The paper’s abstract follows:

On 15 April the Hawaiian island of Kauai was hit by a massive storm that caused extensive flooding and damage in the northern part of the island (click here and here). Rainfall in the 24-hour period of the storm was measured at 48 inches [1.2 m], and is being reviewed as the most rainfall in one day ever recorded anywhere in the U.S.A. (click here).

After the storm: washed-away vehicles and a public rest room building in a river bed

ACAP Latest News reached out to its Hawaiian contacts to ask how the island’s north-shore breeding Laysan Albatrosses Phoebastria immutabilis had fared through the downpour.

Cathy Granholm of Princeville in the north of Kauai wrote to ACAP Latest News:

“All of the 24 Princeville chicks made it safely through the storms. We all tend to give these birds our human qualities, but even surrounded by “civilization,” they lead the albatross life. MK, the chick in my yard, had access to shelter, yet she chose to sit totally unprotected as thunder and lightning shook my house, and while the heaviest rain I can ever remember formed rivers through my yard. She sits alone most of the time, with the occasional visit by a pesky non-nester. She has no reason to be afraid of anything.  It is not a question of courage, she is a part of the natural world, she meets challenges as they arise; she has no time to waste in the human activity of anticipating problems. MK spent the day after the storm grooming her feathers, having lost more of her baby fluff to the rain” (click here).

Laysan Albatross MK, a little bedraggled after the storm, photograph by Cathy Granholm

Kauai’s Hob Osterlund of Kauai also wrote to ALN: “I do not know of any Moli [Laysan Albatross] injuries or deaths related to the storms and floods. All the Moli chicks at the Cornell cam site are fine [the cameras were down but are now active again]. Since LAAL prefer to nest on bluffs, they are usually safe from floods. The KPNWR [Kīlauea Point National Wildlife Refuge] reports that all the Moli chicks there are OK after the storms. One chick came very close to being nailed by a falling tree, but got lucky. As Kauai gradually recovers from massive rains and subsequent life-altering floods, Mōlī parents keep right on feeding their football-sized chicks.”

It seems the albatrosses’ habit of breeding on bluffs above the island’s coastline made them less at risk from the flooding that occurred in lower-lying areas along the north shore, such as occurred in the town of Hanalei close to the higher ground of the Princeville community where albatrosses breed in private gardens. Good to know that the current cohort of 162 chicks (72 within the refuge, the rest on private lands, including Princeville) along Kauai’s northern shore all survived the storm and that Laysan Albatrosses on Kauai continue to have their human guardians. Mahalo to them all!

According to a posting today on the Pacific Rim Conservation's Facebook page the Nihoku predator-proof fence on Kauai wasn’t badly damaged by the storm despite sediment piling up. The fenced area where translocations have occurred of globally Vulnerable Hawaiian Petrels Pterodroma sandwichensis and globally Endangered Newell’s Shearwaters Puffinus newelli over the last three seasons still appears to be pest free.

With thanks to Cathy Granholm (My Albatross Diary) and Hob Osterlund (Kauaʻi Albatross Network).

John Cooper, ACAP Information Officer, 01 May 2018

The Museum of New Zealand – Te Papa Tongarewa in Wellington supports an active ornithological research programme that extends beyond the classic museum studies of taxonomy and osteology to active field work on seabirds at their mainly island breeding sites.

The museum posts a series of biodiversity blogs on its website, a number of which reports on field trips after seabirds that have been taken by staff members. The most recent blog, by regular contributor Colin Miskelly, describes how he joined a Department of Conservation team to study the globally Vulnerable Chatham Petrel Pterodroma axillaris and other burrowing seabirds on introduced predator-free Rangatira Island, a 219-ha designated nature reserve in the Chatham Group. Rangatira’s fragile ground requires the wearing of “petrel boards” to reduce the chances of collapsing burrows when checking the contents of over 200 nest boxes installed from the mid 1990s.  The boxes have been provided with flaps over their entrances to deter entrance by Broad-billed Prions Pachyptila vittata.

A downy Chatham Petrel chick held by Graeme Taylor, photograph by Helen Gummer

 Earlier blogs by Colin Miskelly this year describe Te Papa involvement in field trips to the Auckland Islands studying albatrosses and burrowing petrels. Other species reported on include the globally Endangered and ACAP-listed Westland Petrel Procellaria westlandica, studied by Te Papa scientist Susan Waugh and colleagues (click here).

