My Albatross Diary

The more I observe these birds, the more I see how many different types of social interactions they have.  One is what I note as a bill duel.   It usually involves two birds who do not know each other very well; at least they are two that I have not recorded interacting one on one.  There are different types of duels, but they all involve two albatrosses tapping bills.  Sometimes it is gentle, sometimes it is more energetic and loud.

There is often an aggressive edge to the duels.  It reminds me of an activity I used to record sometimes for juvenile and adult chimpanzees.  They would start out playing, then there was a palpable tension in the air and suddenly they were fighting.

Sometimes it really looks like a sword fight.  But in the interaction below, the birds grab at each other in between tapping bills, a variation less common than simple bill contact. It would be interesting to see what types of interactions the participants have in the future, and that is the type of thing I plan to look at when all of my data is put into a relational database and I can examine social interactions through the years.

For everyone who needs a chick fix:

For four days I watched the quiet progress of the first chick to work his way out of his egg.  There is little variation in the hatching times of albatross chicks: 65 days, with 2 days on either side, covers the great majority.

The first day there was a teeny, tiny hole.  It was so small I put my stronger glasses on to make sure of what I was seeing.  If the egg had not been so clean, I probably would not have seen the new opening.  The pin-prick hole would not have shown on any photo that I could have taken.

The next day the hole was large enough so I could grab my iPhone and quickly get one photo.

KP304’s egg is hatching

closeup of KP304’s egg

KP304 has raised 5 chicks successfully and knows the drill.  An albatross parent will not try to help the chick during the hatching process, other than to bend over the egg and offer sounds of encouragement.  That vocalizing is important.  The majority of Laysan albatrosses live in large colonies.  Hearing a parent’s voice frequently can help the chick to find Mom or Dad and get a crucial meal.

There is a calcareous growth at the tip of the bill that the chick uses to help break through the shell.  It eventually falls off after the chick has hatched.  Here is a picture of the egg tooth on a chick from a previous year.  Often that is the first part of a chick that an observer will see as the chick pecks his way out of the egg-shell.

Close-up of egg tooth

The third day, the hole was a bit larger.  I could see the chick’s bill moving.

Day 3 of hatching,KP304

There was no way to predict exactly when this chick would get out of the egg.  It is not uncommon for hatching to start out slow, then suddenly speed up.  A healthy chick will gain strength as hatching progresses.  Once he is out, the chick will be wet and exhausted, and the parent will keep him warm and safe.  Once the other parent comes back and sees that there is a chick, the parents will switch off much more frequently than before, and not just because he chick will need plenty of warm fish oil produced by the parents.  The parents are both irresistibly drawn to the fluffy little bird.  Sometimes a shoving match breaks out between the two; how much cuter is a chick than an egg?

On the fourth day, KP304 did not want to stand up, and I certainly was not going to make him.  I did get a glimpse of the wet chick, mostly exposed to the air but still wiggling out of the shell.  What I cared about most was that he was moving.

On the fifth day, KP304 actually stood up long enough for me to grab a quick photo with my iPhone.  The chick was sleeping on Daddy’s webbed feet.  His head was drier than his body.

KP304 and new chick

KP304 hatched 14 years ago in the same area he has chosen to nest in.  He is an interesting character, just like every other albatross I have ever studied.

Generally the male first returns to the nest within several days of the laying date.  He takes over the longest incubation stint, 3 weeks or even longer.  Laying an egg is exhausting for the female, she must return to the ocean to eat and to build up her reserves.

In 2009-2010, K674 laid her egg on December 4th.  When she had been sitting on it for 6 days, KP304 returned and sat next to her.  The next day, he was gone.  The day after that, he returned and spent a couple of days with her.  He disappeared and spent 6 days away from the nest.  He finally relieved her the day after that.

So K674 spent a total of 15 days sitting on the egg she laid, while KP304 was coming and going.

This is highly unusual behavior for an albatross.  Did I tell you that words like “never” and “always” should be stricken from an albatross observer’s vocabulary?

The couple did not nest in the 2010-2011 season.

In the 2011-2012 season, KP304 took over incubation duties the day after K674 laid the egg, just the way he is supposed to.

2012-2013:  K674 was left alone on her egg for 12 days.  Then KP304 showed up but did not sit on the egg.  A week after he returned, after sitting some distance away from the nest,  he finally replaced his mate on the nest.  K674 had laid her egg, then incubated it for 17 days before she was relieved of her duty.

2013-2014:  KP304 showed up 8 days after the egg was laid.  He changed regularly with his mate after that.

2014-2015: KP304 was on the egg two days after it was laid.  Unfortunately, their chick died within a few weeks.

