Thalassarche salvini

I had my first ever seabird pelagic cruise this morning off the coast of Kaikoura. This area is excellent for seabird watching because there is a deep marine trench very close to shore. This trench holds very cold water, which causes upwelling of nutrients and attracts all manner of marine life, including whales, dolphins, and the birds.

It was a terrific trip; we had 4 species of albatross (including the Wandering Albatross, who has the largest wingspan of any bird at 12 feet), 3 petrels, and the Hutton's Shearwater, whose entire world population breeds in two valleys of the Kaikoura Mountains.

This species is Salvin's Albatross, one of four very similar albatrosses in the Shy Mollymawk complex. It is endemic to New Zealand, breeding primarily on the Bounty Islands as well as The Snares. Originally grouped with the lighter White-Capped Albatross and the darker Chatham Albatross as the Shy Mollymawk, it is distinguished now by the light gray coloration across its head and neck, and its breeding range. The mollymawks are medium-sized albatrosses, often with bright yellow bills and intense smoky brows, not quite reaching the epic sizes of the great albatrosses. There were several of these Salvin's, as well as the White-Capped, floating around once we reached the trench. You understand why they were once called "shy" when you see how they cower to the larger albatrosses in the presence of food.

The Albatross Encounter (the name of the cruise) uses fish liver as bait to attract the birds. The smell of that funky stuff in combination with the endless deep undulations of the boat on the open water was plenty to send me yacking off the side within the first hour, and to keep on doing so for the remaining two. The photographic opportunities from the tiny boat were amazing--I was only able to snap off a few decent shots between all the retching, yet I am so happy with what I did get...I've put up a few more species on Flickr.

Other highlights included a school of Dusky Dolphins (seen from the shore while waiting for the boat), porpoising fur seals, and one spectacularly lucky glimpse of a sperm whale.

*****

If you've got a spare 15 minutes, I'd like to share this story from Mike Birbiglia, a favorite comedian of mine and a storyteller for the U.S. public radio program This American Life: Link here. In the story he reflects on his adolescence and discovering the idea of being attracted to girls. At one point he talks about taking a crush to the carnival, in the hope that he'll get to kiss her on one of the rides. His cunning plan goes terribly awry when they go on a spinny ride and he vomits all over the place. Talking about this he says, "I know when they put the bar seatbelt [of the ride] down, that I'm going to throw up--for sure." I'm sharing this today because that line was running through my head over and over for the first 45 minutes of the cruise, because I knew I was going to throw up--for sure.

*****

Last year: one of my favorite blips ever, a Black Phoebe on the wing....