News: Seabirds

[Alison]

Wisdom is home!

At least 69 years old now, Wisdom has returned to Midway once again.

However, as of November 28, her mate Akeakamai had not yet returned, and I could find no further updates.

https://mauinow.com/2019/11/28/wisdom-worlds-oldest-known-wild-bird-returns-to-midway-in-time-for-thanksgiving/

Then last night, I found this:

Laysan albatross Wisdom and mate return to Midway nest site

Dec. 11, 2019

Wisdom, a Laysan albatross and the world’s oldest known banded wild bird, has marked another milestone.

https://www.staradvertiser.com/2019/12/11/hawaii-news/laysan-albatross-wisdom-and-mate-return-to-midway-nest-site/

I cannot access the rest of the article, but the first sentence told me what I wanted to know.

Welcome home, Wisdom and  Akeakamai! Hoping for a wonderful year for this outstanding pair.

[The Peregrine Chick]

World's oldest known wild bird has a new baby at 68
CBC / AP - 13 Feb 2019



The oldest known wild bird in the world has become a mother again at the Midway Atoll National Wildlife Refuge, U.S. wildlife officials said.  The Laysan albatross named Wisdom hatched a chick earlier this month at the remote atoll northwest of Hawaii, the Honolulu Star-Advertiser reported Monday.  Wisdom is at least 68 years old and has raised at least 31 chicks, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service officials said. Wisdom was first banded as an adult in 1956.  Wisdom and her mate, Akeakamai, have been returning to the atoll to lay and hatch eggs since 2006. Laysan albatrosses mate for life and lay one egg per year.

"She's incredibly powerful as a symbol of why we do what we do and why people all over the world pay attention to her," said Beth Flint, a Fish and Wildlife Service biologist. "Wisdom is rewriting history about our understanding of survivorship, how long birds live, and how often they breed."

https://twitter.com/USFWS/status/1093601985033654273

Albatross parents take turns incubating an egg for a little over two months. Chicks fly out to sea about five to six months after hatching. They spend most of their lives flying over the ocean — feeding on squid and fish eggs.

Midway Atoll is home to about 3 million seabirds, including about 1 million albatrosses. They return to the places of their birth to nest and raise their young, according to the Fish and Wildlife Service. "Midway Atoll's habitat doesn't just contain millions of birds, it contains countless generations and families of albatrosses," said Kelly Goodale, biologist at the refuge. "If you can imagine when Wisdom returns home she is likely surrounded by what were once her chicks and potentially their chicks."

source: https://www.cbc.ca/news/technology/wisdom-albatross-chick-1.5017201

[allikat]

Every time I see a story about an Albatross named Wisdom, brings not only a smile, but a proud tear for this species to my face!
She is one extraordinary and amazing bird that has caught our attention, and captured our hearts.
This is one strong determined bird that beats the environmental odds!
What an inspiration she is, and will always be!
Wisdom has taught us so many things about survival!
She is spectacular!

[Alison]

Laysan albatross Wisdom is back!

December 7 2018

Wisdom, a 68-year-old Laysan albatross, has laid another egg with her longtime lover at the Midway Atoll national wildlife refuge



Photo: USFWS - Pacific Region

In sea mariner lore, an albatross is considered a good omen, and for almost seven decades, one bird has spread generations of blessings across the Pacific Ocean.

Wisdom, a 68-year-old Laysan albatross believed to be the world’s oldest known wild bird, has returned to her home at the Midway Atoll national wildlife refuge for yet another winter – and laid yet another egg to add to the already impressive brood that she has built up over an impressive lifetime.

Biologists with the US Fish and Wildlife Service think the almost-septuagenarian has birthed and raised as many as 36 chicks over the years. Should her latest egg with her longtime lover, Akeakamai, hatch, fledge and take to the open sea, it will be her 37th.

Wisdom was first banded in 1956 by biologist Chandler Robbins, who estimated that she was about five years old at the time. The biologist and bird met again in 2002 when he went to band her and recognized that she had been one of the 8,400 birds he recorded during his first season, 46 years previously.