2015-2016:  He took on the first incubation shift in a timely manner.  His mate came back to relieve him and was on the nest for 18 days before he came back to sit next to her.  He was gone by the next day, and she continued to incubate their egg for a total of 29 days, a very long incubation period.

One thing is certain. He will be a good father to this chick.  No matter how reluctant he may sometimes be to assume his incubation duties, he has always proven that once the chick is here, he is all devoted dad.  He will clack at anyone, bird or human, who gets too close to his baby.  He will find food for the chick, a job that becomes increasingly time-consuming and exhausting as the chick grows and requires more nourishment.

No matter what his foibles, quirks, and peccadilloes, he is first and foremost an albatross.

And that makes him pretty special.

It looks like we are going to have our first great-grandchick this year.  He looks young for a great-grandpa, don’t you think?

Great-grandpa lookin’ good!

There was no monitoring of nests in Princeville until 1991.  The first record of KP505, Joseph, is from the 1991-1993 season, when he was the parent of a chick.  Records show that he had been banded as an adult in March of 1989 at the PMRF (Pacific Missile Range Facility.)  I have never seen an adult younger than 3 years old, so if we assume that he was at least three when he was banded, his age is at least 30.

Joseph is the grandfather of a male who is attending an egg at his first nest.  Joseph’s daughter is also on a nest, not far from her son.  This is part of what makes these birds so interesting.  As the years pass we get to see the new generations hatching, fledging, coming back and raising their own chicks.  They may not get together at the holidays, but they are living lives in close proximity to each other.  Do they remember each other?  They have a very good sense of smell.  Do close relatives have a similar smell?  If a couple raises a chick from the PMRF, does the little one have a different smell?

These are just a few of the questions that keep an observer observing.  As time passes, I learn more and more about their relationships.  So far, I have never seen relatives forming pairs, even though they live in close proximity to each other.  One of my side projects is checking to see whether I have ever recorded relatives other than mates displaying with each other.  This is a very imperfect study, since I have been observing them for 12 years and do not know all of their relationships, but it should be very interesting to check on the ones that I know are related.

Writing this in my blog forces me to follow through, that is actually a good reason to write these posts.  I’m sorry I have slacked off lately, the holidays were busy for me, and now I have a new dog to get used to.  But stay with me and we can learn some new things about these birds together.  And there are an amazing number of facts left to discover.  Each new piece of information seems to be wrapped around several more.  It is a never-ending quest, but every life should have some of those to shake things up and keep the old brain in working condition.

People often say that some of the stories I share about the Princeville albatrosses sound like a soap opera.  Pull up a chair and listen to anther one while the violinists warm up in the background.

KP736 is a female who has raised 5 chicks with her mate, male KP730.  This year she laid an egg in a beautiful spot, an area in some vegetation that the homeowners had trimmed just for the albatrosses.  She and her mate had raised a chick here before, Niko.

She sat on the egg for 3 days.  When I checked on the fourth day, 736 was gone and 730 was sitting across the street from the nest.

Not on the egg, within sight of it.  Not much help to a cold egg.  He must have taken over incubation before his mate left or she would have stayed at her post.  He probably walked across the street when he knew she was gone.

The next day he was actually incubating it, but I heard from others that he had been leaving it alone from time to time.  This is very unusual behavior for this guy.  He once tried to hatch a fluorescent green tennis ball.  This is the kind of behavior that does not appear in books like Eye of the Albatross.

How is the decision made to raise a chick or not?  Who gets final say, and how is this communicated to the other bird?  Is it communicated?  Is it dictated by physiology?  If food is scarce are they less likely to nest?  All good questions that need some answers.

He was gone for the next week.  Five days after he left, KP943, a female who has raised two chicks with her mate, had taken over nesting duties.

In all of my years of observation, I have never seen an experienced nester sitting on an abandoned egg.  In the ethogram of behaviors I have created for the Laysan albatross, this would fall under “other.”  Sometimes non-nesters will sit on abandoned eggs as if to show possible mates that they look natural sitting there.  It is not necessary for a nester to attract a mate, and clearly any chick that would hatch would not be carrying her genes.

The next day, KP944 showed up at the nest and took over incubation duties from his mate, KP943; he had no reason to think that she had not laid the egg.  A few days later, KP730 returned and stayed sitting across the street for a bit over 2 weeks.  Since he never showed any interest in the egg, even when a non-related bird started to incubate it, I am guessing that he was just waiting for KP736 to return.

She did return, after he had finally left the area.  When she came back she found another female sitting on her egg.  KP943 had returned to relieve her mate and had been at the nest for a week.

Unfortunately, I did not see their first meeting.  I found KP736 sitting about 4 feet from the nest, looking directly at it, and at the interloper who had taken over her egg.  To make the scene even more tantalizing to an observer, Niko, the albatross that K736 had raised with her mate in the same location, was sitting about 5 feet away from her.

