Albatross Numbers

Here is another look at a small piece of the colonies on Sand Island. Find me in the red shirt in the middle of the colony. I don't have all the data from the count but in round numbers we counted about 479,000 Laysan Albatross nests and about 27,000 Black-footed Albatross nests. That represents a lot of walking, climbing, crawling, brush crashing work. If I add in 500,00 non breeding adult albatross, 100,000 plus Bonin Petrel and a few thousand other assorted sea birds that means there are more than 1.6 million sea birds on the 1,200 acres that comprise Midway Atoll.  I've been in the middle of a lot of sea birds! It was a very energetic group of counters who happily put in the needed effort to complete the work. It gives me a lot of satisfaction to go to Midway again and to participate in a count like this in the largest albatross colony on the planet.