The Covid symptoms are receding fast. An overnight sweat seems to have relieved the worst symptoms and today apart from the odd sneeze and cough I have felt pretty much normal. I will test again in the morning but it's only day 4 since the positive result so maybe too early to hope for a negative. I sit in the rear of the bus with the 2 other ladies who have succumbed. Thank goodness no one else has caught Covid – well to date anyway.
I had hoped to catch up with Posting to the Blog this evening but the bug is still taking it out of me and I'm desperately tired plus Covid is causing me a bit of Brain Fog – no more than usual I hear you cry! My final excuse is that this hotel room is not equipped for drafting posts. I'm currently standing up since there is no desk and no chair!
So yesterday we were in Dunedin (New Edinburgh) and, more particularly in the afternoon, on a visit to the Southern Royal Albatross Centre on the very tip of the Otago Peninsular. I will leave you with some homework to look the location up on a map. This is the only known nesting site for the Southern Royal Albatross the 3rd largest species of Albatross with a wingspan of 3 metres. The sub-Antarctic species – the Wandering Albatross – is the largest with a wingspan of 3.3 metres.
Pairs bond for life and they only produce an egg biennially so great is the energy required. We were lucky yesterday to see the last 4 chicks of this years hatching. The parents will feed them until they are 8 months old and heavier than the adult birds – about 8kgs. The photo shows one of the chicks strengthening its wings by flapping. Once the chicks are ready they will take to the air and head east across the Pacific Ocean to the West Coast of Chile where they will feed on the strong ocean currents in that part of the world. It's a non-stop flight of 9000kms which will take about 10 to 12 days since they can cover a 1000kms a day. They can achieve these enormous distances and speeds because they have a special tendon that goes from wingtip to wingtip across their shoulders that they can lock into place. This isolates their wings from their bodies which means low heart rate and saving energy using only the wind to power their flight.
These teenagers will only return to Otago at the age of 5 and will then bond with a mate over the next year or so and produce their first egg at 8 years old. They live for about 25 human years but there is one Matriarch at this site who has lived for 60 years and still laying.
The second photo is of a Teenager showing his prowess at flying.
No comments:
Post a Comment