KP730 watching her nest

Moral support?

Curiosity?

A huge coincidence?

Kp736 stayed there, watching her nest, for 3 days.  On the fourth day, she and KP943 were gone.  The egg was cracked and liquid had oozed from it into the nest.  There was no embryonic chick inside.  The egg had been sitting untended for 5 days, there was no way it could have survived.

I know that I will see both couples together here again this season.  It always amazes me how much time they actually do spend here, even when they are not nesting.  It doesn’t quite fit the picture we have been given of these birds, but that is one of the biggest motivations for observing them every day.  Just when I feel like an Albatross Whisperer who can predict their behavior, they let me know that the more experienced we observers are, the more likely we will learn how much we have left to discover about these birds.

That is my joy, and that is my curse.

643 watches blu230 on nest

The bird on the left is KP643, who has been spending some non-nesting time in my neighborhood with her mate, KP338.  They are both females and they have been nesting in this area for longer than I have been collecting data.  They have raised 4 chicks together.

2005-2006: Hanai, the male (I think) currently sitting on my nest, was a PMRF chick, part of a program to replace infertile eggs on the north shore with good eggs from albatrosses at the Pacific Missile Range Facility.

2007-2008:  A chick that was named Lilikoi at her original nest was moved by a biologist to be raised by 643 and 338 when her father did not return to the nest; her biological mother had to leave her to find food to keep herself alive.  643 and 338 had an infertile egg which they were diligently incubating.  They were delighted to be given a chick to raise.  The owners of the property named her Logan, after the son they were expecting.

2008-2009:  Their PMRF chick died of a variety of infections.

The next 5 years they laid eggs and incubated them faithfully, although they were all infertile.

And last year, they raised Pip, who fledged in July.

Back to the photograph at the beginning of this post

The albatross on the right is 643’s son, Hanai, who is sitting on his first nest waiting for his mate to return.

Did they recognize each other?  I would guess that they did.  They may all look alike to us, but they can certainly tell each other apart.  Hanai spent about 5 months anticipating his mothers’ visits.  Imagine a chick living on Midway, with about half a million nests.  Distinguishing Mom from all the other parents could be a matter of life and death.  It is also critically important for Mom to be able pick her baby out of the crowds of chicks.

Furthermore, these are birds who use their sense of smell to help them to locate food.  Does their own chick smell different from another?  Of course this opens a new bag of questions.  How would scientists test whether a parent could recognize the presence of a chick by smell?  Would relatives have a similar odor?  If so, what about a PMRF chick, who had different biological parents?

Did Hanai clack at his mother the way he clacks at any albatross or human that he feels is too close to his nest?  Clacking, by the way, refers to a sound they make by opening and closing their bills very fast.  It varies in speed and loudness, depending on the occasion.

Hanai gave his mother a few slow clacks, not the frantic ones reserved for most intruders.  Everyone gets the clacking, some more than others.  Now that he is used to seeing me walking my dog by his nest, he gives us one brief loud one rather than the usual noisy “Don’t come any closer!” sequence.  Chico has learned to avoid the big noisy birds so he is not a clack-worthy threat.

One of the greatest privileges of observing the albatrosses frequently and over many years is getting to know who is related to whom and to watch their interactions.  Another one is seeing the chicks who fledged from here grow up and return to have their own chicks, adding to the intertwined family trees that connect these birds to each other.  It all combines to make Princeville the perfect place for people whose curiosity about the Laysan albatross has not yet been sated by what has been written about them.  There are way more questions than there are answers.

For those of us who know that there is still much to learn about the Laysan albatross, that is as it should be.

Yesterday marks the official start of the nesting season for the Princeville albatrosses.  Two eggs have been laid.

This is a photo of a new mom, bluKP416, and her mate, KP400.  Last year was their first season nesting together, and unfortunately they had an egg which failed to develop.

First nest in Princeville

Sometimes they build a nest before the egg is laid, in other instances the nest is built up around the egg.  It should be interesting to watch the parents pulling grass and possibly digging a moat around the nest, which can prevent flooding when it rains.

In another area, an unbanded bird was yanking vegetation and stuffing it around herself (or himself) while sitting on a brand new egg.  This is a bird who has never nested in the area.  There may be a mate, or this could be a female who is on her own.

There will be more eggs in days to come, undoubtedly.  Let us hope that all of the chicks will be well fed, that the parents will not face a drastic reduction in their food supply caused by the warming of ocean water by El Nino.

It has been a long time between albatrosses.  They are now starting their return to Princeville.  The first ones are usually the experienced nesters and a few who found a mate last season and will hopefully be nesting with them for the first time.  But there are always some of the older non-nesters, too.

