Portraits & Profiles - Buller's Albatross

The Southern Ocean, including around New Zealand and southern Australia, is blessed with a plethora of pelagic (oceanic) seabirds. And there are ample opportunities for sea-birders, either hard-core (they’re a weird bunch!) to indulge their obsession; or itinerants and dabblers, to whet/appease their interest and, usually, add a few birds to swell their life lists. I fall essentially into the latter group, though I am a member of the Australasian Seabird Group (ASG), a member of the Southern Oceans Seabird Study Association (SOSSA), and am coming up for my tenth trip on their renowned/notorious pelagic trips out of Wollongong on the redoubtable Sandra K.

Last year, I participated in the “SOSSA pelagic” on 7 July, my first pelagic since 2002, and my first Sandra K trip with a decent (digital) camera.

My bird of the trip was without doubt the Buller’s Albatross Thalassarche bulleri, of which there were probably up to three or four following the boat at times. Not just because it was my only ‘new’ bird for the trip (number 589 on my Australian List), but simply because it is such a beautiful bird. 

Buller's Albatross is a stunning bird!

Buller’s Albatross is essentially a bird of the seas around New Zealand, though it forages into south-eastern Australian waters and there are seasonal movements by some birds across the southern Pacific to the Humboldt Current off the coasts of Chile and Peru in western South America.

The breeding grounds are located on isolated islets in several of New Zealand’s offshore island groups. These include the Snares (latitude 48.03 S) and Solander Islands (46.57 S) off South Island, the Sisters and Forty-fours of the Chatham Island group to the east of New Zealand (43.75 S), and a small number of pairs breed on a tiny islet, Rosemary Rock, in the Three Kings Islands group off the north-western tip of the North Island (34.18 S). 

The broad yellow bill stripes, top and bottom, are characteristic of the Buller's Albatross.

Birds of the southern population (from the Snares and Solander Islands) lay eggs in January with the chicks fledging in August-September. The more northerly population (Chatham and Three Kings Islands) however, starts earlier, laying in October-November with fledglings in June-July. 

Because of this, the two populations have long been considered sub-species, but recent trends mean they are sometimes considered as separate species – Buller’s Albatross in the south, and Pacific Albatross Thalassarche platei in the north.

Buller's Albatross off Wollongong, NSW, July 2013.

Whatever their specific status, they are very similar morphologically and distinguishing them at sea is probably unreliable, despite the Pacific form being attributed with a larger/wider bill, a silver-grey rather than silver-white cap, and darker hood and feet. Further genetic, morphological and behavioural data may help sort things out. 

Buller's Albatross following the Sandra K - off Wollongong, NSW, July 2013.

The diet of Buller’s Albatross is mainly fish, cephalopods (squid etc), crustaceans and salps (weird barrel-shaped planktonic tunicates - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Salp ).

Buller's Albatross scrambling for berley off Wollongong, NSW, July 2013.

There are probably somewhere in the order of 60,000 Buller’s Albatross (approximately 45% bulleri and 55% platei). Young birds may start returning to the breeding islands three years after fledging, but probably don’t start breeding until 10 to 11 years of age. 

Sleek, beautiful lines of the Buller's Albatross.

The Buller’s Albatross is sometimes called Buller’s Mollymawk, and if distinguishing between the two sub-species/species, bulleri is also known as the Southern Buller’s Albatross, while platei might be referred to as Northern Buller’s Albatross, Pacific Albatross or Pacific Mollymawk. If you were French or Spanish it would be Albatros de Buller, and Herr Schmidt would know it as the Bulleralbatros.

Buller's Albatross off the stern of the Sandra K - off Wollongong, NSW, July 2013.

So Mr Buller’s name is firmly attached to this bird, it being given by Walter Rothschild* when naming the bird Diomedea bulleri in 1893 (Diomedea platei was described five years later, in 1898, by Reichenow*).

