KILAUEA — The first of the moli have returned to Kauai.
It was the first Thursday in November when writer and albatross-enthusiast Kim Rogers saw the telltale awkward shuffle of the seabird wandering on private property in Princeville.
“It’s a known nester,” Rogers said. “It was walking about, reacclimating or looking for its mate — who really knows what’s going on in the bird’s head.”
She says the albatross might not be the first to land this season, but it is definitely in the first flight of Laysan albatross that return to Kauai annually for nesting in November.
It’s a “same-time next year” mentality with the albatross, and annually the moli flock back to Kauai right around the same time. Then they pair off, reuniting with the mates they haven’t seen all year.
“They usually all come back within a week or 10 days of each other,” Rogers said.
New pairs are formed, and by the time December rolls around, most of the pairs that are laying an egg — just one during a nesting season — have laid their eggs. Some pairs take a year or more off. Incubation is about 65 days, and during that time both parents take trips to feed the chick.
Over the next few months, the chick grows and the parents feed and care for it. Most have fledged by July and the parents fly back out to sea in August.
“They’re independent when they’re out to sea,” Rogers said. “You might see a group of them foraging if there’s a good source of squid, but they’re independent.”
Cruising solo over the vast emptiness of the Pacific Ocean, moli spend the fall months foraging for pelagic squid and small fish. Then a biological alarm goes off and the moli follow an internal GPS (global positioning system) back to their nesting sites to reunite with their fellows and continue the cycle.
In 1990, the Laysan albatross were estimated at 2.5 million individuals. They breed across the Northwest Hawaiian Islands, on Kauai and on Oahu — the largest breeding colony is on Midway with 400,000 breeding pairs returning annually.
Wisdom, the world’s oldest banded Laysan albatross, nests exclusively on Midway Atoll, and there have not yet been reports of her return for the upcoming breeding season.
Rogers isn’t the only one who has seen albatross on Kauai this season. The staff over at Kilauea Point National Wildlife Refuge spotted albatross on the refuge the next day, specifically at 11:05 a.m.
“They also saw another two or three that afternoon,” said Jennifer Waipa, of KPNWR.
Albatross will also be returning to areas near the Pacific Missile Range Facility on the Westside, which translocates the birds off their runway and to safer nesting grounds in an ongoing project.
While there are several places on the North Shore where nesting colonies will be welcoming pairs back and new nesters in search of a mate, many are on private property.
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Jessica Else, environment reporter, can be reached at 245-0452 or jelse@thegardenisland.com.