Albatrosses are known for their long life spans and often outlive their researchers – Robbins died in 2017 at the age 98 – but what makes Wisdom unique is that researchers have been able to monitor her habits for so long. She may or may not be the oldest wild bird, but she is the oldest known wild bird, and her habits have been lovingly documented by the fish and wildlife service over social media.



Photo: USFWS - Pacific Region

Wisdom has managed to raise a number of chicks who have gone on to raise chicks of their own, she has also faced hardship. In 2015, her egg was reported missing, which biologists say is just what happens sometimes.

But her fertile contributions to the continuation of her species make every homecoming a celebration for scientists. Last year, they observed a chick that she fledged in 2001 setting up a nest just a few feet away. It was the first time one of her chicks had been documented returning to nest.

“Midway Atoll’s habitat doesn’t just contain millions of birds, it contains countless generations and families of albatrosses,” Kelly Goodale, a fish and wildlife service refuge biologist, said in a blogpost. “If you can imagine when Wisdom returns home, she is likely surrounded by what were once her chicks and potentially their chicks.”

For the complete article:

https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2018/dec/07/worlds-oldest-bird-lays-egg-wisdom-albatross

[carly]

Awww...poor little one 

[The Peregrine Chick]

Tropical brown booby seabird found shivering, injured, on Victoria waterfront
The Canadian Press / 1 February 2018

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

[Kinderchick]

Very interesting!

[The Peregrine Chick]

Tropical booby bird found in St Leonards flown back to the Caribbean in time for Christmas
Siobhan Ryan / The Argus / 18 Dec 2016



A TROPICAL bird found washed up on a Sussex beach has been flown 5,000 miles back home in time for Christmas.

The red-footed booby bird was discovered underweight and dehydrated in St Leonards in September by volunteers from East Sussex Wildlife Rescue and Ambulance Service.

The bird, nicknamed Norman, underwent intensive care at the RSPCA's Mallydams Wood in Hastings, where he spent time under a heat lamp to ward off the cold and ate sprats to build up his strength.

Mystery surrounds how the young bird managed to be blown off course and end up on the beach.

He is now settling in at a nature reserve in the Cayman Islands in the Caribbean following a 12 hour British Airways flight.

Mallydams wildlife rehabilitation team manager Richard Thompson said: "It is just fantastic to see Norman make his way home after the team here have worked so hard nursing him back to health and full strength.

"We are used to dealing with native seabirds here - like gulls and terns - but he is the first booby bird we have ever seen here at the RSPCA and the UK.

"It is amazing to think we've had a hand in his care."

RSPCA wildlife vet Barbara Watson flew alongside Norman to keep an eye on his progress and carry out vet checks before and after the flight.

She said: "I never imagined in my career I would be asked to treat a booby bird as they have never been seen over here before. It is incredible to think how he got to the south coast of England."


source: http://www.theargus.co.uk/news/14973657.Tropical_booby_bird_found_in_Sussex_flown_home_in_time_for_Christmas/

[Alison]

Wisdom is home!

Laysan Albatross Wisdom has once again returned to Midway, and she is incubating an egg! Her mate, Akeakamai, has also returned.

Their chick from early this year, Kūkini, left Midway in the middle of July to spend the next four or five years at sea.

Photo by Kristina McOmber/Kupu Conservation Leadership Program & USFWS



Many more great photos with the article:

http://usfwspacific.tumblr.com/post/154164722795/wisdom-returns-to-midway-atoll-andshes

[Alison]

Nigel the Lonely Gannet



On Mana Island, off the coast of New Zealand, a colony of decoy gannets made of concrete was installed 40 years ago in the hope of attracting gannets to nest on the island.

After all these years, a single male gannet arrived on the island last November. He has chosen one of the concrete decoys for his mate, and has even built a nest of dirt and seaweed.

I hope that next year Nigel will be lucky enough to find a real mate.

http://www.stuff.co.nz/life-style/cutestuff/84011123/nigel-the-lonely-gannet-finds-love-with-a-concrete-decoy-on-mana-island

[burdi]

Laysan Albatross Wisdom and the man who banded her 60 years ago, Chandler "Chan" Robbins

Two remarkable lives intertwined. May they both have many more years to come.

Alison, thank you for sharing this wonderful and very touching story about Wisdom and Chan Robbins.