UPDATED:  Followng banding, the two albatrosses have now been released to sea following a boat ride with the Los Angeles County Lifeguards off the San Pedro coastline (for more photographs click here).

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ACAP Latest News has previously reported on a Laysan Albatross Phoebastria immutabilis suspected of hitching a ride on a cargo ship (click here).

Now a recent report confirms the presence of a “stowaway” Laysan Albatross on a container ship.  The bird was trapped between two containers for at least 10 days last month on a ship travelling to the Port of Long Beach in southern California.  It was weak and emaciated and slightly oiled when taken into care by International Bird Rescue’s San Pedro centre (click here).  Following treatment the bird is ready for release, along with another Laysan Albatross that was found late last month in the desert city of Rancho Mirage, about 160 km from the Pacific Ocean (click here).

The hitch-hiking Laysan Albatross gets cleaned of oil

Ready for release

Photographs courtesy of International Bird Rescue

It has been suggested that the birds mistake a ship for a “new breeding site” and have even being seen “building nests” on ships!  ACAP Latest News would be keen to publish evidence of this.

Read about another hitchhiking Laysan Albatross here.

John Cooper, ACAP Information Officer, 03 April 2015, updated 04 April 2015

Bird Island lies 4.5 km off the south-western coast of West Falkland, Falkland Islands (Islas Malvinas)*.  The 120-ha island is largely covered in dense Tussac Grass Parodiochloa flabellata.  Part of the coastline consists of 30-70-m high cliffs; the highest point is c. 110 m.

Bird Island

The Black-browed Albatross Thalassarche melanophris is the only ACAP-listed species that breeds on the island.  Population estimates are 10 200 pairs in 2000/01 (ground count), and 15 525 pairs in September 2006 and 15 719 pairs in September 2010, both counted from aerial photographs.  Other procellariiforms present are Thin-billed Prion Pachyptila belcheri (in their thousands), Common Diving Petrel Pelecanoides urinatrix and Sooty Shearwater Puffinus griseus (20 pairs).  Grey-backed Storm Petrels Garrodia nereis may also breed.

South American Fur Seals Arctocephalus australis breed in two colonies, one very large.  Bird Island is free of introduced mammals and shows no signs of fires or grazing by domestic stock.  However, albatross (and penguin) eggs were collected for human consumption in the past.  Guarding against fire is regarded as a high priority.

Views of tussock-covered Bird Island, Black-browed Albatrosses breed among the vegetation

Photographs by Sarah Crofts

The island is a National Nature Reserve designated in 1969 and a BirdLife International Important Bird Area for its albatross and Southern Rockhopper Penguin Eudyptes chrysocome (10 524 pairs in 2010) populations.

With thanks to Sarah Crofts and Ian Strange for photographs and comments.

Selected Literature:

Baylis, A.M.M., Wolfaardt, A.C., Crofts, S., Pistorius, P.A. & Ratcliffe, N. 2013.  Increasing trend in the number of Southern Rockhopper Penguins (Eudyptes c. chrysocome) breeding at the Falkland Islands.  Polar Biology 36: 1007-1018.

Catry, P., Forcada, J. & Almeida, A. 2011.  Demographic parameters of Black-browed Albatrosses Thalassarche melanophris from the Falkland Islands.  Polar Biology 34: 1221-1229.

[Falklands Conservation] 2006.  Important Bird Areas of the Falkland Islands.  London: Falklands Conservation.  160 pp.

Huin, N. & Reid, T. 2007.  Census of the Black-browed Albatross Population of the Falkland Islands.  Stanley: Falkland Conservation,

Strange, I.J. 2008.  Aerial Surveys of Black-browed Albatross Thalassarche melanophris: the Methodology Employed and Comparisons with Surveys Carried out in 1986-2005-2006 and 2007.  New Island: Design in Nature & Falkland Islands Wildlife.  59 pp.

Strange, I. & Strange, G. 2011.  Black-browed Albatross Thalassarche melanophris. Aerial Photographic Survey Methodology: Advantages over Ground Surveying in the Falkland Islands. Results and Comparisons with Surveys in 2005 and 2010.  Stanley: New Island Conservation Trust.  30 pp.

Wolfaardt, A.[C.], Rendell, N. & Brickle, P. 2010.  Falkland Islands Implementation Plan for the Agreement on the Conservation of Albatrosses and Petrels (ACAP): Review of Current Work and a Prioritised Work Programme for the Future.  Stanley: Falkland Islands Government.  57 pp.