Diomedea was the original genus name for albatrosses, conferred by Linneaus in 1758, and refers to Diomedes, King of Thrace of Iliad fame, though the connection to albatrosses is a little convoluted and might possibly not have been the best choice. The genus Thalassarche was first raised by Reichenbach* in 1852, when he split the albatrosses into four genera, with Thalassarche encompassing the smaller southern albatrosses or mollymawks. Thalassarche means leader or ruler of the sea from Greek thalassa = sea, and arkhos, -archy = leader or ruler.

But getting back to bulleri, the name honours Sir Walter Lawry Buller*, a New Zealand lawyer and naturalist who dominated the field of New Zealand ornithology. Born in 1838, the son of a Wesleyan missionary, he is best known in ornithological circles for his book, A history of the birds of New Zealand, initially published in 1873, and later expanded and republished in 1888 with chromolithographic plates by J. G. Keulemans.

*  References and links for further reading:

http://www.acap.aq/en/acap-species (and go to the Buller’s Albatross pdf link)

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Buller's_albatross

Albatrosses. WLN Tickell, 2000. Yale University Press.

Australian Bird Names – a complete guide. Ian Fraser & Jeannie Gray, 2013. CSIRO Publishing.

Whose Bird? Bo Beolens and Michael Watkins, 2003. Yale University Press.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Walter_Buller

http://www.teara.govt.nz/en/biographies/1b46/buller-walter-lawry

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Walter_Rothschild,_2nd_Baron_Rothschild

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anton_Reichenow

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ludwig_Reichenbach

Capricornia's Terns

During my trip to the Capricornia cays of the Great Barrier Reef earlier this year, one group of birds in particular stood out for me – the terns.

Perhaps this is partly because the only new bird I got for the entire trip was a Roseate Tern, but also because they were prominent both in numbers and species. And they’re beautiful! In all, I saw eight different species of tern. 

The gulls and noddies are closely related to the terns, and though the details of their relationships are still being disputed and resolved, they are currently all included under a single family, the Laridae. It seems the noddies represent the oldest lineage of the group, followed by the gulls, and the terns are the most recently evolved, but even so, we are talking about 40-50 million years ago.

So I'll start with the noddies. The Black Noddy Anous minutus is one of the key species we were surveying on the trip, and we counted many thousands of them (see previous posts). They are beautiful birds, but very noisy at their breeding colonies and one could be forgiven for thinking they lived up to their name - anous means having no nous, i.e. "stupid bird". I also saw a single Brown Noddy Anous stolidus - which essentially means "stupid stupid bird" - but didn't manage a photo. It was too smart and flew away!

Black Noddy amongst the pisonia foliage on Northwest Island.

Black Noddies are very vocal, making a range of clicks, churrs, and rattles day and night.

Black Noddies build a nest of pisonia leaves glued together with faeces.

Black Noddy chick on its nest. It's not uncommon for them to fall, or be blown off. Anous?

During the day, Black Noddies will sunbathe, often in sociable groups.

This pair of Black Noddies is in pair-bonding flight: rapid synchronised flying with clicking contact calls.

Silver Gulls Chroicocephalus novaehollandiae are Australia's most common and familiar gull, and are often taken for granted. But they are exquisitely beautiful birds. They generally breed in less accessible locations, often on offshore islands, so it was wonderful to be able to see the various stages of breeding on Heron Island, from eggs through to adolescents, all together. 

Silver Gull eggs hatching - the 'star cracking' is obvious and the egg tooth is visible on the chick's bill.

Silver Gull chick, probably just a day old, waiting for its siblings.

Juvenile Silver Gull - still got a little growing up to do, particularly its tail.

Adult Silver Gull - parent of the juvenile in the previous photo, telling me to keep my distance.

A slightly older juvenile Silver Gull in flight.

