2011 ABA Pelagic Directory

The 2011 ABA Pelagic Directory is now available online as a pdf.

In years past this directory was published in the January Winging It newsletter, and mailed to all ABA members. However, for the past couple of years it has been online only.

This issue is very nice, listing 49 pelagic opportunities around North America--from Nova Scotia to Florida, and California to Alaska. It is "decorated" with some amazing seabird and marine mammal photos, along with a couple of boat photos.

One of the photos is the one above of a Fork-tailed Storm-Petrel I took on September 11, 2010 off Newport, Oregon.

Banded albatrosses

Some of the 135 Black-footed Albatrosses, off Newport, Oregon on 11 September 2010 by Greg Gillson.
 

Thirty miles off the Oregon coast Black-footed Albatrosses gather every summer to feed in the rich California Current. They come from far away across the sea. Far, far, away.

Many of the Black-footed Albatrosses off the coast of the Pacific NW come from remote islands such as Laysan, Midway, and the French Frigate Shoals.

It is approximately 2500 miles SW from the Pacific NW coast to Honolulu, Hawaii. From there it is another 560 miles NW to Tern Island, French Frigate Shoals. This coral atoll is the worn down top of an ancient volcano. The waves wear down the volcano until the top is under the water. Coral grows up to the surface, detritus and flotsam get caught in the shallows and an island is formed,... barely. Because the waves tear it down again.

But there, 3000 miles from the cold and rainy Pacific NW, on warm sandy beaches, Black-footed Albatrosses come ashore to breed in December and January. There they raise their single chick until May, then they strike out eastward to the continental shelf of western North America to feed in the cold, productive waters.

Map of Tern Island

More on Tern Island

Even out in the middle of nowhere, there are biologists working on these remote islands to catalog the endangered wildlife. Thus, many of the albatrosses we see off the Pacific NW in summer and fall had been banded as chicks many years before. These carry a metal US Fish & Wildlife band and a larger plastic band with easier to read larger numbers.

On an offshore birding boat trip this fall we found one such banded bird. It wore a numbered plastic leg band. One of our passengers was able to get a photograph of it and sent it to me. I reported the number to the Bird Banding Laboratory and received the thank you acknowledgement below.




Then, going through my own photos, I found I unknowingly took a picture of another albatross with a different band number on it. This, also, I turned in, but have not yet heard back. If I had turned in the number on the stamped aluminum band I would have gotten an answer directly from the US Fish & Wildlife Service. But the colored leg bands are only tracked by the research scientist. The researchers put both bands on, but the aluminum one is the official band, but harder to read. So, I haven't heard anything about the bird in the photo below, but expect it has the same story as that detailed in the acknowledgement above.


Black-footed Albatross with band A386, off Newport, Oregon on 11 September 2010 by Greg Gillson.
 

To report a color-marked or birds banded with aluminum band (except domestic pigeons), record the number and report the number on : this web site.

[This article first appeared in Pacific NW Birder on 11 October 2010.]

Short-tailed Albatross breeding at Midway!

The photo above is of a young bird, 1 or 2 years old. These all-dark immature birds are what we expect off the West Coast of North America. This is the 9th accepted Oregon record of a bird off Newport, Oregon on March 18, 2006. Photo by Troy Guy.

Exciting news! A pair of Short-tailed Albatrosses is breeding on Midway Atoll! This is the first modern breeding record outside of Japan.

The US Fish & Wildlife Service has had decoys up on Midway Atoll NWR and been playing Short-tailed Albatross calls for several years. A pair of Short-tailed Albatrosses has visited the island annually for 4 years, and this year started incubating an egg in November.

Once numbering perhaps 5 million, these magnificent birds were killed on their nests and plucked and stuffed into pillows and mattresses until they were presumed extinct. In the first quarter of the 20th century perhaps only 10 pairs remained. They have since recovered to some 2400 birds.

Check out the news item and photos on the USFWS Flicker site.

With the above news of breeding on Midway, perhaps we can expect to see more of these in the future. Of course, it will take decades to notice the increase from this site, and most of the birds will probably still forage north in the Aleutians. But there is every reason for long-term hope that these birds will continue to recover.