Elisa (now aged four) holds her poster prize with her older sister, Constanza

Last year ACAP collaborated with Artists and Biologists Unite for Nature (ABUN) to support the inaugural World Albatross Day on 19 June (‘WAD2020’) by producing line drawings for a colouring-in competition aimed at children (click here).  The total of 124 entries received (see ACAP's Facebook album) were assigned to five age classes which were then judged by an international panel of artists.  Winners in each category received an on-line certificate to print out but were also promised an albatross poster in the mail.  COVID-19 then got in the way making international post between countries problematic, notably between Australia (from where the ACAP Secretariat was undertaking the mailings) and countries in South America.

Elisa’s winning entry

Waiting patiently on the mail for more than half a year in her home in Ñuñoa, Santiago de Chile after winning the three-to-five-year category with her colourful Campbell Albatross has been Elisa Ahumada López, then aged three.  Good news that at long last she has now received her poster, smiling proudly with her older sister Constanza in the photo above.  The poster depicting all the World’s albatrosses is by ABUN artist Di Roberts.  A high-resolution version suitable for printing (along with other WAD2020 posters) is available online from the ACAP website here.

The Campbell Albatross photographed by Kirk Zufelt off North Cape, New Zealand from which Lea Finke made the line drawing that Elisa coloured in

With thanks to Elisa’s mother, Paula Carolina López Molina, for permission to use the photograph of her daughters.

John Cooper, ACAP Information Officer, 07 May 2021

Photograph of the vagrant Black-browed Albatross by cell phone through a 30-70x telescope, from Per-Magnus Åhrén

An adult-plumaged Black-browed Albatross Thalassarche melanophris (Least Concern) was photographed at a distance flying at sea in the narrow sound of Öresund between Copenhagen, Denmark and Malmö, Sweden on 25 April 2021.  The bird was also seen the next day in the same area with no winds when it was attacked by nine White-tailed Sea Eagles Haliaeetus albicilla. It was not seen after that despite concerted searches by many birders on both sides of the sound.

Reportings of Black-browed Albatrosses (possibly of the same individual) have been made in the North Sea and surrounding waters over the last four to five years.

Read a summary of vagrant Southern Hemisphere albatrosses in the Northern Hemisphere here.

Information from the Pelagics. Seabirds Birding Worldwide Facebook page.

John Cooper, ACAP Information Officer, 06 May 2021

A fortunate chick this time: the plastic pony lies on the nest’s edge, photograph by Theo Thompson

That albatrosses mistake floating plastic debris for food items, swallow them and later regurgitate them to their chicks must now be well known.  Probably the most reported cases are from Laysan Albatrosses Phoebastria immutabilis (globally Near Threatened) of the North Pacific which feed their chicks everything from cigarette lighters, toothbrushes, bottle tops, toy soldiers and action figures, as well as miscellaneous plastic fragments, as illustrated by a number of artworks and displays made from plastic objects collected from around nests or from within the decaying corpses of chicks (click here).  This problem has been brought to a wider audience by Chris Jordan in his evocative documentary Albatross filmed on Midway Atoll.  It seems Southern Hemisphere albatrosses are less affected by ingesting plastic, although they are certainly not immune as has been regularly reported in ACAP Latest News over the last decade.

The latest example of ingested plastic comes from the intensively managed mainland colony of Northern Royal Albatrosses Diomedea sanfordi (globally Endangered and nationally Naturally Uncommon) at Pukekura/Taiaroa Head on New Zealand’s South Island.  Biodiversity Ranger Sharyn Broni reports on the Royal Albatross Centre Facebook page.  “This 9 cm long plastic pony was found at one chick’s nest on Tuesday during morning rounds.  We believe a parent regurgitated this for a chick, it may have been in fish that it caught. Fortunately, the chick did not take it.”  Previous plastic items found associated with Taiaroa’s albatrosses have included bottle caps, squid lures, fishing floats, a container tab and the handle of an infant formula scoop. 

John Cooper, ACAP Information Officer, 05 May 2021

Due to the COVID-18 pandemic, a decision was made by the World Seabird Union and local hosts, the Australasian Seabird Group, to cancel the face-to-face 3rd World Seabird Conference - already postponed from its original dates in 2020..  Instead, it will now be held virtually over 4-8 October 2021.  Further information regarding schedule, registration, additional submission opportunities and more will be announced in the coming months.  “We're looking forward to a virtual event that is inclusive, diverse, and representative of the global nature of seabirds.”

The 1st World Seabird Conference was held in Victoria, Canada in September 2010.  The 2nd World Seabird Conference was held in Cape Town, South Africa in October 2015.  Nearly 600 delegates from 52 countries attended the Cape Town conference for oral presentations, symposia, workshops, two poster sessions and networking opportunities.

In the meantime, the Seventh World Seabird Twitter Conference (WSTC7) is being held this week over 4-6 May with over 140 presentations expected.  The WSTC is an annual, Twitter-based conference with presentations on seabird research and conservation from around the world.  During the conference each presenter has 15 minutes in which to make four tweets about their topic.

John Cooper, ACAP Information Officer, 04 May 2021