Of the terns, I saw a Caspian Tern Hydroprogne caspia first (in Gladstone), Crested Terns Thalasseus bergii were around but less common on the islands than they often are in coastal towns and harbours, and it was good to see a group of eight Lesser Crested Terns Thalasseus bengalensis which I don't see in my more usual southern haunts. And a flock of 20 Little Terns Sternula albifrons, together with the lesser cresteds, were part of an amazing mixed species high tide roost on Northwest Island.

A young Crested Tern at Heron Island.

One of a group of eight Lesser Crested Terns at a high tide roost on Northwest Island.

Scattered amongst the other birds of the high tide roost were 20 Little Terns - they're the grey and white birds with the black bills and caps, and are much smaller than the Lesser Crested Terns.

A Common Tern Sterna hirundo, which aren't really all that common in Australia, had commandeered a buoy just off from the jetty on Heron Island, and another was seen briefly on Lady Musgrave Island.

Common Tern on buoy at Heron Island.

As I mentioned, the Roseate Tern Sterna dougallii was the only new bird I came across on the trip - my 590th bird for Australia. 

A small group of Roseate Terns at Heron Island, though I saw my first a few days earlier on Northwest Island. Three of these are in breeding plumage - red bills and legs, full dark caps; but one looks like a young bird with dark bill, patchy forehead, and black legs.

Reversed colour schemes of a Black Noddy and Roseate Tern - Lady Musgrave Island.

Roseate Tern in partial breeding plumage - full black cap but black rather than red bill. 

But perhaps my favourites were the Black-naped Terns Sterna sumatrana and Bridled Terns Onychoprion anaethetus.  I had previously only seen these species in small numbers and usually from quite a distance, so to see so many so close was very special. 

A Black-naped Tern, still ruffled from a bout of preening.

Black-naped Terns ready to take flight on Heron Island.

Black-naped Terns, Heron Island.

Black-naped Terns over the jetty at Heron Island.

Bridled Tern, Heron Island.

The bold colour scheme of an adult Bridled Tern. The white leading edge to the forewing is distinctive, even in flight.

Bridled Tern chick on Northwest Island.

Juvenile Bridled Tern on Lady Musgrave Island.

Bridled Tern, Heron Island.

Bridled Terns are distinctive and graceful in flight.

A little birdie flying high, dropped a message from the sky...

Capricornia Cays Survey Holiday – 4. Fairfax Island’s Brown Boobies

The morning of the final day of our trip would be taken up with surveying the Brown Booby colony on East Fairfax Island, just a short sail to the north of our overnight anchorage at Lady Musgrave Island, and by 8:00 am we had made a crunching corally beaching in the tender and were marvelling at the sight of thousands of boobies both in the air and on the ground.

We were greeted to East Fairfax Island by a swirling throng of Brown Boobies (Sula leucogaster).

The Fairfax Islands comprise East Fairfax and West Fairfax Islands, each quite small and separated only by a narrow channel. West Fairfax, which we didn’t visit on this occasion, appears to be reasonably well vegetated with pisonia, but East Fairfax is quite different in nature and feel to the other islands we had visited. It has little sand and consists essentially of an undulating expanse of coral rubble of cobble-sized chunks and shingle, which does not make for easy walking. On the windward side this is piled up by wave action into low cliffs. There is only sparse and low vegetation over most of the island, generally composed of resilient, weedy, pioneering species, with just a narrow strip of trees along the lee side.

The edge of the Brown Booby colony on East Fairfax Island. The Reef Heron is in the background, and the taller vegetation in the top left corner of the photo is on north-east tip of West Fairfax Island. 

This distinctive landscape is essentially the consequence of the islands being used for target and bombing practice by Australian military forces from 1943 through to the 1960s. The islands are now off limits to the public, only partly due to unexploded ordnance that almost certainly still exists on the islands, and it was a privilege to be able to visit for the purposes of checking out the Brown Boobies.

The windward side of East Fairfax Island. The shallowly undulating nature of the island is the result of it being used for bombing practice during and after WWII. A large crater near the island's central windward edge is filled with brackish water to form a small lake. 

