Albatross in their natural element
Banding albatross is the way they are identified and monitored. A metal tag is attached to one leg that is imprinted with data held in an international system of all birds monitored. The other leg gets a large plastic number so that birds can be identified without touching them. Either binoculars or photos can help document which birds are where.
If a chick gets banded, it is known when and where it was hatched. When chicks fledge they go to sea for 3-4 years, then return to the site they hatched from. Here they visit any other birds in the vicinity and begin a courtship ritual with others; this is the lively dancing and displaying they do to attract their future mate. This continues annually until the bird is 8-9 years old and then they mate and nest and commit to raising a chick of their own. An adult called Wisdom is the oldest known Laysan Albatross at over 60 years. She nests at Midway and her chick survived the tsunami that wiped out over 100,000 chicks in March of 2011.
In addition to private properties in Kilauea and Moloa'a that host albatross nests, Princeville sees birds return each year and they build nests in yards and on the golf courses where at one time there were open spaces. Albatross Hill is on the property of The Kilauea Point National Wildlife Refuge, often referred to as the Lighthouse since the historic landmark shares the Refuge property.
In 2010 training for banding birds was offered to Refuge volunteers . Kim Uyehara, Kauai's Refuge biologist and Beth Flint, seabird specialist and senior wildlife biologist for all the islands were both present as were a number of volunteers for the two day project. Training and practice were conducted on Albatross Hill and then smaller groups dispersed to other locations for banding as well.
Primarily, the banding is done on chicks once they have matured enough that their legs will not continue to grow - therefore the tags will not bind. In a colony like this one, adults without bands are also tagged. The data is important to monitor the migration of the great birds; when done as chicks with known hatching/fledging sites, their story will be gathered and better understood in the decades to come.
Albatross Hill
Overhead as volunteers gather
Moli impersonating a back pack, curious about all the activity
courtesy of Sam Calhoun
Sharon bands while Marty Fernandes holds the chick
How many do you count? I see 11
courtesy of Sam Calhoun
Sharon holds chick while Trudy Calhoun tags K712, Sheri Sari lends a hand
The Refuge at Kilauea is the northern most point of the main island chain. Just east of the Lighthouse the refuge owns property that curves along the coast and includes remnants of an old crater, ie, Crater Hill.
Laysan Albatross nest along this eastern edge of the Refuge and out on Mokolea Point.
