A is for Albatross #A-ZChallenge
Welcome to the first post on my A-Z Challenge, 2016!
This fabulous photo of a wandering albatross is by Ed Dunens on Flikr.
Wandering albatrosses are huge, they have the largest wingspan of any bird – reaching up to 3.5m, or 11 feet.
They use their wings as gliders, locking them into position at the shoulders – using specialist techniques to minimise their use of muscles and energy, they can glide for hours by staying on the wind and slowly decreasing in height, then turning into the wind, lifting above the waves again before gliding down and repeating. This is known as ‘dynamic soaring’ and uses little more energy than sitting on a nest.
Amazingly, wandering albatrosses have been recorded travelling about 1,000 km a day at an average speed of around 40kmph. They spend most of the time flying – occasionally, if there is not enough wind, they land on the surface of the water. Some do not land on actual land for 2 years at a time.
Squid, shoals of fish, and krill are scooped on the wing – but they can also dive below the surface to a depth of about 5m to catch prey.
Albatrosses are beautiful birds – spectacular birds – but 40,000 of them are being killed by illegal and unregulated fishing by people using up to 130km long lines with 10,000 baited hooks.
Albatrosses see the food, dive to catch it, and are caught – they cannot release themselves and drown. The WWF are experimenting with weighting hooks, so they drop invisibly below the surface, to see if this helps deter albatrosses and keeps more of them safe. If they aren’t killed prematurely, they can live up to 60 years.
Another huge problem is plastic waste. Along with many other marine animals, they mistake plastic rubbish for food and feed their chicks with it – many of you will have seen the agonisingly sad photos of dead chicks’ stomach contents. Below is a film of plastic collected in just one small area from the stomachs of dead chicks.
This is one area in which we can all help – disposing of rubbish very carefully indeed. Making sure no rubbish is left in bins in the street – taking it home and so it cannot blow away in the wind to be carried into watercourses that make their way to the sea.
Climate change is another way in which albatrosses are at risk – warming oceans mean fish that would normally be in one place move to cooler areas – where the albatrosses are not fishing. This is another to help – being as green and sustainable as possible!
131 species of albatross and petrel, 62% of the total number, have been classified by the IUCN Red List as Extinct, Critically Endangered, Endangered, Vulnerable or Near Threatened.
Here is my poem for the albatross.
In a sky stretched tight
the albatross rides
the rise and fall
of the breath of the tides
its feathers glide air
on the shape of the breeze
the spirit of flight
between skies and seas
sea shoals sustain
where the albatross roams
sunlight and starlight
and wind are its home.
© Liz Brownlee
If you have enjoyed this blog, do come back tomorrow for another animal and another poem, and consider blog hopping to another blog taking part in the A-Z Challenge 2016!
Poem copyright Liz Brownlee, not for copying.