#43 - The Royal Albatross and the Moeraki Boulders

I’m starting to feel like a broken record, but we had yet another incredible wildlife encounter.  This time we ventured out to the Taiaroa Head at the tip of the Otago Peninsula, just outside of Dunedin.  First came the compulsory winding road to get there.  But this 50 minute drive meandered all along the coastline and offered some amazing views.  Have I written a blog yet that didn’t have the words “amazing view” somewhere in it?

This is the location of the Royal Albatross Centre where we spent a couple of hours.  We lucked out with our timing, because the birds have incubated their eggs, and now in February the parents are sitting on the chicks for a few more weeks.  And those that weren’t sitting, were flying all around us, and that was awesome!  Each Albatross in this colony has a colored leg band for identification purposes, which allows the life story of each bird to be recorded by the Department of Conservation rangers. 

So what’s so special about these birds?  The Royal Albatross is the world’s largest seabird.  It has a wing span of over 3 meters (9.5 feet) and can fly at speeds of around 75 mph.  They are some of the longest lived birds in the world, regularly living 40 plus years.  One bird at Taiaroa raised her last chick at the age of 62! Don’t know how many eggs she pushed out over the years, but she must have been one tired old mama by the time she told her mate “hey, enough already”.  

The Royal Albatross used to breed prolifically in the Chatham Islands but in 1985 a storm destroyed much of their nesting habitat there.  Many of the birds chose to relocate to the Otago Peninsula (prime real estate, and a good decision, if I may say so).  

But what do I know?  In reality, it was not an ideal location for them as the climate was much warmer than in the Islands.  Some like it hot, but these guys don’t.  As I’ve learned, in NZ they do everything to preserve their wildlife even if it means making special accommodations.  So they installed a sprinkler system to spray water over the nests to cool the birds.  This is not just for their comfort, but for their survival.  If the parent feels the ground getting too hot it will stand up to cool off.  An unattended egg is vulnerable not just to the usual predators you would suspect (here come the stoats, ferrets, rats and feral cats again).   But their biggest threat is the fly.

Yes, you read that correctly.  If flies lay their eggs near an albatross egg, the egg or chick may become infested with maggots and the chick is likely to die.  So in this protected area, rangers patrol the nests regularly checking for problems.  While we were there we observed a ranger walk right up to an albatross and they greeted each other.  One of them was talking while the other was squawking.  We couldn’t hear the conversation, but there was obviously a mutual admiration!

Since adults only breed every other year and they only have one chick at a time, it’s critical that the babies survive.  If an adult albatross loses it’s chick, it will abandon its nest and not return for 1-2 years.  So if it looks like an egg won’t make it, the rangers remove it and replace it with an artificial egg.  The albatross doesn’t know the difference (really?) and continues to sit on the fake egg.  

Meanwhile, the rangers are looking for other nests where the egg has been abandoned.  Sometimes the parents will take off before the chick hatches.  So now you have an egg with no parent, and across the way you have a parent with no egg.  See where this is going?

So the rangers take the real abandoned egg and make the switchy-changy with the fake egg.  I know its hard to believe that an albatross would not figure this out and go “What the heck?”  But it seems to work and everyone is happy.  

The Royal Albatross mates for life and returns to the same place every other year to nest.  The male arrives first and prepares the nest.  What a guy!  Mom and Dad share incubation duty each one taking an 8 day shift, while the other goes off foraging for food.  This goes on for about 11 weeks.  When the chick finally breaks the shell it takes 3-6 days to emerge.  It is then left unguarded except for feeding visits by the parents.  The chick eats so much at this stage that it requires both parents to forage for food and feed it.  

They fledge at about 8 months.  All alone, they wait for a large gust of wind, spread their wings, and take off for their maiden voyage.  They will head east toward Chile and spend the next 5 years off the coast of South America.  After that, they will head back to New Zealand to where they were born.  But they don’t take the same route back.  Instead they keep heading east and go around the world till they get back to NZ.  Makes sense when you think how much easier it is to always have the wind at your back.  They will nap while riding a wind current.  Or they’ll touch down on the sea for a rest.  But they can put on about 118,000 miles a year.  They’ve been known to fly 8100 miles in two weeks when foraging for food.  That’s a lot of frequent flyer miles!

When they do get back “home”, they look for a mate.  They gather on the ridge lines where the males display their virility by stretching their wings and screaming raucously.  Meanwhile the admiring females are sizing them up and approach for the courtship ritual.  And so the cycle continues.  

FYI, the Albatross Centre has a live cam on the birds, so you can see what we saw and perhaps have a look at the chicks. 

http://www.doc.govt.nz/royalcam

Proof that Jeff’s arms are not as long as an albatross’ wings

Jeff’s skill (luck?) with the camera caught this albatross in flight right above us 

 Parents sitting on newly hatched chicks 

Cormorants on beach below nesting area 

While in Dunedin, we also took a drive out to Moeraki, to see the mysteriously spherical stones scattered across the beach.  Some of the boulders are big and round, while others appear to be chopped in half with only the top dome showing.  We’re talking big honkers!  Some boulders weigh several tons and are up to 6 feet high.  They are scattered along this one stretch of beach, some in clusters while others are isolated.  

Names that have been give to these boulders include: “Alien’s Brains”, “Giant Gobstoppers”, The Bowling Balls of the Gods”, and “Stonehenge of New Zealand”. 

The boulders, which were formed about 65 million years ago, consist of mud, fine silt and clay and are cemented by calcite.  After the concretions formed, large cracks formed in them, giving each a very interesting appearance.  

According to Maori legend, the boulders are the remains of eel baskets, calabashes, and kumara that washed ashore from the Araiteuru sailing canoe when it was wrecked upon landfall hundreds of years ago.  The cracks, according to this legend, are the remains of the canoe’s fishing nets.  

These boulders have become a tourist attraction so it’s hard to get a photo without lots of other people in it.  But I managed to hog one boulder for my very own photo op.  

Our drive to Moeraki was delayed by dozens of cows who were unwilling to share the road.  Cars drive on the left side of the road in NZ, but not when cows take over the lane