The booby colony covers the entire area of East Fairfax, and in the central portion of the island nest sites are densely packed, many only pecking distance from their neighbours. Nests are a simple affair being little more than a slight depression in the rubble; nest décor is minimalist, seemingly based on whatever might have been close to hand (beak!), and sadly, including a range of plastic detritus.

Under bright, tropical skies, the pure white down of the booby chicks merges with the bleached whiteness of the coral rubble. This mother has amassed a comparatively large amount of dried vegetation to pad the nest. 

The breeding period can be fairly extended, and there was everything from birds on eggs to fledged young to be counted. Because of the sheer numbers of birds involved, to achieve this we split into pairs with each team counting a different age class – Chris and I were counting young at the ‘fluffy chick’ stage, others would count juveniles, or sub-adults, or adults etc, based essentially on plumage characteristics. Counts were made in ‘blocks’ or ‘sectors’ as we slowly circumnavigated the island in an anti-clockwise direction, from which the overall size and composition of the colony would be estimated.

 

Counting young Brown Boobies with the aid of binoculars. (Photo courtesy of Chris Lloyd)

While surveying, we ourselves were constantly being surveyed by inquisitive adult boobies.

Brown Booby chick - almost full sized, but still entirely in fluffy white down - with dad.

Wing and tail feathers are first to emerge from the down. 

An intermediate-plumaged young bird between mum on the left (yellowish bill with small blue spot in front of eye) and dad on the right (with blue facial flush to most of the bill).

Like teens of some other species, they can look a little scruffy...

The full range of plumages from downy chicks to smartly brown and white adults.

I'm not sure at what stage the young take their first flight but it is clearly well before adult plumage is attained.

Adult female in flight. 

The degree and intensity of the blue facial flush of an adult male Brown Booby varies, presumably related to the stage of breeding. 

Walking back along the lee side of East Fairfax at the end of the booby survey. 

Apart from the Brown Boobies, the island also supports a range of shorebirds and seabirds, and we recorded Bar-tailed Godwits, Ruddy Turnstones, Pied and Sooty Oystercatchers, Black Noddies, Silver Gulls, Bridled Terns, Black-naped Terns, Roseate Terns, a Buff-banded Rail and Capricorn Silvereye. Overhead, we also saw a pair of White-bellied Sea-Eagles and an amazing 16 Great Frigatebirds.

No fewer than 16 Great Frigatebirds (Fregata minor) flew over as we completed the survey. These 'pirates of the air' are large skilled fliers and harass other seabirds into disgorging their hard won catch.

The adult male frigatebird lacks the white throat and breast of the female, instead having an expandable bright red throat sac (neither expanded nor visible in this photo). 

For anyone who may have read this far and is interested, below is a summary of our itinerary and a map of our course between the various islands.

Day 1     Tue 7 Jan 2014 - Arrive Gladstone, meet the team.

Day 2     Wed 8 Jan 2014 - Gladstone to Northwest Island; set up camp, establish protocols.

Day 3     Thu 9 Jan 2014 - Northwest Island, surveys.

Day 4     Fri 10 Jan 2014 - Northwest Island, surveys.

Day 5     Sat 11 Jan 2014 – Finish Northwest Island surveys; head down to Heron Island.

Day 6     Sun 12 Jan 2014 – Heron Island surveys; explore; relax.

Day 7     Mon 13 Jan 2014 – Back to Northwest to pick up volunteers; down to survey Masthead  Island; volunteers back to Northwest Island; rest of us back to Heron Island.

Day 8     Tue 14 Jan 2014 – Heron Island to Lady Musgrave Island; survey LMI in late morning;  explore island in afternoon.

Day 9     Wed 15 Jan 2014 – Lady Musgrave Is to East Fairfax Is; Brown Booby survey; return  to Gladstone.

It was a brilliant trip and a fantastic opportunity, one that I will think back on frequently, from the wonderful people I met, to the many close encounters with birds and turtles, for a long time to come.