Sunday 4 March 2012

Falklands Wildlife 5 Albatross

I was only in one place where there are Albatross – black-browed - on Saunders Island where I was at The Neck.

They don’t look very big when their wings are folded, but their wing span is huge – unlike other birds which have two sections to theirs wings, albatross have three.

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They can’t get off the ground if there is no wind – no problem when I was there.   Like cormorants their nests are piles of mud, stones, sticks and guano with the chick sitting on the pile and the parents below – I assume that once the chick is too big the parent gives up sitting on the nest.  A lot of grooming takes place.  The chicks have a line of black which looks as if the beak is attached by black elastic.

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There are ritual dances and beak tappings

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The best place of all was the colony made up of albatross, rockhoppers and royal cormorants – they were  happily co-existing and there was always something going on

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1126 Feeding time

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