Antipodean Albatrosses at sea, artwork by James Allan

Inspired by his photographs taken at sea, Australian artist, James Allan, has produced a linocut of two flying Antipodean Albatrosses Diomedea antipodensis.  The species, endemic to New Zealand, is categorized as globally Endangered, and Nationally Critical in New Zealand, and has been recognized as a Species of Special Concern by the Albatross and Petrel Agreement.  ACAP ACAP Latest News reached out to James, who lives in Adelaide Hills, South Australia, to learn more about his artwork, and about him.

James describes himself as an amateur artist, writing” I was taught lino printing in Grade 6 at school.  My teacher asked me to make prints in the art centre on the school open day. I have been largely self-taught since then, but have attended classes with the  Ruth Tuck Art School in the last few months.”

He describes the process he follows: “I usually draw the design on a piece of linoleum with a pencil and carve it out with a v-shaped chisel.  Larger white areas are removed with a u-shaped chisel. It helps to create textures to represent different tonal values.  Ink is applied with a rubber roller and paper is placed onto the inked lino and pressure applied.  At the printing school a large metal press is used.  At home I can press the paper with a metal spoon.  It is possible to cut several different lines to represent different colours  I often colour the print by applying a water colour wash., a bit like colouring in a colouring-in book.”

James continues: “The design of the two Antipodean Albatrosses was cut into vinyl.  This has slightly different properties to linoleum, being firmer and elastic. It is the largest print I have ever made at 30x40 cm.  A colour version was designed using Photoshop, but will be painted by hand when I do my final run.  The colours will vary from print to print.  The print can also be produced in black and white, and I think it looks very handsome without colour.”

Dorsal view.  Inspiration for the linocut, Antipodean Albatross at sea, 07 April 2024, photograph by Frances and James Allan

James, along with his wife Frances, joined a pelagic tour out of Port MacDonnell, South Australia run by David Harper. on 7 April 2024, the third they have attended.  “We were excited to see Buller's Albatross Thalassarche bulleri for the first time.  We met many excellent birders on the trip who were keen to teach us both about the pelagic birds we saw.  During the trip we both took photographed Antipodean Albatrosses quite close to the boat, flying in, circling and feeding on the water.  I was taken by the vermiculation of some of the adult birds and thought it would make a good design.”

Ventral view.  Inspiration for the linocut, Antipodean Albatross at sea, 07 April 2024, photograph by Frances and James Allan

He continues “I chose the flying albatross design as it conveyed the enormity of the birds we saw with their outstretched wings.  One albatross is seen from the dorsal aspect, the other ventral.  The waves and clouds are important elements and were also adapted from photos we took.  The final design is a collage of different photographs with a little bit of artistic licence.  I feel that it is always better to design the print than to merely reproduce exact detail from a photograph.  In lino designs you have a limited palate of line and texture, which means you need to learn to be more expressive with what you have.  One of the things that drew me to this medium in the first place, is that lino prints often have a charm for simplicity, expressive marks and clever design.”

James ends by saying that he is still learning and regards himself as a beginner but plans a print run of his albatross linocut.  ACAP’s Emeritus Information Officer wants one!

John Cooper, Emeritus Information Officer, Agreement on the Conservation of Albatrosses and Petrels, 18 October 2024

A Black Petrel near its burrow on Great Barrier Island, photograph by Joanna Sims

Elizabeth ‘Biz’ Bell (Blenheim, New Zealand) has determined the incubation period for 110 eggs of the ACAP-listed Black Petrel Procellaria parkinsoni as to be a mean of 56.5 days, with a range of 42 to 71 days, based on information collected over 12 breeding seasons.

The information was collected as part of a long-term study of the Vulnerable petrel on Great Barrier Island/Aotea, and has been published in the journal Notornis.

Reference:

Bell, E. A. 2024. When one pair is enough: determining the incubation period for tākoketai | black petrels (Procellaria parkinsoni). Notornis 71: 57-58.

17 October 2024

An Atlantic Yellow-nosed Albatross in waters off Tristan Da Cunha; photograph by Ross Wheeler

Melinda G. Connors (School of Marine and Atmospheric Sciences, Stony Brook University, USA) and colleagues have published in the Journal of Experimental Biology on the energy costs of dynamic soaring on albatrosses.

