Taking Flight and Leaving Home by LisaMay Sense of Place Short Story writing prompt entry |
I've been in a flap, doing wing-strengthening exercises for the past couple of weeks, practising for this very moment, my instinct for flight becoming insistent. Now eight months old, I'm ready for freedom.
Today's the day! The wind is blowing forcefully, so my heavy body will be supported during take-off. Stepping awkwardly towards the edge of the rugged cliff, my wings held out in anticipation, a gust of wind raises me aloft. I flex my wings experimentally, then with more certainty as the air current takes me higher. What an amazing feeling! I am flying – the first of this season's Royal Albatross chicks in my colony to be fully fledged and leave home. When I've finished growing, my wingspan could measure 11 feet, and I'll be able to ride the wind nearly 500 miles in a day! I soar high above the Taiaroa Head (Pukekura) Nature Reserve in southern New Zealand, my bird's-eye view taking in the stunning scenery around the rocky headland where I hatched eight months ago, and have since been nurtured by my mother and father. Immediately below me is the grassy area where other chicks of my cohort are nearly ready for their first flight. Some parent birds have returned from fishing to feed their offspring, perhaps for the last time before the young birds fly off. There have been 21 of us youngsters this season. About 200 adult birds call this place home, with about half making landfall each year to find their lifelong mate or to nest. Our species is on the endangered list, but here at Taiaroa Head (Pukekura), the only mainland Albatross colony in the Southern Hemisphere, we are under protection by dedicated field rangers who assist with predator control and supplementary feeding. We have quite a few neighbours. There is a large colony of red-billed gulls nearby, with an estimated 3,000 breeding pairs. What a racket they make! Otago shags (cormorants) also choose to breed here, building their distinctive chimney-pot nests nearby. Many seabirds find this windswept location to their liking – spoonbills, terns, petrels, shearwaters, and other species of albatross and gulls. There are also fur seals on the rock platforms below the cliffs, and visitors can see about 200 little penguins coming ashore at dusk to their burrows at one of the accessible beaches. Now I am gliding high on gleaming wings above the nature reserve's visitor information centre and observatory buildings that are designed to blend into the landscape. The red and white lighthouse is a bold landmark, but it is dwarfed by the dramatic coastal cliffs. Waves are surging in to thunder against the cliffs today, swirling the huge rubbery strands of bull kelp. On other days it can appear tranquil. It is a beautiful place to be at any time, enjoying the colours of sea and sky as the weather changes. Being here feels wild and remote, as if it is miles away from human habitation, but surprisingly the nature reserve is within the city boundary of Dunedin (population approximately 129,000), which is nestled only a 40-minute drive away at the head of the Otago Harbour. Taiaroa Head (Pukekura) will always be my home, but I will be absent for many years at sea before I return to breed as a mature adult, help raise my chick, then return to my free-wheeling life across the Southern Ocean between New Zealand and Chile in South America. I will come and go throughout my two-year cycle of breeding seasons. If life is kind to me I will live for an average of 42 years, but as the ocean warms it will have an impact on my food sources of fish and squid. If I can't find enough food to keep up my own strength, it will affect my breeding capability, and I also won't be able to feed my chick properly. Dangers are many for wildlife. This place will always draw me back, and to make my species feel welcome, each year when the first albatross returns, the Town Hall bell and church and school bells are rung to celebrate and share the good news with the residents of Dunedin.
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