The Black-footed Albatross was the first new species I saw when I started my life-long love of the wildlife of the Northwestern Hawaiian Islands

NOTE:  This post continues an occasional series that features photographs of the 31 ACAP listed species, along with information from and about their photographers.  Here Beth Flint  of the US Fish and Wildlife Service writes of the Near Threatened Black-footed Albatrosses Phoebastria nigripes she has known and subsequently worked with since her days as a student.

Beth Flint with a plastic decoy Short-tailed Albatross that was willing to pose with her in the off-season

My first encounter with a Black-footed Albatross came as I first stepped of the plane at Tern Island, French Frigate Shoals in January of 1980.  I was there to do fieldwork on Sooty Terns Onychoprion fuscatus and with the typical single-mindedness of a young graduate student had not even thought about the fact that I would be living in a breeding colony of magnificent Black-footed Albatrosses.  I was immediately smitten with these regal, aloof birds, sometimes stoic and sometimes exuberant.  I had fallen in love with colonial seabirds from reading about them during my studies in wildlife biology at the University of Montana and went on to study with Nicholas Collias, the ethologist at the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA), without ever having set foot in a seabird colony.

Enthralled with their new egg, Laysan Island 26 November 2004; photograph by Mark MacDonald

My study site was located in one of the earliest major conservation areas protected in the United States.  Human exploitation of seabirds (particularly Laysan P. immutabilis and Black-footed Albatrosses) on the breeding grounds in the forms of guano mining, egg collection for albumin used in photography, and then feather hunting for stuffing mattresses started afflicting the populations of these birds in the Northwestern Hawaiian Islands in 1891.  In 1903 Teddy Roosevelt, moved by public outcry about the destruction caused by the feather hunters coming from Japan, placed the islands under Navy protection stationed at Midway Atoll and in 1909 declared the entire northern end of the archipelago from Nihoa 1200 miles [1930 km] north to Kure as the Hawaiian Islands Bird Reservation.

Through the years, the name, the boundaries, and the mission have changed and today this area is known as the Papahānaumokuākea Marine National Monument. This enormous no-take Marine Protected Area protects the islands and waters out to the 200-mile [320-km] Exclusive Economic Zone boundary and is 583 000 square miles [1.5 million square km] in area.  It is managed by a Board containing the United States Fish and Wildlife Service, National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, State of Hawaii, and the Office of Hawaiian Affairs.  I work for the Department of Interior in the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service as a wildlife biologist and am responsible for advising the Refuge Managers on technical issues that will help them make management decisions and monitoring populations and habitats in the Marine National Monuments of the central tropical Pacific.

Midway Atoll in 2015

Although these islands are remote and most can only be reached by ship, they are much less rugged than are the breeding homes of many other species in this photo essay series.  A fair amount of research has been undertaken on the breeding biology, movement ecology, effects of contaminants, demography and survival rates of the Black-footed Albatross.  Tens of thousands [have been banded by refuge staff since the middle of the last century.  Citizen scientists have made a huge contribution to monitoring population size by undertaking a complete census of all the albatrosses at Midway Atoll each year since 1992.

Over a century of land and sea-based protection has enabled these populations to recover from the insults of the beginning of the 20th century and current populations are stable.  As with the majority of seabird species, the dominant population level threats for Laysan and Black-footed Albatrosses are introduced predators in the breeding colonies and fisheries interactions.  For almost 30 years the Fish and Wildlife Service and their partners have been tracking the effects of commercial fishing on Black-footed Albatross survival rates and working with colleagues to minimize the negative interactions between this species and fishing gear.  While other more localized problems also exist, it has become increasingly clear that the threat that will eclipse all others for Black-footed Albatrosses is climate change.

Six of the sixteen Black-footed Albatross breeding islands in the world accommodate more than 95% percent of global population of less than 70 000 pairs and are lower in elevation than 25 metres above sea level.  These low islands are already showing periodic inundation due to storms of increased frequency and intensity and accelerating erosion and loss of entire islets.  At French Frigate Shoals three of 10 islets have already washed away completely during storms, rendering thousands of pairs of Black-footed Albatross homeless.  Adults and chicks in the colonies are also exhibiting increased levels of thermal stress and dying in greater numbers from heat injury and the birds face disruptions in prey availability due to hot water events and ocean acidification.

