The Rookery

January 14, 2008

I loved the Rookery and would go back in a heartbeat. The weather was amazing which always helps, but the dramatic coastline combined with the hundred, if not thousands, of albatrosses and a large colony of rockhoppers made it, for me, more enjoyable than the Neck.

For me, (and for Gemma - my friend who’s a bird observer and whose job is basically to try and stop albatross from getting killed by longliners) seeing the albatross on land and breeding was an amazing experience. I’m so used to seeing them at sea that to see them up close on the ground was just fantastic. The chicks were so big and fluffy and the adults seemed to be so nonplussed by our presence that you could get incredibly close without causing any (apparent) stress.

The nests the albatrosses build are really impressive. They’re made from mud and are perfectly round.

The chicks are these big balls of grey fluff which stand up straight at squawk at you if you accidentally get too close. They lie top-to-tail with the parent, so that they can look out from beneath the tail if they so choose.

Before chicks can be produced males and females need to get together. Albatrosses form monogamous relationships and there is a complex ritual which reaffirms the bonds, and it is really amazing to watch. There is a lot of bill-touching and ritual preening, as well as loud vocal displays on both parts.

Once both partners are assured everything is ok one with often leave to go foraging, but occasionally both will remain at or near the nest.

The albatross are amazingly beautiful and photogenic and I could post a good couple of hundred photos of them, but I think that might be going too far! So I’ll move on and show you some of the rockhopper photos.
The rockhoppers nest on the flatter ground behind the cliffs at the Rookery but head down some pretty shear cliffs to get to the sea. We were told of a small waterfall halfway down where they like to wash and decided to take a look. I’m really glad we did because it was an amazing location and as the sun started to get really bright it was a lovely place to sit and just commune with nature!
The rockhoppers are, as I’ve already said, pretty fearless, and weren’t at all bothered by our presence. We sat quietly within a metre or so of quite a few and they just slept, reminding me of a small plump dog dosing contentedly on the floor (naming no names!).

When they’re on land they either walk like normal or they bounce like kangaroos. It’s really funny to watch when they do it on flat ground and amazing when they are climbing up steep cliffs.

It’s not really surprising that they liked to take the opportunity to sit and chill for a while.