:
--- Quote from: The Peregrine Chick on February 02, 2018, 22:01 ---Tropical brown booby seabird found shivering, injured, on Victoria waterfront
The Canadian Press / 1 February 2018
--- End quote ---
Unfortunately the booby in Victoria has died in care - not so much from its injuries (breast and feet) but due to starvation and dehydration. Too rough and long a ride for a tropical bird unfortunately.
The Peregrine Chick:
Monogamous gannet Nigel fell in love with a concrete bird — and died just as a real bird flew his way
Joe O'Connor / National Post /2 Feb 2018
Nigel stayed true to his concrete mate, chirping in her ear, making love and continuing to nest alongside her, even after three living gannets alighted on the island in recent weeks
Nigel, the gannet, was an individualist, cut from a different feather than the other birds of his species that, for decades, had flown past the predator-free island of Mana, just off the New Zealand coast, without ever thinking to stop and build a nest. But Nigel stopped, pulled to the island’s cliffs by solar-powered audio recordings of gannet birdsong — plus 80 decoy gannets — arranged in the (human) hopes that a place devoid of seabirds might grow into a bird colony. Nigel, a young male, appeared about five years ago, which is when she appeared to him: a concrete gannet, freshly painted yellow and white, that Nigel would woo. He built her a nest of mud and seaweed and twigs; performed a mating dance; craned his long, white neck, shook his tail feathers and pledged his love to her, and only her.
Gannets are monogamous. Nigel stayed true to his concrete mate, chirping in her ear, making love and continuing to nest alongside her, even after three living gannets alighted on the island in recent weeks. Nigel was aloof to these newcomers. He had made his nest and, sadly, that is where Chris Bell, a New Zealand conservation officer, and the sole human resident on the island, found him dead — just as real life had finally flown his way.
“It is a tragic story,” Bell said from his cabin on the island, where poor Nigel currently resides — in the freezer, awaiting transport to the mainland. “His death is very untimely. The three newcomers were socializing, whereas Nigel was up on his own part of the colony, still trying to woo his concrete mate. “We were very sad. He has had this frustrating existence, and we finally thought it was heading for a happy end.”
Some day soon, Nigel will be transported to Massey University in north New Zealand, where an ornithologist specializing in bird autopsies will pry open his chest seeking to determine the cause of death. They may find that Nigel was aged, or diseased, but what they won’t be able to gauge is the loneliness in his heart from being committed, as he was, to a relationship that was all give and no take. Nigel’s bond, not to flesh and feather, but to concrete, is sad and cruel, and perhaps a cautionary tale — for the age of loneliness in which we humans live.
The time where text messages pass for conversation; strangers on Facebook are counted as friends; “likes”, not hugs, or actual human interaction, are sources of warmth; and coffee shops can seem as quiet as tombs, with patrons entranced by the cold, unloving glow of their laptop or smartphone screen. We’re sick, us humans, or at least some of us are. Like Nigel, we struggle to pry ourselves away from our stone lovers, failing to recognize that what is real, and beautiful, and bursting with life is right in front us, if only we would lift our gaze (spread our wings?) and see it.
Nigel, the gannet, died as some individualists do in the end: alone, on the cusp of something great, surrounded by concrete fakes, aloof to the arrival of the living and unable, or unwilling, to change his ways.
But his sad end is not without greater significance. Gannets only nest — save for the rare case of Nigel — where others have been before. In this way, Nigel bridged the frontier. He sacrificed. He made Mana his home, enticing those that came after. “Nigel was a pioneer, he was ahead of his time,” Bell said. “His life wasn’t wasted, because he still played his part in bringing the new birds, who will hopefully stay, and breed and turn it into a real colony, and not just a fake colony. Nigel will always be the founder bird of the colony.”