Black-footed Albatross colony (with Latsan Albatrosses and Masked Boobies) on Whaleskate Island at French Frigate Shoals in the spring of 1980.  The entire island was washed away in the 1990s

 
A Black-footed Albatross chick works hard to stay cool with Sooty Tern chicks taking advantage of its shade.  Northern hemisphere albatrosses (Black-footed, Laysan and Short-tailed P. albatrus) are winter breeders, possibly as a phylogenetic holdover from their relatives in the southern hemisphere or perhaps because they breed in the subtropics and tropics so cannot manage ambient temperatures in the summer months at their breeding sites.  Increasingly, there is high mortality when the adults return to the colony during the hot, windless days of early autumn or in the late spring when chicks die by the thousands

Colonial seabirds have had difficulty withstanding the many ecological insults caused by the rampant success of Homo sapiens.  Albatross-like seabirds have moved across the face of the earth for upwards of 60 million years.  They have persisted during sea levels more than 100 metres higher than today.  In some ways these birds possess characteristics that might make us predict they will be better equipped to survive the coming climate troubles than many more sedentary species.  They possess extraordinary mobility and forage over the entire North Pacific Ocean.  They will likely be able to adjust to changed conditions on their foraging grounds.  However, safe breeding sites for birds that cannot withstand mammalian predators have become rare during the age of man.  For Black-footed Albatrosses to persist into the future we may need to restore high islands at latitudes with appropriate thermal conditions by ridding them of rodents, ungulates and carnivores and resort to assisted colonization to help this species through the troubled times to come.

Erosion at Midway Atoll has eliminated hundreds of albatross nests.  Black-footed Albatrosses tend to nest closer to the sea than do Laysan Albatrosses, so were likely affected disproportionately

A partnership involving U.S. Government Departments and NGOs such as Pacific Rim Conservation is implementing an innovaticonservation effort to establish new breeding colonies for seabirds affected by sea level rise and increased storm intensity.  A total of 511 chicks of four species (Laysan Albatross, Black-footed Albatross, Bonin Petrel Pterodroma hypoleuca and Tristram’s Storm Petrel Hydrobates tristrami) has been translocated to a predator-proof fenced area at the James Campbell National Wildlife Refuge on Oahu, primarily from low islands in the Papahānaumokuākea Marine National Monument, over the last six years.  Of those, 471 (92%) have fledged and adult birds of all four species have returned to the site.  Translocated Bonin Petrels have already started breeding and successfully fledging chicks from the refuge.  This conservation effort provides a climate-resilient nesting habitat for species threatened by sea level rise in the low-lying areas of the Monument.  Motivated by the same reasons as described above, USFWS and Pacific Rim Conservation, together with Mexico’s Comisión Nacional de Áreas Naturales Protegidas (CONANP) and the Mexican environmental NGO Grupo de Ecología y Conservación de Islas (GECI) collaborated to reintroduce Black-footed Albatrosses from the USA’s Midway Atoll National Refuge to Guadalupe Island Biosphere Reserve, Mexico.  In early 2021, they transferred 21 eggs and nine chicks to Guadalupe and the 27 surviving chicks were expected to fledge in June.  More birds will be moved in 2022 and 2023.

My hope is that this chick preparing to fledge from Laysan Island will be able to live out its long life on its natal island but that its cousins survive on new high island sites to carry on the Black-footed Albatross way of life

Selected Publications:

Batten, S.D., Chen, X., Flint, E.N., Freeland, H.J., Holmes, J., Howell, E., Ichii, T., Kaeriyama, M., Landry, M.R., Lunsford, C., Mackas, D.L., Mate, B., Matsuda, K., McKinnell, S.M., Miller, L., Morgan, K.H., Pen, A., Polovina, J.J., Robert, M., Seki, M.P., Sydeman, W.J., Thompson, S.A., Whitney, F.A., Woodworth, P. & Yamaguchi, A. 2010.  Status and trends of the North Pacific oceanic region 2003-2008.  In: McKinnell, S.M. & Dagg, M.J. (Eds).  Marine Ecosystems of the North Pacific Ocean, 2003-2008.  PICES Special Publication 4.