Between November 10th and November 14th, I saw just 4 birds, three nesters and one unbanded bird.  Then yesterday, there were suddenly 7 more.

KP304 was one of the first back, and is sitting in the very same area where he first pecked his way out of an egg in 2002.  He met his mate there and they raised 5 chicks together, but last year their chick died early in the season.  Yesterday he was joined by his mate, K674.  They were gently grooming each other when I saw them.  I always think of that as married couple behavior, since it is usually seen in couples who are planning to nest together.

first time together,11/15/15

KP400 is sitting next door to his favorite nest site.  He returned to the area he fledged from 13 years ago.  His first mate failed to return one season, and last year his new mate laid their first egg.  Unfortunately, the embryo stopped developing early and the egg broke.

KP302 is not nesting near the spot where he lived as a chick during the 2001-2002 season.  Usually they do return to the same area, but not always.  Last year the chick that he and his mate were raising died.  It is not common for chicks to die, but last year we lost three of them.

I have no information about the two unbanded albatrosses that are here.  I have no idea where they came from or whether I have seen them before.  They could be birds I have seen many times before, or they might have flown here from another location, perhaps even Midway.

One female that has been coming here since I first started to collect data is also back.  Unfortunately, she often abandons her eggs.  I wish her mate would find a female who would complement his parental skills so he would never again have to come back to an abandoned egg at his nest, but I know he will be joining his long-time partner.  I wish he would surprise me this season.  I feel sorry for the female, but even more sorry for her mate.

Last season one male in my neighborhood took turns with his mate incubating a bad egg long past its due date.  Larry and Dora incubated their egg way past the time when it should have hatched.  The nest was safely hidden behind some bushes.  Their first nest, the season before, had been just a few feet away from the street.  They abandoned their first egg soon after Dora laid it, not unusual behavior for first-time parents.  Seeing the care they took last season with the bad egg and their choice of such a good nest site, I think they will be good parents.

A female on the golf course is waiting for her female partner.  Once in 6 years they had a good egg; I named their chick Miracle.

The other albatrosses who have returned include two who have never nested before.  One  of these has been coming here since 2006.  Will she ever find a mate?

The most difficult part of waiting for them to return is the recognition that some nesters will not be coming back.  A non-nester may move to another area in Kaua’i, but if a nester disappears he most likely died.  At least, I have never seen one return here, nor have I heard of one ending up in another part of Kaua’i.  The surviving mate will probably wait somewhere near the location of their last nest, then this year or next season will begin the long process of finding someone else to raise a chick with.  Sadly, some of them have been searching for several years or more.

We may not have many chicks this year, which has been predicted to be a big El Nino year.  The ocean water is warming up and this affects the food chain, from the tiniest organism up to apex predators like albatrosses.  If the parents know that they will have a difficult time finding food for themselves, they are less likely to attempt to raise a chick.

Climate change could bring more El Ninos in the future, affecting many of the seabirds who depend on a stable ocean environment.  Albatross numbers will go down as they lose valuable nesting islands to the rising sea level and as food sources dwindle.  We can make their lives in Hawaii less stressful by staying a good distance away from them, by respecting their right to live peacefully in a world they are forced to share with beings that sometimes feel compelled to stand just a few feet away from them.

There are people who cannot enjoy watching an animal that is not noticing them back.  They are simply unable to stand in the background and quietly observe.  But to learn about the albatross  we must depend upon patience, respect, and careful observation.  It is impossible to see their normal behavior when they are trying to cope with intruders.

The albatross will reward our good behavior not by looking up at us, but by not even noticing our presence.

Nash spent the day before my birthday leading local residents on a merry chase through the neighborhood, leaving his safety zone to make his way to a good takeoff spot, then returning to his nest area to sit quietly as though nothing had happened.  His next door neighbor, Aggie, participated in the goings-on as well, although she took another route before returning to her home.

On my birthday, Aggie waited until nobody was watching and fledged, but Nash was considerate enough to let his intentions be known.  We followed him out to the bluff, staying far enough away from him that he would not be wasting any energy avoiding his human admirers.

Instead of walking over to the perfect fledging spot, he climbed down into grassy bluffs below, too perilously close to cliff edges for the humans who were watching him.  Note that an albatross may use those long wings for balance.

He tried a takeoff but was way too low, so he came down on the hill below.  Slowly, laboriously, he made his way back up and tried again.

More attempts followed.

Triumph!

Farewell, my friend.  May you find an endless supply of squid, fish and flying fish eggs and be as good a parent as your mother and father, “Mr. and Mrs. Fluffy.”

And may Princeville always be home to humans who feel an unbreakable connection to all of our wild relatives.  Here’s a toast to all of you who watch out for these birds and clap and cheer for them when they take that first step off the ocean bluff and into the future.