The paper’s abstract follows: 

“Estimates of movement costs are essential for understanding energetic and life-history trade-offs. Although overall dynamic body acceleration (ODBA) derived from accelerometer data is widely used as a proxy for energy expenditure (EE) in free-ranging animals, its utility has not been tested in species that predominately use body rotations or exploit environmental energy for movement. We tested a suite of sensor-derived movement metrics as proxies for EE in two species of albatrosses, which routinely use dynamic soaring to extract energy from the wind to reduce movement costs. Birds were fitted with a combined heart-rate, accelerometer, magnetometer and GPS logger, and relationships between movement metrics and heart rate-derived V̇_O2, an indirect measure of EE, were analyzed during different flight and activity modes. When birds were exclusively soaring, a metric derived from angular velocity on the yaw axis provided a useful proxy of EE. Thus, body rotations involved in dynamic soaring have clear energetic costs, albeit considerably lower than those of the muscle contractions required for flapping flight. We found that ODBA was not a useful proxy for EE in albatrosses when birds were exclusively soaring. As albatrosses spend much of their foraging trips soaring, ODBA alone was a poor predictor of EE in albatrosses. Despite the lower percentage of time flapping, the number of flaps was a useful metric when comparing EE across foraging trips. Our findings highlight that alternative metrics, beyond ODBA, may be required to estimate energy expenditure from inertial sensors in animals whose movements involve extensive body rotations.”

Reference:

Conners, M.G., Green, J.A., Phillips., R.A., Orben, R.A., Cui, C., Djurić, P.M., Heywood, E., Vyssotski, A.L. & Thorne, L.H. 2024.  Dynamic soaring decouples dynamic body acceleration and energetics in albatrosses. J. Exp. Biol. 227 (18): jeb247431. doi: https://doi.org/10.1242/jeb.247431

16 October 2024

 The colour-banded Indian Yellow-nosed Albatross at ‘The Petrel Station’

UPDATE:  Thierry Boulinier, Projecr Manager writes "this individual had been vaccinated against avian cholera as part of the research project carried out by our group at CEFE, CNRS-Université Montpellier, on infectious disease circulation in south polar seabirds (French Polar Institute IPEV project 1151-ECOPATH."  Karine Delord adds the bird was banded in March 2024,  Karine Delord adds: "juvenile banded in March 2024 by Lucie (volunteer of the Thierry Boulinier IPEV project) and vaccinated against fowl cholera at around 10 days old".

A colour-banded Indian Yellow-nosed Albatross Thalassarche carteri was spotted at sea on a ‘pelagic’ seabird-watching tour at ‘The Petrel Station’ on the shelf edge, approximately 40 km offshore on the shelf edge off Tutukaka, North Island, New Zealand on 22 September 2024.  Photographed by Aaron Skelton, the juvenile bird, so identified by only a faint trace of yellow on its upper mandible, was carrying the colour band white EW4 on its right leg.

Close-up!  Colour bands, and a good camera, allow for individual identification at sea

Following an inquiry, it was confirmed by a French research team that the bird was banded as a chick in the most recent (2023/24) breeding season as part of a long-term monitoring programme on France’s Amsterdam Island in the southern Indian Ocean that is funded by the French Polar Institute Paul-Émile Victor (IPEV) as part of the project “Seabirds and Marine Mammals as Sentinels of Global Change in the Southern Ocean” (Project: 109 ORNITHO2E), The population on Amsterdam has plummeted in recent decades, notably due to avian cholera.

White EW4 in flight, all photographs by Aaron Skelton

The Petrel Station Seabird Tours & Research - Tutukaka, New Zealand writes of the record of an Endangered Indian Yellow-nosed Albatross on its Facebook page:

“These stunning [albatrosses] are extremely scarce off the New Zealand coast with few records in the last 20 odd years.  Back in the 1980's they were the most common albatross species in our area but due to fishing bycatch and disease at their Indian Ocean breeding sites their numbers have plummeted resulting in fewer now reaching the NZ coast.”

Ian Sinclair writes of this photograph of the banded bird by Aaron Skelton; "Yes, Indian YNA. tell by the faint yellow on the bill near the base being pointed."
And Ian will know, his careful field observations on Gough and Prince Edward Islands were instrumental in the yellow-nosed albatross being separated into two species

Read the trip report for the tour on which the colour-banded albatross was seen and photographed here.

With thanks to Thierry Boulinier,  CEFE, CNRS-Université Montpellier, France and Karine Delord, Centre d'études biologiques de Chizé, France and Ian Sinclair for information.

Reference:

Brooke, R.K., Sinclair, J.C. & Berruti. A. 1980.  Geographical variation in Diomedea.chlororhynchos (Aves: Diomedeidae)  Durban Museum Novitates 12 (15).

John Cooper, Emeritus Information Officer, Agreement on the Conservation of Albatrosses and Petrels, 26 September 2024, updated 27 Setember 2024