Data Loggers

We have been installing data loggers on adult Laysan and Blackfooted Albatross the past 2 days. They are very small packages that mount on a field readable band and record data for up to two years. They are placed on birds that are known breeders from our reproductive success plots. Albatross have such high nest fidelity that there is a good probability that these birds will come back to the same plots in November when the reproductive cycle begins again and the data loggers can be retrieved. They have a very accurate clock on board and record first light, maximum light (noon), and last light each day. They also record temperature and have a wet/ dry sensor so the temperature can be differentiated between air temperature and water temperature when the birds are resting on the water surface. These devices don’t transmit any information but when they are retrieved the information can be downloaded and through a series of mathematical manipulations very precise locations can be computed for each day the bird was wearing the device. What is being learned is that birds from different nesting colonies are feeding in different areas of the North Pacific and that these birds travel prodigious distances to feed their chicks. As unbelievable as it sounds these Albatross have been known to travel 10,000 miles in less than a week and return to the proper island and chick to regurgitate food. It is exciting to be part of this kind of work.