Sooty Shearwaters Have Longest Migration

According to new research, sooty shearwaters make the longest known migration. The birds travel close to 40,000 miles each year from their breeding grounds around New Zealand to their wintering grounds in the North Pacific. That way, the birds can take advantage of the summer in both the northern and southern hemispheres. Scientists were able to track this route using electronic tracking tags.

Between January and March 2005, 33 birds at two breeding colonies in New Zealand were fitted with tags weighing 6g, allowing researchers to track their journey.

In the autumn of that year, 20 of the tags were recovered when the birds returned to their burrows at the breeding grounds; 19 of the devices had successfully recorded the bird's movements.

Data showed that some birds travelled up to 910km (565 miles) in a day, and dived to depths of 68m in their search for food.

One interesting result of the study is that individual birds do not travel around the circumference of the Pacific, as previously thought. Instead they travel quickly to one of the winter feeding grounds, located near California, Alaska, and Japan, and then return quickly to their breeding grounds at the end of the southern winter. Below is a map showing the travels of the 19 shearwaters with working tags.

Blue = Breeding season activity
Yellow = Flight north
Orange = Wintering activity and flight south

Mystery Seabird in DC

Mystery Seabird in Wasington, DC

Peter Vankevich took this photograph on May 13, 2006 on Capitol Hill, Washington, DC. Several excellent birders have had varying opinions as to its identification. Feel to offer your opinion in the comments.

Droppings Blamed For "Contamination"

A major source of chemical contamination in the Arctic turns out to be bird droppings. Wind currents and human activities long have been blamed for fouling the pristine Arctic. But a study by a group of Canadian researchers found that the chemical pollution in areas frequented by seabirds can be many times higher than in nearby regions.

Scientists report in Friday's issue of the journal Science that the ponds, which receive falling guano from a colony of northern fulmars that nest on the cliffs, have highly elevated amounts of chemicals. More from the Washington Post.

Least Terns Opt For Maine Island Life

Hog Island, Maine, July 18, 2005 – For the first time in Maine’s recorded history, Audubon biologists have discovered endangered Least Terns nesting on an island rather than their historic preference of nesting on mainland sandy beaches. Eighteen nests are confirmed and several additional pairs of terns are setting up territories on Stratton Island, in Saco Bay, an Audubon-owned property protected by the Society’s Seabird Restoration Program. Stratton Island was already notable for providing habitat for the greatest diversity of waterbird species in Maine, and this event only confirms the island’s significance as an Important Bird Area.

More from Audubon.

The Flight Of the Albatross And Other Frigatebird Tales

Source: Natural History Magazine

Albatrosses and frigatebirds spend most of their long lives soaring over the sea. Now miniature electronic trackers and sensors are telling the tales of their adventures. Natural History Magazine ran the story last October.

Frigatebirds live for decades, but albatrosses hold the record for seabirds, reaching ages of sixty to seventy years and continuing to reproduce into their fifties. The studies of the wandering albatross have repeatedly brought the writer to two of the most remote islands in the Southern Ocean, Crozet and Kerguelen, where the birds breed and nest.

The trackers found that during a single foraging trip, which typically lasted between ten and fifteen days, the birds flew more than 1,800 miles from their nests and covered as much as 9,300 miles. They traced huge irregular loops, and made smaller-scale zigzagging movements within the loops that added substantially to the total length of the trip. To save energy, they soared on tailwinds or side winds. When the winds died, they alighted and drifted on the sea until the winds picked up again.

Heart-rate monitors showed that albatrosses' heart rates during flight are only 10 to 20 percent higher than they are when the birds are at rest. In contrast, the heart rates of other birds in typical flapping flight can rise to as much as 200 percent higher than the baseline level.

The patchy distribution of prey requires long-distance foraging. Long-distance foraging means the chicks are fed at long intervals, and so they develop independence slowly. The nine months between hatching and fledging forces the adults to skip a year between breeding attempts. All in all, the bird's slow-paced life probably contributes to its lengthy life span. And perhaps the decade it takes an albatross to reach reproductive maturity is time spent learning how to find the right winds and ride them while keeping a weather eye out for prey.

Source: Natural History Magazine

For more on the mythical Albatross revisit Coleridge's The Rime of the Ancient Mariner.