The Albatrosses of Kalkoura

Forest and Bird, Issue 302, 1 November 2001, Page 29

The Albatrosses of Kalkoura

&

JENNY

TONY ENDERBY.

TONY AND JENNY ENDERBY

Kaikoura has more to offer than whales.

Story & pictures by

| addling across the calm sea surface came a bird about the size of a turkey. Its almost purewhite body glowed as it headed into the melée of smaller birds at the rear of the boat. The mollymawks and smaller birds moved aside for the majestic snowy albatross. Those that didn’t were dispatched with a peck from its massive beak. The birds were paddling rather than flying as the lack of wind made takeoffs difficult. Our previous sighting of the largest albatross in the world, with its more than three-metre wingspan, was a distant, gliding shape. To have one feeding a few metres from the boat was a nature lover’s dream. We were drifting off Kaikoura, on an Ocean Wings albatross encounter. Many visitors to Kaikoura miss seeing these magnificent birds up close, choosing to view the area’s marine mammals instead. The albatrosses are not there by chance. The food that attracts the whales, dolphins and seals to the Kaikoura coast also brings countless birds. Nearer the coast we had seen huge numbers of seagulls, shags and terns. Ten kilometres from the coast we had our first encounter with albatrosses near a fishing boat. The fishermen were cleaning their catch and the flock of birds near the stern fought over the scraps. These birds weren't at risk from the fishermen, but further south, in the Southern Ocean, many have been caught

on baited long-lines as these drop from fishing boats into the water. The birds grab the bait, are hooked and drown. Fishing companies can reduce this problem by laying lines through chutes which contain the baited hooks until they are well below the surface and away from the beaks of albatrosses and petrels. Other techniques, such as setting lines only at night, using tori poles, and extra line weighting, can reduce seabird deaths. The Kaikoura fishermen finished cleaning their catch and moved off. The birds then transferred their attention to our stern, giving us our first close up view. Among them was a snowy albatross, one of four sub-species of wandering albatrosses. (The others occurring in our waters are Gibson’s and Antipodean wandering albatrosses. These two breed in New Zealand’s subantarctic.) The number of birds at the rear of the boat increased as a large brown bird landed. The new arrival was a giant petrel, not quite as big as the albatrosses, and also keen on a free feed. It swam in, wings extended, perhaps to give the impression of a larger size and battled with the albatrosses over the scraps of fish near our stern We gradually became more aware of the birds around us and with the help of our onboard guide began to identify the other species of albatross. The birds with the almost completely black backs and wings were northern royal albatrosses. New Zealand’s only mainland breeding colony of northern royals is at Taiaroa Head, on the Otago Peninsula where about 50 pairs breed each year. Their other breeding sites are on the offshore islands around the Chathams. These birds circle the globe, riding the prevailing winds of the Southern Ocean. Some birds banded as chicks in New Zealand have been encountered off South America. All albatross species normally mate for life. Studies of the albatrosses from the Taiaroa colony have helped increase our knowledge of the birds’ life history. The first five to six years of life are spent at sea. They then return to visit their nesting grounds and commence breeding

at around nine years of age. The wandering albatrosses have much the same breeding cycle, the pairs producing chicks every second year. A similar bird, with less black plumage, was a southern royal albatross. Closer inspection of the group clustered around us revealed several more of them. This is where it paid to have an expert for identification on board. He explained that the older southern royals lose their dark colouring and look very similar to the wandering albatrosses. Southern royal albatrosses breed at the Auckland and Campbell Islands in the subantarctic. If identification of the big albatrosses was difficult, then their smaller relatives, popularly known in New Zealand waters as mollymawks, created even more problems for the uninitiated. We had Buller’s, black-browed, white-capped, Salvin’s and Pacific or northern Buller’s mollymawks around us. (Note: recent references rename them as albatrosses too, not mollymawks, so to make them easier to look up in reference books we give both names in the photograph captions.) Most of the albatrosses hung around the boat, paddling away to rest on the sea surface after they had eaten. The smaller petrels, shearwaters, cape pigeons and ever-present black-backed gulls completed the flock of birds around the boat. A whale-watch boat moved to within 400 metres of us. The object of its attention, a sperm whale, surfaced and blew a plume of vapour, then after a few minutes lifted its tail skywards and headed back to the depths of the Kaikoura Canyon for another 50 minutes. Not long ago that would have taken our attention. This trip belonged to the albatrosses and we continued to watch one of the best displays off the Kaikoura coast.

The birds remained unperturbed at the arrival of a blue shark. It cruised in and inspected the back of the boat and on finding there was nothing of interest vanished back into the blue. Every few minutes another bird would arrive, gliding down to almost touch the surface then lift, sometimes using wing power to compensate for the lack of wind. After circling us several times the birds would glide in overhead, then settle on the smooth surface. It was great to have had such a calm day to view the birds. An acceptable trade-off would have been some wind and a little more wave action, to see them lift off and fly or glide rather than just drift away. Behind us the peaks of the Seaward Kaikouras gradually darkened as the cloud cover increased and we headed back to the boat harbour. Other albatrosses continued to glide around us effortlessly, sometimes wings almost touching the sea, then catching an updraft and turning to repeat the procedure. Close to the coast a pod of dusky dolphins raced in and joined us, playing on our bow and around us. After a minute or two of interaction they continued on their way. The albatrosses may not be Kaikoura’s main attraction but their diversity of species and approachability make them one of the more interesting trips. Any visit to Kaikoura in the future must include time to see these masters of the sky.

are wildife

and underwater photographers based at Leigh in lower Northland. They viewed Kaikoura’s wildlife courtesy of Ocean Wings Albatross Encounters, Kaikoura.