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Tuesday, November 2, 1999



DO YOU HEAR WHAT I HEAR:

Mating time
on Midway

The Laysan albatrosses
begin their gooney dance,
oblivious to everything

By Lori Tighe
Star-Bulletin

Tapa

The white birds soar toward the island without flapping a wing, their bodies arched in exquisite flight. Then they hit the ground, bellyflop, roll and crash into one another.

The albatrosses have landed.

Like the swallows of San Juan Capistrano Mission in California, the Laysan albatross signal the beginning of mating season with their arrival at Midway Atoll this weekend.

In a month, they'll number in the million range and their squawking fertility ritual, called the gooney dance, will reach an unbearable pitch.

"The noise is mind-boggling, you don't get a lot of sleep," said Rob Shallenberger, resident and manager of the Midway Atoll National Wildlife Refuge.

Even though Shallenberger must close his windows to get any sleep at all until June when the birds depart, he and the other 159 Midway residents welcome their annual return.

"We're pretty excited to see them back," he said. "It's so much a part of living at Midway."

The birds, whose wingspans can reach 80 inches, also make their home near the lighthouse of Kilauea Point on Kauai, and on Oahu's Kaena Point.


Star-Bulletin file photo
A Layson albatross and chick are shown in this file
photo. The birds are beginning their mating season
on Midway atoll. The birds don't leave until June.



But their main home is at Midway, where 70 percent of the world's population of Laysan albatrosses come each season to mate and hatch their young.

Although they mate for life, each year males and females must return to their similar nesting spot, find each other and "reaffirm the bond," as Shallenberger puts it.

To perform the gooney dance, they flap their wings, waggle their heads, clap their bills, utter a wide range of vocalizations, and strut their stuff.

People can get close to their display because the birds have "insular tameness," Shallenberger said. Birds who nest on islands with no predators become fearless or oblivious to humans.

To ensure their privacy, the refuge never allows more than 100 tourists at a time.

"They carry on as if you're not even there."

The Laysan is the most numerous of the albatross variety who nest at Midway, the only remote island National Wildlife Refuge open to the public since 1997 when the Navy left.

But other albatross species also come, such as the rare, endangered short-tailed albatross, or "golden gooney."

One 18-year-old golden gooney has become Midway's tragic old maid. She comes each year alone, lays an infertile egg and sits on it for two months before she finally flies off to sea in search of food, he said.

The albatross come to Midway because "they become tied to their nesting site," Shallenberger said. Most of them got lucky with their gooney dance last year, so chances are they'll get lucky again this year.



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