Te Papa has partnered with Birds New Zealand and the Department of Conservation to develop NZ Birds Online, a digital encyclopaedia of New Zealand birds, which, inter alia includes images, sound files and information for many of the 31 ACAP-listed albatrosses, petrels and shearwaters.

Read more about New Zealand's conservation work with Chatham Petrels here.

With thanks to Colin Miskelly.

Selected Literature on Rangatira's Chatham Petrels:

Gummer, H., Taylor, G., Wilson, K.-J. & Rayner, M.J. 2015. Recovery of the endangered Chatham petrel (Pterodroma axillaris): a review of conservation management techniques from 1990 to 2010. Global Ecology and Conservation 3: 310-323.

Nilsson, R.J., Kennedy, E.S. & West, J.A. 1994. The birdlife of South East Island (Rangatira), Chatham Islands, New Zealand. Notornis (Supplement) 41: 27-37.

Rayner, M.J, Taylor, G.A., Gummer, H.D., Phillips, R.A., Sagar, P.M., Shaffer, S.A. & Thompson, D.R. 2012. The breeding cycle, year-round distribution and activity patterns of the endangered Chatham petrel (Pterodroma axillaris). Emu 112: 107-116.

West, J. A. & Nilsson, R. J. 1994. Habitat use and burrow densities of burrow-nesting seabirds on South East Island, Chatham Islands, New Zealand.  Notornis (Supplement) 41: 27-37.

John Cooper, ACAP Information Officer, 30 April 2018

Sunrise farewell to the 2018 fledglings

The annual farewell celebration for globally Endangered Hutton’s Shearwaters Puffinus huttoni was held earlier this month in Kaikoura on the east coast of New Zealand’s South Island with a sunrise Hikoi (parade) at the Te Rae O Atiu translocation colony, from which 17 chicks successfully fledged from translocated parents. The ceremony was followed by talks on the impact of the 7.8 earthquake last year and a summary of the current breeding season (click here).  As in previous years the street lights of Kaikoura caused a number of downings of fledging shearwaters flying from their inland mountain colonies.

Kaikoura is well lit at night

“This image quite clearly highlights why Kaikoura's endangered Hutton's Shearwaters crash land at night during their flights from the mountains to the sea throughout the breeding season (September to early April). The township is lit up like an airfield landing strip, and lies directly in the flight path to/from the only two remaining wild breeding colonies.” (click here).

However, efforts earlier this and last month by Kaikoura Wildlife Rescue and the Hutton’s Shearwater Charitable Trust have led to a number of birds being collected off the streets at night and later released from the shoreline, despite some fatalities from collisions with vehicles (click here).

Hutton's Shearwaters killed by vehicles on a Kaikoura Road

Photographs courtesy of the Hutton’s Shearwater Charitable Trust

Read more on threats facing and conservation activities for New Zealand’s endemic Hutton’s Shearwater in ACAP Latest News here.

John Cooper, ACAP Information Officer, 27 April 2018

Doğa, the partner of BirdLife International in Turkey, reported on its website and Facebook page yesterday of Vulnerable Yelkouan Shearwaters Puffinus yelkouan being caught by Istanbul recreational fishers by rod and by hand line with “tens of individuals” being caught from the shoreline over the last two days (click here for stills and video clips of the incident). The NGO and other volunteers have been working with the fishers to disentangle the hooked birds and release those still alive.  For the last five days, tens of thousands of Yelkouan Shearwaters have been observed foraging in the centre of Istanbul.

Despite the regular passage migration of Yelkouan Shearwaters through the Bosphorus and past Istanbul (click here) this is the first time birds have been observed to be caught in this manner. Fortunately Doğa has further reported that the “massacre” has ended. “The hand-line fishing in Arnavutköy was stopped by municipal police officers of Beşiktaş Municipality. Many thanks to all bird watchers and nature lovers to make this success happen”. It seems from posted photographs that the municipal police confiscated the fishing equipment being used (click here).

This seems to be a novel threat faced by Yelkouan Shearwaters and perhaps by all procellariiforms. It seems likely that it will remain a rare event given that tubenose seabirds tend to be pelagic by nature, often foraging out of the sight of land, let alone within casting distance of recreational fishers on the sea’s shoreline*.

The Yelkouan Shearwater has been identified as a potential candidate for listing within the Albatross and Petrel Agreement.

John Cooper, ACAP Information Officer, 26 April 2018

*However, I have observed Fluttering Shearwaters P. gavia (Least Concern) foraging immediately next to wooden piers on Wellington’s harbour shoreline in New Zealand.

John Cooper, ACAP Information Officer, 26 April 2018