Brooke, M.de L., Bonnaud, E., Dilley, B.J., Flint, E.N., Holmes, N.D., Jones, H.P., Provost, P., Rocamora, G., Ryan, P.G., Surman, C. & Buxton, R.T. 2018.  Enhancing the value of future island eradications need improved understanding of past outcomes.  Animal Conservation 21: 19-20.

Dearborn, D.C., Anders, A.D. & Flint, E.N. 2001.  Trends in reproductive success of Hawaiian seabirds: is guild membership a good criterion for choosing indicator species?  Biological Conservation 101: 97-103.

Doherty, P.F. Jr., Kendall, W.L., Sillett, S., Gustafson, M., Flint, B. [E.N.], Naughton, M., Robbins, C.S. & Pyle, P. 2006.  Development of a banding database for north Pacific albatross: implications for future data collection.  Atoll Research Bulletin 543: 173-179.

Duhr, M., Flint, E.N., Hunter, S.A., Taylor, R.V., Flanders, B., Howald, G. & Norwood, N. 2019.  Control of house mice preying on adult albatrosses at Midway Atoll National Wildlife Refuge.  In: Veitch, C.R., Clout, M.N., Martin, A.R., Russell J.C. & West, C.J. (Eds).  Island Invasives: Scaling up to Meet the Challenge.  Occasional Paper SSC No. 62.  Gland: IUCN.  pp. 21-25.

Flint, E.N. 1997.  Interactions between albatrosses and pelagic longline fisheries in the North Central Pacific.  ‘Elepaio  57: 119-121.

Flint, E.N. 1999.  Status of seabird populations and conservation in the tropical island Pacific.  In: Eldredge, L., Maragos, J., Holthus, P. & Takeuchi, H.F. (Eds).  Marine and Coastal Biodiversity in the Tropical Island Pacific Region: Population, Development, and Conservation Priorities.  Vol. 2.  Honolulu: East-West Center.

Flint, E.N. 2011.  Midway Atoll.  In: Gillespie, R. & Clegg, D.A. (Eds).  Encyclopedia of Islands.  Berkeley: University of California Press.  pp. 631-633.

Flint, E.N. & Fraiola, K. 2021.  Status and trends of albatrosses in the Northwestern Hawaiian Islands.  In: Hyrenbach, K.D., Ishizaki, A., Polovina, J. & Ellgen, S. (Eds).  The Factors influencing Albatross Interactions in the Hawaii Longline Fishery: Towards Identifying Drivers and Quantifying Impacts. U.S. Dept. of Commerce, NOAA Technical Memorandum NOAA-TM-NMFS-PIFSC 122.  163 pp.

Gutowsky, S.E., Tremblay, Y., Kappes, M.A., Flint, E.N., Klavitter, J., Laniawe, L., Costa, D.P., Naughton, M.B., Romano, M.D. & Shaffer, S.A. 2014.  Divergent post-breeding distribution and habitat associations of fledgling and adult Black-footed Albatrosses Phoebastria nigripes in the North Pacific.  Ibis 156: 60-72.

Kendall, B., Flint, E., Naughton, M., Swift, R., Romano, N., Peterjohn, B. & Pearson, K. 2021.  Survival and breeding probability of Black-Footed and Laysan Albatrosses at Midway Atoll and Laysan Island, 2006-2015.  In: Hyrenbach, K.D., Ishizaki, A., Polovina J. & Ellgen S. (Eds).  The Factors influencing Albatross Interactions in the Hawaii Longline Fishery: Towards Identifying Drivers and Quantifying Impacts.  U.S. Dept. of Commerce, NOAA Technical Memorandum NOAA-TM-NMFS-PIFSC 122.  163 pp.

