The annual albatross count is underway on Midway Atoll

The 2024/25 count is underway behind this incubating Laysan Albatross

In an article entitled “Experiences of a Volunteer Bird Counter” Dan Rapp has written and posted his videos on the website of the Friends of Midway Atoll National Wildlife Refuge of the 2024/2025 count.

 Dan’s edited text follows:

“0n 9 December, bird counters arrived at Kuaihelani.Pihemanu.Midway Atoll as they do every year. They arrived after dark which greatly minimizes albatross disturbance and especially the likelihood their small plane does not strike any of the hundreds of thousands of seabirds in the height of the nesting season on the Midway Atoll National Wildlife Refuge.  This year their manual count will be compared and tested against the ability of a drone to document accurately the number of albatross nests throughout three islands within the Atoll.  A bird counter's time and energy working 48 hours a week for a month in December through mid-January contributes to one of the longest and most consistent monitoring seabird data sets in the world.  Precision and focus are critical, and one must have the physical stamina, agility and ability to walk on uneven ground without harming or disturbing nesting albatross or collapsing Nunulu or Bonin Petrel Pterodroma hypoleuca nests under a shifting sandy surface.

 
"The Bird Counters are headed to a sector on Eastern Island at daybreak on their daily sojourn to count albatross nests"

“Each burrow-shaped entrance or tunnel, that appears to run along the surface of the sand, is excavated by a nesting Bonin Petrel pair which makes its nest by digging a deep burrow that runs parallel to the surface before the burrow runs deeper to create a safe nest cavity.  The weight of one human foot can easily collapse one of these burrows unless so-called burrow shoes distribute a person's weight evenly.   The counter must also be constantly aware of where to carefully step next.  Often stepping next to the lower side of a burrow entrance is usually the safest bet for both birds and counters.

"Near the fringing reef at Midway Atoll where Ka’upu (Black-footed Albatross) nest along side the Laysan Albatross"

“By general observation it appears there are more Mōlī (Laysan Albatross) this year than the past couple of years.  Time will tell when the cumulative daily numbers are tallied after counters finish walking in a methodical pattern step-by-step, click-by-click in their clumsy homemade shoes on each square foot of three islands within the Midway Atoll National Wildlife Refuge.”

Burrow shoes, also known as”clown shoes”, are  worn during the Annual Bird Count

In response to a query posted to the Facebook page of the Friends of Midway Atoll National Wildlife Refuge on using drone photography instead of counting by foot, a reply by an experienced Midway counter states “It has been tried.  Winter winds, bushes and trees, resting but not nesting birds, etc, all make for drone challenges.”  Collisions with flying albatrosses could also be an issue when flying drones in daylight hours, which could lead to mortalities, as has occurred in the past with daytime airplane flights in the Northwestern Hawaiian Islands (click here).  Night-time landings are clearly safer for both the birds and the plane’s occupants!

A satellite view of Sand (left) and Eastern Islands in the Midway Atoll

The annual counts commenced in 1992, so the current count is the 34th.

John Cooper, Emeritus Information Officer, Agreement on the Conservation of Albatrosses and Petrels, 07 January 2025