The Peregrine Chick:
Tropical brown booby seabird found shivering, injured, on Victoria waterfront
The Canadian Press / 1 February 2018
A female brown booby is seen in this undated handout photo. An unlikely visitor to Vancouver Island is recovering at an animal rescue centre after being found, shivering and injured, on the Victoria waterfront. The female brown booby is receiving treatment while staff at the British Columbia SPCA's wild animal rehabilitation centre try to figure out how the tropical bird travelled far north of its usual territory. THE CANADIAN PRESS/HO, BCSPCA Wild Animal Rehabilitation Centre *MANDATORY CREDIT*
VICTORIA - An unlikely visitor to Vancouver Island is recovering at an animal rescue centre after being found, shivering and injured, on the Victoria waterfront.
The female brown booby is receiving treatment while staff at the British Columbia SPCA's wild animal rehabilitation centre try to figure out how the tropical bird travelled far north of its usual territory. Centre spokeswoman Marguerite Sans said there's very little research on migration of the brown booby, but the seabirds have been known to travel up to 3,000 kilometres.
"Because we know so little about them, it's not too clear why they might appear this far (north) but I think it might be a combination of this individual going further up the coast and then perhaps storm or weather patterns pushed her up further," Sans said. A powerful storm packing moisture from east of Hawaii lashed the B.C. coast in the days before the bird was found.
When the booby, believed to a young adult, was found Monday it was very ill, suffering from a small puncture to its chest, injuries and abrasions to its feet and was underweight."Based on her blood work and how thin she is, we are pretty guarded as far as her prognosis because when they get that emaciated they are pretty critical," Sans said.The bird is too weak to eat whole food so it is on a special diet that will keep its organs from shutting down.
Sans said it could take several days before the lethargic bird responds, and even longer before plans can be made for its release. "If we can get her past the tough part, we have to see," she said. "With any seabird species we need them to be in excellent body condition and then also have pristine feathers so that their waterproofing is 100 per cent before they are released."
The brown booby is a large seabird, with a wing span of nearly 1.5-metres and is identified by a solid brown head, neck, back and wings, with a white chest and lower body and a yellow beak. The bird is usually spotted in Mexico, California and Hawaii where it's renowned for dramatic 20 metre plunges into the sea to catch seafood such as squid and anchovies.
Sans said it was the first time the centre has cared for one of these seabirds, and staff are mulling the logistics of how to get it further south, if that's determined to be the safest way to release the bird when the time comes.
Source: http://www.winnipegfreepress.com/arts-and-life/life/greenpage/tropical-brown-booby-seabird-found-shivering-injured-on-victoria-waterfront--472193263.html
burdi:
Forbidden island
Located off the B.C. coast, Triangle Island is crucial to the planet's seabirds — and off limits to humans
To the northwest of Vancouver Island, long past the giant cedars and rainforests and on the precipice of the continental shelf, lies one of the most remote and vulnerable places in Canada.
Hard to find on any map, it’s actually one of the most densely populated places on the B.C. coast — if you happen to be a seabird.
Triangle Island, which is 45 kilometres from the northern tip of Vancouver Island and named for its roughly geometric shape, is home to about two million birds that fly in every spring and summer to breed.
It’s also one of the most sensitive ecosystems in North America, and a place where any kind of human presence is tightly controlled. The number of people allowed to visit in any given year is usually fewer than a dozen.
See the rest here: http://www.cbc.ca/news2/interactives/sh/lBuyhpcqVr/forbidden-island/
Alison:
Wisdom is back!
The world's oldest known and most famous wild bird has returned to Midway!
Now at least 67 years old, Wisdom is once again incubating an egg. She is incredible!
It is very sad that during the past year we lost Chandler Robbins, who banded Wisdom way back in the 1950s, and continued to watch over her for decades.
I hope incubation will go smoothly for Wisdom and her mate Akeakamai.
The photo below, from May 2017, shows Wisdom's chick from earlier this year. I don't know if the chick was named, but he/she was banded AB87.
More information and photos of Wisdom at the link below:
http://usfwspacific.tumblr.com/post/168787067605/wisdom-the-oldest-known-albatross-returns-to
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