Polovina, J., Mitchum, G., Graham, N., Craig, M., DeMartini, E. & Flint, E. 1994.  Physical and biological consequences of a climate event in the central North Pacific.  Fisheries Oceanography 3: 15-21.

Reynolds, M.H., Courtot, K.N., Berkowitz, P., Storlazzi., C.D., Moore, J. & Flint, E. 2015.  Will the effects of sea-level rise create ecological traps for Pacific island seabirds?  PLoS ONE  10(9): e0136773.

Véran, S., Gimenez, O., Flint, E., Kendall, W.L., Doherty, P.F. Jr. & Lebreton, J. 2007.  Quantifying the impact of longline fisheries on adult survival in the Black-footed Albatross.  Journal of Applied Ecology  44: 942-952.

Beth Flint, Marine National Monuments of the Pacific, US Fish and Wildlife Service, Honolulu, Hawaii, USA, 31 January 2022

 
A Cory's Shearwater grounded by artificial lighting; photograph by Beneharo Rodriguez

Airam Rodríguez (Canary Islands’ Ornithology and Natural History Group, Buenavista del Norte & Department of Ecology, Universidad Autónoma de Madrid, Spain) and colleagues have published open access in the journal Frontiers in Ecology and Evolution on factors affecting grounding of Cory’s Shearwaters Calonectris borealis fledglings due to light pollution

The paper’s abstract follows:.

“Light pollution causes attraction and/or disorientation of seabirds, leading to mortality events due to multiple threats.  This is a poorly understood phenomenon, largely because of the challenge to track seabirds at night from their nests to the grounding light-polluted locations.  New tracking technologies can inform about this phenomenon.  Here, we used GPS transmitters with remote download to track the flights of Cory’s shearwater Calonectris borealis fledglings from an inland experimental releasing site to the ocean.  We released birds assigned to three experimental groups: GPS tagged, tape-labelled, and control birds.  We assessed how both intrinsic (such as body mass, body condition, body size, and down abundance) and extrinsic (i.e., flight descriptors, such as distance, straightness, and flight duration, wind speed, or moon luminance) factors influenced light-induced groundings by using two datasets: one including the three groups and another including just the GPS tagged birds (as GPS devices provide unique information).  We tested whether the probability of being grounded by artificial lights was related to intrinsic factors.  With the use of the whole dataset, we found that birds with a higher down abundance had a higher probability of being grounded.  GPS data revealed that the probability of being grounded was positively related to the tortuosity of flights and the overflown light pollution levels.  Also, birds with slower flights were more likely to be grounded than birds with fast flights.  Tortuosity increased with light pollution levels but decreased with the ambient light of the moon.  GPSs with remote data download provided information on birds reaching the ocean, this being a substantial improvement to previous studies requiring recapture of the individuals to retrieve the data.  GPS tracks of birds reaching the ocean allowed us to know that some birds overflew coastal urban areas so light-polluted as the landing sites of grounded birds.  We provide novel scientific-based information to manage seabird mortality induced by artificial lights.”

Movement trajectories of ten Cory’s Shearwater fledglings tracked with GPS-GSM devices. Ring refers to the unique ring codes of the birds. The animation shows the irradiance values (nW/cm2/sr), as a proxy of light pollution (bluish), taken from a cloud-free composite of VIIRS nighttime lights corresponding to November 2019

With thanks to Airam Rodríguez Martín.

Reference:

Rodríguez, A., Rodríguez, B., Acosta, Y. & Negro, J.J. 2022.  Tracking flights to investigate seabird mortality induced by artificial lights.  Frontiers in Ecology and Evolution.  doi.org/10.3389/fevo.2021.786557.