Woods, R.W & Woods, A, 1997.  Atlas of the Breeding Birds of the Falkland Islands. Oswestry; Anthony Nelson.  190 pp.

Woods, R., Ingham, R. & Brown, A. 2006.  Falkland Islands.  In: Sanders, S. (Ed.).  Important Bird Areas in the United Kingdom Overseas Territories.  Sandy: Royal Society for the Protection of Birds.  pp. 99-162.

John Cooper, ACAP Information Officer, 01 April 2015

*A dispute exists between the Governments of Argentina and the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland concerning sovereignty over the Falkland Islands (Islas Malvinas), South Georgia and the South Sandwich Islands (Islas Georgias del Sur y Islas Sandwich del Sur) and the surrounding maritime areas.

Pierre Defos du Rau, (Office National de la Chasse et de la Faune Sauvage, Station Biologique de la Tour du Valat, Le Sambuc, France) and colleagues report in the Journal of Ornithology on a new global estimate for Scopoli’s Shearwater Calonectris diomedea.

The paper’s abstract follows:

“Scopoli’s Shearwater (Calonectris diomedea) is a Procellariiform endemic to the Mediterranean Basin which is considered to be vulnerable in Europe due to recent local declines and its susceptibility to both marine and terrestrial threats. In the 1970s–1980s, its population size was estimated at 57,000–76,000 breeding pairs throughout the Mediterranean Basin, with the largest colony, estimated at 15,000–25,000 pairs, found on Zembra Island, Tunisia.  The objectives of our study were to re-estimate the size of the breeding population on Zembra Island, to reassess the global population size of the species, and to analyse the implications of these findings on status and conservation of this species in the Mediterranean.  Using distance sampling, we estimated the Zembra breeding population to be 141,780 pairs (95 % confidence interval 113,720–176,750 pairs).  A review of the most recent data on populations of this species throughout the Mediterranean Basin led us to estimate its new global population size at 141,000–223,000 breeding pairs.  Using the demographic invariant and potential biological removal approaches, we estimated the maximum number of adults which could be killed annually by all non-natural causes without causing a population decline to be 8800 (range 7700–9700) individuals, of which could be 3700 breeders.  Although these results are less alarming in the context of species conservation than previously thought, uncertainties associated with global population size, trends and major threats still raise questions on the future of this species.  More generally, we show how a monitoring strategy for a bird supposed to be relatively well known overall can be potentially misleading due to biases in survey design.  The reduction of such biases would therefore appear to be an unavoidable prerequisite in cryptic species monitoring before any reliable inference on the conservation status of the species can be drawn.”

Scopoli's Shearwater fledgling

Reference:

Defos du Rau, P. and 20 others 2015.  Reassessment of the size of the Scopoli’s Shearwater population at its main breeding site resulted in a tenfold increase: implications for the species conservation.  Journal of Ornithology DOI 10.1007/s10336-015-1187-4.

John Cooper, ACAP Information Officer, 01 April 2015

Yutaka Watanuki (Graduate School of Fisheries Sciences, Hokkaido University, Hokodate, Japan) and colleagues have written in in the Journal of Ornithology on mercury levels in Short-tailed Shearwaters Puffinus tenuirostris.

The paper’s abstract follows:

“We measured mercury concentrations ([Hg]) and nitrogen stable isotope ratios (δ¹⁵N) in the primary feathers of Short-tailed Shearwaters (Puffinus tenuirostris) that were tracked year-round.  The [Hg] were highest in 14 birds that used the Okhotsk and northern Japan Seas during the non-breeding period (2.5 ± 1.4 μg/g), lowest in nine birds that used the eastern Bering Sea (0.8 ± 0.2 μg/g), and intermediate in five birds that used both regions (1.0 ± 0.5 μg/g), with no effects of δ¹⁵N.  The results illustrate that samples from seabirds can provide a useful means of monitoring pollution at a large spatial scale.”

Short-tailed Shearwater, photograph by Mark Carey 

Reference:

Watanuki, Y., Yamamoto, T., Yamashita, A., Ishii, C., Ikenaka, Y., Nakayama, S.M.M., Ishizuka, M., Suzuki, Y., Niizuma, Y., Meathrel, C.E. & Phillips, R.A. 2015.  Mercury concentrations in primary feathers reflect pollutant exposure in discrete non-breeding grounds used by Short-tailed Shearwaters. Journal of Ornithology DOI .10.1007/s10336-015-1205-6.

John Cooper, ACAP Information Officer, 31 March 2015