Move Like Water by Hannah Stowe

Author:Hannah Stowe
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Tin House Books

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Our albatross does not travel with friends, she leaves alone. For all the grandeur of the species and its reputation for epic flight, the reality for fledglings involves a large amount of struggle. Although she has spent months growing and exercising her wings, preparing for flight and flying itself are two entirely different things. Her moment of air and grace is short-lived—she finds herself plummeting towards the surface of the water with all the gravity of her freshly-fledged weight. Over the next ten to fifteen days, she will spend hours or even whole days on the surface of the sea, periods of swimming and resting interspersed with flight as she moves northwards. Day by day she builds strength, technique, and endurance.

There seem to be a few reasons why subtropical waters are a favourable destination for newly-fledged wandering albatross. The weather is warmer, so the juvenile birds have to expend less energy on keeping warm while they are learning to forage. There is also less competition for food. Of all the birds foraging in the Southern Ocean, the wandering albatross is the apex predator, but although they can outcompete all other species of albatross and petrels, they still have to contend with other wandering albatross. The mature birds tend to forage and wander within the sub-antarctic and antarctic regions, making the subtropics a less competitive place for the juveniles to refine their foraging technique. Of course, there will still be competition for food, but it will be among individuals of a similar stage of development and experience.

Of all the stages of life of a wandering albatross, least is known about this juvenile stage. Fledglings show the same behaviour, navigating into subtropical waters by some unknown mechanism that combines the innate and the learned. Our fledgling left the nest without her parents. Either one or both birds may have returned to Bird Island, perhaps with a final meal for her, only to find the nest empty, their chick fledged. Her fledging concludes the breeding cycle for her parents. The pair would then have parted ways, each headed to wander the ocean alone, embarking on solo voyages with the promise that they will reunite again on Bird Island in two years’ time. If they both return to the breeding colony safely, they will greet each other, an egg will be fertilised, hatched, and the cycle begins again. Although our chick fledged in the same period as many other successful chicks, they do not travel as a flock. She flies solo. Each day she can fly a little further, a little faster. As her prowess in the air develops, her need to spend time on the surface diminishes. In six months’ time she will have the flight efficiency of an adult bird. That is, if she can survive the next six months.

For the wandering albatross, the highest mortality occurs within the first year of the juvenile period, specifically within the first two months that they spend at sea. Some may never learn to fly efficiently enough to be able to forage successfully.

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