John Cooper, ACAP Information Officer, 28 January 2022

 
A pair of young adult Antipodean Wandering Albatrosses.  The plumage of the female (on the left) remains dark despite age.  However, by the end of each breeding season the dark tips of the feathers are so worn the white below can show through, giving the bird a “spotty, leopard-like plumage” until she moults.  The dark feathers on the male’s neck will gradually lighten, leaving just faint pencilling, while the well-demarcated black cap remains, although gradually decreased in extent by old age

NOTE:  This post continues an occasional series that features photographs of the 31 ACAP listed species, along with information from and about their photographers.  Here, Kath Walker of New Zealand’s Department of Conservation writes from the field on Antipodes Island of her studies over many years of both the nominate and gibsoni subspecies of the globally Endangered and Nationally Critical Antipodean Albatross Diomedea antipodensis.  In her photo essay Kath refers to these two taxa as Antipodean Wandering and Gibson’s Wandering Albatrosses.

Kath Walker and Graeme Elliott with a male Antipodean Wandering Albatross on Antipodes Island

Like some others who’ve written these photo essays, my partner Graeme Elliott and I began working on albatrosses accidentally.  Although we were (and still are) biologists working for the New Zealand Department of Conservation researching ways to recover threatened land birds (Graeme) and large land snails (me), an expedition in 1989 in search of the elusive and Vulnerable Auckland Rail Lewinia muelleri on Adams Island changed the course of our lives.  Whilst on Adams Island, we attempted very rough population estimates of all the other bird species, including the Gibson’s subspecies of the Antipodean Albatross.

Young Gibson’s Wandering Albatrosses courting on the southern slopes of Adams Island

The news that the Wandering Albatross D. exulans population on France’s Possession Island in the southern Indian Ocean had halved in the 1980s made us worry about the trends in the wandering albatross (sensu lato) populations on New Zealand’s sub-Antarctic islands.  While it was then thought the New Zealand birds comprised nearly half the world’s population of wandering albatrosses, their breeding grounds were seldom visited so there was little quantitative knowledge of the sizes, let alone the trends, of the albatross populations there.

An adult male Antipodean Wandering Albatross in flight, with characteristically black upper wing and sharply demarcated black cap on head

In 1991 on Adams Island with Peter Dilks and Jean-Claude Stahl, and later, on Antipodes Island with the help of Jacinda Amey, Gerry Clark and Gus McAllister, we started trying to count the numbers of pairs of breeding Gibson’s Wandering and Antipodean Wandering Albatrosses, respectively. However, both islands have such extensive albatross habitat and such deep tussock and scrub, it was difficult to obtain enough precision for trend calculations.

 
A pair of Gibson’s Wandering Albatrosses, with the female, identified by the scattering of dark feathers on the head, on the left

A pair of adult Antipodean Wandering Albatrosses (female on the right) displaying on Antipodes Island. The presence of a female - now outnumbered 3:1 by males on the breeding grounds - has inevitably attracted the attentions of another male (centre). The combination of black cap and black upper wings on the male are characteristic, and the easiest way to distinguish middle-aged male Antipodean from female Gibson’s Wandering Albatrosses at sea. Only old male Antipodean Wandering Albatrosses have some white on their “elbows”, by which time the black cap on their head is nearly gone.

So began the last 30 years of taking leave to organize and participate in annual expeditions to Adams and Antipodes Islands to study key population parameters in smaller better-defined portions of each island, as well as the bird’s at-sea distributions.  Many other colleagues have helped with the work over the years, particularly Peter McClelland, Sheryl Hamilton, Alan Wiltshire, Erica Sommer, Kalinka Rexer-Huber and Graham Parker.  At first both Gibson’s Wandering and Antipodean Wandering Albatross populations seemed to be recovering after declines during the 1980s.  But in 2005 these trajectories suddenly reversed, beginning a steep and long-lasting decline, particularly of the nominate population on Antipodes Island.  Research in recent years has concentrated on identifying the areas of overlap nowadays between longline fisheries and Antipodean Wandering Albatrosses, as changing oceanic conditions, and expanding ranges of both birds and fishers, seem to be increasing fatal bird/longliner interactions, particularly of females who use more northerly waters than do males.

