A very rare “good luck” bird from Japan, which has endured more than a century of misfortune, delighted a Mendocino Audubon Society bird watching voyage off the Mendocino Coast last month, just the second time the short-tailed albatross has been seen here in modern times.
For centuries, the gangly, gigantic and gentle short-tailed albatross was among the most common of sea birds along the West Coast, including Mendocino. Thanks to the killing of millions of the birds in their nesting grounds off Japan, mostly for lengthy white feathers which were fashionable in Europe, the long plentiful big bird quickly neared extinction as the 19th century turned into the 20th century.
The Japanese government stepped in to save the bird from extinction, but rogue hunters wiped out several nesting islands in anticipation of the protection. Next, the volcano erupted on their last nesting island in 1939, burying all the remaining nests. Then World War II hit. After the war, some scientists believed that the short tail or “Stellar” albatross, which often has a wing span of more than 7 feet, was extinct.
But a few birds survived at sea and the populations have been slowly rebuilding for 50 years. On May 15, a single visitor all the way from Japan provided a boatload of good cheer and possibly good luck to that Audubon pelagic voyage. The short-tailed albatross was first spotted by Jerry White, among other albatross about six miles off the Mendocino Coast. It was just the second confirmed sighting in the last century of a bird once common and a favorite food for Indian peoples. Two years ago, a federal observer on a fishing boat recorded one, the first sighting here in a century.
For biologist/photographer Ron LeValley to have the close encounter was truly a dream come true.
“For 40 years I have wished to see one here,” LeValley said.
At first glance, the short-tail looks like the other big birds, but look closer and the beak had a distinctive color.
“Bubble-gum color,” said LeValley. A mature short-tail is stately and white but the immature short-tail is dark, the same color as the other albatross. But its deep pink beak which smacks of bubble gum, makes the critter unmistakable in an Audubon video. A good omen for Japanese recovery after the tsunami?
“A good omen, yes,” said Levalley. “This bird never knew an earthquake happened. It has been at sea for at least a year.”
The video of the Mendocino offshore sighting can be viewed at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jIjEX8I5SHo.
The birds live at sea and even learn the art of avoiding sharks while in the water. Favorite foods include squid and flying fish eggs, LeValley said.
The 2011 Japanese tsunami killed hundreds of thousands of nesting albatross all over the Pacific Rim including on Midway Island. But on Midway Island, the first chick short-tail albatross hatched outside of Japan since the war did get a ride in the tsunami surge, but survived. That baby bird is now preparing to leave Midway, much to the excitement of scientists and bird lovers.
Donald Shepherd wrote a hopeful article in this month”s issue of the Mendocino Coast Audubon Society newsletter, “The Whistling Swan.”
“The trend is good: from 25 Tori-shima nests in 1954 to about 250 birds in 1982. Today, an estimated 3,000 short-tailed albatross roam the Pacific from Tori-shima to Alaska and at least one has flown south close to our shores,” Shepherd wrote.
Albatross more commonly seen in the Pacific are Laysan and black-footed albatross. The lifespan of the big birds is still unknown but were likely long before all the disruptions of modern man. One female Laysan”s albatross has been observed nesting for 60 years. She has been named “Wisdom.”
The rare bird seen off Mendocino had no fear of the boat with the video taken just a few feet from it, a trait that once got them into big trouble.
“The tameness of nesting parents earned them the nickname aho-dori or fool birds and the men each killed hundreds every day,” Shepherd wrote.
The albatross often appears as a magical bid in literature. Sighting the seagoing bird was a sign wind and land were nearby and mariners of old refused to kill the birds even if hungry. In Samuel Taylor Coleridge”s 1798 poem, “The Rime of the Ancient Mariner,” a sailor who kills an albatross curses the entire voyage by doing so and is made to wear its corpse around his neck.
LeValley offers a free daily photo to email subscribers called, “Outside my Window,” featuring mostly sea creatures and birds. He works both as a biologist and professional photographer as part of the Mendocino Coast Photographers Guild and Gallery. He can be reached at ron@levalleyphoto.com.
The best known effort of the Mendocino Coast Audubon Society (MCAS) is the Christmas Bird Count. The organization is currently involved in the first-ever oyster catcher survey.
“With rising sea level, we don”t know what that is going to do them. This effort is intended to get some baseline data on the oyster catcher.”
MCAS meets the third Monday of most months at Town Hall at 7 p.m.
