Report: Albatross

With very few exceptions, Albatross are endemic to the Southern Ocean where steady, uninterrupted wind patterns around the Antarctic continent give them the means to use their unmatched soaring abilities -- and their two meter wingspans! -- to search far and wide for food. Aloft and at sea for as long as three weeks at a time -- and covering some 7,000 miles of ocean in the process -- these birds have the agility to skim the turbulent water surface, dodge windswept waves and fly in the face of powerful gales with grace and ease. To watch them earn their living is an awesome and magical experience. Although filming these fast, agile birds -- as they maneuver in three dimensions -- from the deck of a rolling and pitching ship was at the extreme limit of my camera’s capability -- and well beyond my own! -- I was able to capture enough usable video to edit this Report. Although it is a bit “technically challenged”, I think it will give you a sense of the beauty that is the Albatross. (Many thanks, yet again, to my good friend Stephen Jacob for another fabulous piece of music!)