Here’s Your Albatross Chicks Fix – Princeville – Kauai – Hawaii
With all of the media coverage of our flooding last week, some of you have expressed concern about the albatross chicks on Kaweonui Road. Rest assured, these little guys are doing just fine. Today was the first day in a long time that we had broad sunshine first thing in the morning. I was preparing Honu Point for our next guests and decided to snap a few photos of these babies in four of our neighbors’ yards. This one is Moana.
The albatross chicks are now about three months old and halfway to the time they will fledge. Soon they will be growing flight feathers from the bottom side up. In another month or two they will be pretty funny looking with half of their bodies covered in flight feathers and the other half still fluff.
There are still some adults hanging out as well. Parents come back to feed their young and others are still scouting for a mate. Here is a quick video of two adults greeting each other. One had just landed before I took the video.
The chicks are still fully dependent on their parents to bring them food. They are wandering a few feet from their nests. Eventually they will start lifting their wings to test out the air currents.
Sometime in late June or July we will bid them farewell. It is at that time that they will find the bluff and take their giant leap of faith, not to return for three or four years when the life cycle will start all over again.
The Cornell Lab Bird Cam has been down since the heavy rains last weekend. It is projected to be back up and running on Monday, April 23. To view live streaming of one of the chicks, go to http://cams.allaboutbirds.org/channel/41/Laysan_Albatross/?utm_source=Cornell+Lab+eNews&utm_campaign=23ea0be5a3-EMAIL_CAMPAIGN_2018_01_23&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_47588b5758-23ea0be5a3-277770429
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