One of the joys of watching seabirds is delighting in their mastery of the interface between air and water. They have no need of land except to breed but travel gracefully through the air, rest on the surface of the sea and locate their food beneath the surface.
Storm petrels dance over the surface, dipping just beneath to pick out small food items. Prions, petrels and shearwaters can form rafts and dip feed into workups of prey forced to the surface by fish. Diving petrels seem almost as competent flying beneath the surface as they are above while gannets dive from a height to pluck fish from metres below the surface.
Albatross cover huge distances in search of their prey, much of which is squid. But how does a bird that can only reach a little below the surface capture squid that live at depth? The magic of technology is that it can help answer these questions. Now that geolocators and GPS units have become smaller and lighter we are able to track birds more accurately and for longer periods of time.
A study in 2016 tracking Wandering albatross showed them sitting on the water for long periods, swimming in circles. The tracks were assumed to be errors until multiple birds returned the same results. It appears that they locate squid grounds, and then on dark nights, paddle in circles to stimulate bioluminecensce. This attracts squid up from their normal depths and into reach of the albatross. How marvelous is that?
Source: Do they get dizzy? Tags show spinning Wandering albatross attract squid at night
Paul Kettel
21 Mar 2019Hi Tony, Awesome images as always. Interested to know if you took your sea bird images on a commercial charter? Any recommendations as to who to approach for getting out on the Hauraki Gulf for photography? Looks like you get out on the water quite bit.
Paul
tony
21 Mar 2019Thanks Paul. I’ve been lucky to go out with Chris Gaskin and the Northern NZ Seabird Trust a couple of times and can recommend these trips. They are primarily birding trips but photography opportunities are present. Always a bit of a gamble as to whether wind and light directions will co-operate. Best to contact them via their website https://www.nzseabirdtrust.com/pelagic-trips