The Macquarie Island albatross and giant petrel programme researchers provide an update on their activities this summer. There is also a Macca photo gallery featuring the redpoll finch.

Albatross and giant petrel research on Macquarie Island

The Macquarie Island albatross and giant petrel program team of Jarrod and Kate arrived in October. They have been busy monitoring 346 albatross nests as well as following up on northern and southern giant petrel censuses conducted by the Tasmanian Parks and Wildlife Service (TASPAWS) rangers. This is Jarrod’s first time to Macquarie Island while Kate has returned for her second stint. We are both in awe of this island. Given the wildlife, weather, landscape, and fast-growing tussock, you just never quite know what’s in store for the day.

Our first trip into the field to obtain a breeding effort count involved finding every albatross nest in our study areas.

We have:

  • Seven light-mantled albatross study sites around the island
  • One main grey-headed albatross and black-browed albatross nesting area at the southern end of the island on the slopes of Petrel Peak
  • A smaller area on the nearby Cape Star where a few grey-headed albatross have been found nesting in recent years

Finding the nests involves walking up and down the slopes, checking every gully, spur and bluff for those sometimes very well hidden nests. It’s a leg workout, that’s for sure! We also banded last season’s wandering albatross chicks which hatched last March and remained on their nests all through winter.

On our subsequent field trips we have monitored these nests to identify parents (by reading band numbers of banded birds) which provides important survival data, and to see how many eggs hatch. Towards the end of the season we will obtain a final count of successful nests to determine breeding success.

We have also undertaken a breeding success count of more than four hundred northern giant petrel nests found by the TASPAWS rangers with the assistance of station personnel in September (thanks Mike, Chris, Scotty, Ivor and Ian), and an interim count of the southern giant petrel colonies that are scattered all around the coast (again, with assistance from rangers Mike, Chris and Andrea). We've enjoyed our home away from home at Hurd Point hut where we are based most of the time while in the field, and even celebrated both our birthdays there.

Most recently, we have been observing last season’s wandering albatross chicks, and finding out how many ‘wanderer’ eggs have been laid this season. Four of the six chicks that hatched last season have fledged, and Jarrod was lucky to witness one taking its maiden flight and heading out to sea. If these youngsters survive, they will remain out at sea for several years before returning to try to find a partner.

Unfortunately though, two chicks did not make it. Necropsies revealed the most likely causes of death as starvation. This could indicate that the parents have not been able to find enough food for both themselves and to support their young. Or perhaps one or both of the parents have met an untimely fate, possibly through interactions with commercial fishing operations, particularly long-line fishing, which remains a key threat facing albatrosses worldwide.

Ongoing annual monitoring on Macquarie Island is a small but important part of global efforts to understand, and hopefully mitigate, the declines of albatross populations across the southern ocean. This season we have found five wandering albatross eggs. Let’s hope they all make it through to fledging!

Macca photo album

Photos taken throughout the week on Macquarie Island…

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