A pair of older adult Gibson’s Wandering Albatrosses (female on the right) courting on the southern slopes of Mount Dick on Adams Island.  Note the characteristically large area of white feathers on both male and female’s “elbows”

Gibson’s Wandering and Antipodean Wandering Albatrosses behave more like separate species than subspecies, with distinctive plumage patterns and foraging distributions (albeit with a little overlap) and separate breeding grounds and timetables (Gibson’s breeding three weeks earlier than Antipodean).  Whereas this complicates description of a generalized “Antipodean” species in guidebooks, studying two discrete taxa at the same time using identical methods has proved helpful in untangling the causes of their differing population trajectories.

Flowering Southern Rata Metrosideros umbellata and Turpentine Scrub Dracophyllum uniflorum forest on the sheltered northern side of Adams Island, supplanted higher up by tussock and fellfield.  Although a few Gibson’s Wandering Albatrosses nest in the tussock on these northern slopes, most birds nest on the island’s southern slopes, necessitating a long walk for researchers from the boat landing over the summit ridge

For us the expense and difficulty of obtaining a 30-year dataset on a long-lived biennial species which breeds on remote uninhabited islands across angry seas and living for long periods in tents and basic huts are more than compensated for by the sheer joy of living where wild things and the natural world still predominate.  And the happiness is not just that we are lucky enough to be working with seabirds which live their lives on the surface of the land, rather than hidden deep within burrows.  Nor that these birds survive so long they’ve become familiar as individuals, with some observed for over 28 years as they fledged, partied with other teenagers, settled down 10 m from their parents, lost mates, and started again.  Equally it lies in the land itself, with Adams and Antipodes Islands as distinctive and addictive as their albatross inhabitants.  Adams Island at 11 000 ha is much bigger, higher, colder, wetter and grander than the more northerly 2000-ha Antipodes Island.  Although it does have a harsher climate, Adams Island at the southern end of the Auckland Island Group has an enviable sheltered harbour on one side which allows the growth of proper forest whilst Antipodes Island, farther from the New Zealand mainland, has a simpler vegetation of grasses, ferns and some low shrubland, and no safe anchorage.  With the successful removal of introduced House Mice from Antipodes Island in 2016, both islands are now near-pristine, essentially weed-free, full of megaherbs and teeming with birds.  The only way we’ve found to feel nearly comfortable about living in these “Gardens of Eden” continuing to bother the albatrosses with bands, tracking devices, counting, measuring and observing, is to work as hard as we can at ensuring these wonderful birds and wild places survive.

The cliffs of Perpendicular Point and Hut Cove on Antipodes Island, with a depot for castaways in the foreground, first erected in 1894

The great albatrosses of the genus Diomedea comprise two distinct types: the two primarily shelf-feeding royal albatrosses and the more pelagic “wandering” albatrosses, treated as four species by the Albatross and Petrel Agreement.  Given the strong kinship within the wandering-type complex, we prefer to use “wandering” as part of each common name for these four species originally placed within Diomedea exulans, despite it becoming not a group descriptor but the common name for just one in the wandering group - Diomedea exulans.  We’re eternally hopeful that our preference, initially suggested by one of our heroes of albatross conservation, Graham Robertson, will catch on!

Selected publications:

Elliott, G. & Walker, K. 2005.  Detecting population trends of Gibson's and Antipodean wandering albatrosses. Notornis 52: 215-222.

Elliott, G. & Walker, K. 2018.  Antipodean wandering albatross census and population study 2018.  Research Report prepared by Albatross Research for the New Zealand Department of Conservation.  18 pp.

Elliott, G. & Walker K. 2019.  Antipodean wandering albatross census and population study on Antipodes Island 2019.  Report prepared for the New Zealand Department of Conservation.  27 pp.

Elliott, G. & Walker, K. 2020.  Antipodean wandering albatross satellite tracking and population study Antipodes Island 2020.  Report prepared for the New Zealand Department of Conservation.  54 pp.

Elliott, G.P., Walker, K.J., Parker, G.C., Rexer-Huber, K. & Miskelly, C.M. 2020.  Subantarctic Adams Island and its birdlife.  Notornis 67: 153-187.

Francis, R.I.C.C., Elliott, G. & Walker, K. 2015. Fisheries risks to the viability of Gibson’s wandering Albatross Diomedea gibsoni.  New Zealand Aquatic Environment and Biodiversity Report 152.  48 pp.

