The British Antarctic Survey have been conducting research on Bird Island since 1958. I am following in the footsteps of previous field assistants in continuing this research by collecting valuable population and breeding data.
My focus is on albatross, of which there are four species on the island. There are approximately 14,000 pairs of albatross on Bird Island (plenty to keep me busy!)
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| Wandering Albatross (image JJ Harrison) |
Wandering albatross- the biggest of all seabirds, with a whopping wing span of over 3 metres and weighing up to 12kg. Each chick takes a year to fledge, and hence the adults breed only one every two years, to give themselves a break. They can fly huge distances and can cover 10,000 km in between 10 and 20 days!
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| Grey-headed Albatross (image Elizabeth Crapo) |
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| Light-mantled Sooty Albatross (image Dimitri Damasceno) |
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| Black-browed Albatross (image JJ Harrison) |
Key albatross facts
- Takes around 10 years to reach maturity.
- Lays just one egg.
- Breeds once every two years apart from the Black-browed Albatross.
- Diet- fish, squid, krill.
- Life span of up to 60 years.
What will I be doing?
My work will involve finding all of the Wandering Albatross nests on the island and monitoring them through the breeding season. There are certain areas that will be intensively monitored (on a daily basis) and the rest will be less intensive. There are around 600 wanderer nests on the island, so it would be an impossible task to monitor them all every day! I will also monitor a sample of the other three species. There are study populations across the island that I will need to visit regularly.
Once the chicks are big enough I will put rings on each chick so that they can be identified as individuals. This is important so that in future years we can see which birds have returned to the island, and who they are breeding with. It is also very useful for if they are sighted elsewhere then we can get information about there movements.
I will also be taking diet samples that I will analyse in the lab to see what type of squid or fish they have been eating. I am sure some of you will be thinking 'how can you tell which species' they are?', well I am having training on fish bone and squid beak ID before I leave Cambridge.
Other wildlife
Albatross are certainly not the only animals on the island. We are also neighbours with around 50,000 pairs of penguins.
There are two main breeding species of penguins on Bird Island which are the Macaroni Penguins and the Gentoo Penguins.
Penguins differ to albatross in that they have two eggs, and in good years may be able to raise both chicks to fledging.
There is another assistant on the island who will be spending a lot of time in the penguin colonies monitoring breeding success. No visible markings are put onto penguins, but some of them are given pit tags (similar to a microchip in a dog or cat). At one of the colonies there is a weighbridge that the penguins cross on the way into/out of the sea and which can also detect the tag and record which penguin it is. This reduces the handling of the birds but maximises the valuable data recorded.
Giant petrels (known to Bird Islanders as Geeps) are also present in large numbers. There are two separate species Northern and Southern, which can be distinguished by the colour of their beak. These birds are a little harder to love than the penguins, especially when they have had their heads inside a dead seal (they don't score highly on the 'aww' factor).
Interestingly they have nasal passages on the top of the beak and the beak is split into 7-9 horny plates.
My work will involve finding all of the Wandering Albatross nests on the island and monitoring them through the breeding season. There are certain areas that will be intensively monitored (on a daily basis) and the rest will be less intensive. There are around 600 wanderer nests on the island, so it would be an impossible task to monitor them all every day! I will also monitor a sample of the other three species. There are study populations across the island that I will need to visit regularly.
Once the chicks are big enough I will put rings on each chick so that they can be identified as individuals. This is important so that in future years we can see which birds have returned to the island, and who they are breeding with. It is also very useful for if they are sighted elsewhere then we can get information about there movements.
I will also be taking diet samples that I will analyse in the lab to see what type of squid or fish they have been eating. I am sure some of you will be thinking 'how can you tell which species' they are?', well I am having training on fish bone and squid beak ID before I leave Cambridge.
Other wildlife
Albatross are certainly not the only animals on the island. We are also neighbours with around 50,000 pairs of penguins.
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| Gentoo Penguin family (image Liam Quinn) |
Penguins differ to albatross in that they have two eggs, and in good years may be able to raise both chicks to fledging.
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| Macaroni Penguin (image Jerzy Strzelecki) The Macaroni penguin is named after the "Macaroni coiffure" hair style that was popular in the 18th century. |
Giant petrels (known to Bird Islanders as Geeps) are also present in large numbers. There are two separate species Northern and Southern, which can be distinguished by the colour of their beak. These birds are a little harder to love than the penguins, especially when they have had their heads inside a dead seal (they don't score highly on the 'aww' factor).
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| Southern Giant Petrel (image Brocken Inaglory) |
Interestingly they have nasal passages on the top of the beak and the beak is split into 7-9 horny plates.
The species' above are the main bird species that we will be studying on Bird Island, but there are a number of other species on the island. There are no specific projects at the moment working on these species'. I have put photographs below to give you an idea of the diversity.
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| South Georgia Pipit (image Ben Phalan, BAS) |
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| Skua (image Samuel Blanc) |
The most southerly passerine (perching birds with 3 forward pointing toes and 1 backwards) in the world.
Mainly a fish eater, famed for stealing other animals meals, but also a predatory bird that will take other seabirds and their chicks. Extremely defensive of their nests and likely to dive bomb anyone getting too close.
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| Blue-eyed Shag and chick |
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| King Penguins (image Samuel Blanc) |
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| Chinstrap Penguin |
It is not just birds that inhabit the island, there are also around 65,00 breeding Antarctic fur seals calling the place home, and a lot of them are on the beach outside the station. In the breeding season this makes getting around a bit tricky! The final assistant is tasked with monitoring the breeding of the seals and has to go out each day during the breeding seasons to count and weigh pups and also fit some of them with pit tags.
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| Antarctic fur seal (image Jerzy Strzelecki) |
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| Baby fur seal- sometimes you get blonder ones! (image Ville Miettinen) |
In the winter months we have the privilege of seeing one of the major Antarctic predators- the Leopard seal. This is a seal that you would not want to be in the water with as they eat other seals.
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| Leopard seal |
