UPDATED: Midway Atoll's Short-tailed Albatross pair has an egg for the second year

Following its successful breeding last season on Eastern Island, Midway Atoll the Short-tailed Albatross Phoebastria albatrus pair is back this month, with the male currently incubating.

Visit "Pete at Midway"·to see a photo of the male on its egg which the female laid on the 9th before heading back to sea, leaving the male to take the first incubation shift.  More information is on the U.S. Fish & Wildlife web site for the Midway Atoll National Wildlife Reserve.

 The pair's chick from the 2010/11 season fledged on or about 16 June, having survived the Japanese tsunami (click here).

 

 

Midway's male Short-tailed Albatross·is back and incubating again
Photographed by John Klavitter in 2010

The female-female pair of STALs have also returned to Kure Atoll and have laid two, presumably once more infertile, eggs, as they did last season (click here).

Pete's Midway Blog also depicts some intriguing albatross art made with cigarette lighters that are fed to chicks on Midway, as well as carrying reports on progress with the lead-abatement programme to reduce the·poisoning of Laysan Albatross P. immutabilis chicks which ingest flakes that have fallen of the old buildings on the island (click here).

John Cooper, ACAP Information Officer, 16 November 2011, updated 17 November 2011

The Agreement on the
Conservation of Albatrosses and Petrels

ACAP is a multilateral agreement which seeks to conserve listed albatrosses, petrels and shearwaters by coordinating international activity to mitigate known threats to their populations.

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