Nicholls, D.G., Robertson C.J.R., Prince, P.A., Murray, M.D., Walker, K.J. & Elliott, G.P. 2002.  Foraging niches of three Diomedea albatrosses.  Marine Ecology Progress Series 231: 269-277.

Walker, K. & Elliott, G. 1999.  Population changes and biology of the wandering albatross Diomedea exulans gibsoni at the Auckland Islands.  Emu 99: 239-247.

Walker, K. & Elliott, G. 2005.  Population changes and biology of the Antipodean Wandering Albatross Diomedea antipodensis.  Notornis  52: 206-214.

Walker, K.J. & Elliott, G.P. 2006.  At-sea distribution of Gibson's and Antipodean wandering albatrosses, and relationships with longline fisheries.  Notornis 53: 265-290.

Walker, K.J., Elliott, G.P., Rexer-Huber, K., Parker, G.C., Sagar, P.M., McClelland, P.J. 2020.  Shipwrecks and mollymawks: an account of Disappointment Island birds.  Notornis  67: 213-245.

Kath Walker, Department of Conservation, New Zealand, 27 January 2022

 
A banded white morph Southern Giant Petrel, known as a ‘spirit geep’ on Bird Island

NOTE: This post continues an occasional series that features photographs of the 31 ACAP-listed species, along with information from and about their photographers.  Here Alexandra Dodds writes about the Southern Giant Petrels Macronectes giganteus (Least Concern) she studied and photographed on Bird Island in the South Atlantic, while working with the British Antarctic Survey.

Alex prepares to fit a colour band to a breeding Wandering Albatross Diomedea exulans on Bird Island; photograph by Ana Carneiro

Walking around Bird Island you can’t help but see where the idea for the name came from.  There are birds in the air, on the cliffs, covering the beaches and all over the mossy, muddy surfaces of the island.  I spent eighteen months there undertaking albatross fieldwork for the British Antarctic Survey, and while the Wandering Albatrosses may be the largest birds on the island, they certainly aren’t the only large avian characters.  Almost everywhere on the island, there are nesting giant petrels.

Southern Giant Petrels mating in the snow

A recently hatched Southern Giant Petrel chick is kept warm on its parent’s foot

On the nest, Southern Giant Petrels are caring and protective of their chicks.  During my second summer, one pair decided to nest right in the middle of a scree slope path, and they weren’t moving, no matter how many times we had to scramble past them, they were sitting tight and protecting their egg.  However, having seen giant petrels in both predator mode and parental mode, I’m sure that they have some level of multiple personality disorder.  It always amazed me how voracious they can be when fighting their way through the crowd to scavenge on a dead fur seal or dive bomb a mollymawk colony to pinch a chick for dinner, and yet they are the complete opposite when rearing their young.

A Southern Giant Petrel rests next to its downy chick on a sunny day

A hybrid breeding pair, Southern Giant Petrel on the left, with the green tinge to the end of the bill, and Northern Giant Petrel on the right, with the red tinge

Bird Island is towards the northernmost edge of the Southern Giant Petrels’ range, crossing over with the northern species, leading to some attempts at hybrid breeding.  The other natural phenomenon that the Southern Giant Petrels bring to the island is the ‘spirit geep’ as they are known in South Georgia (geep is a commonly used abbreviation for a giant petrel).  Spirit geeps are the white colour morph birds thar are more common the closer you are to the white continent of Antarctica but aren’t so commonly seen in the waters around Bird Island.

Walking around the island to check on Wanderer chicks, survey a Black-browed Albatross colony or scan cliffs for Light-mantled Albatross nests, I had the daily pleasure of seeing the natural behaviours and life events of Southern Giant Petrels.  I may have gone to Bird Island to work with albatrosses but the ‘geeps’ are also intertwined with the memories of my time there.

A post-guard white-morph Southern Giant Petrel chick and its Wandering Albatross neighbour

Alexandra Dodds, Market Rasen, United Kingdom, 26 January 2022