15 December 2015

Thank you for the food

Thank you for the food

Looks like I'm not above the ocasional fart joke

1 December 2015

Do the Moonwalk

Do the Moonwalk

The Albatross Courtship dance is almost certainly one of the most intricate and complex of any being apart from the French.

15 October 2015

Not Coming Out!

Not Coming Out!

Sometines an albatross chick can spend some extra time inside the egg. Parents don't usually help with the hatching.

1 October 2015

A Complicated Mating Dance

A Complicated Mating Dance

It is known that Albatrosses have quite a complicated courtship dance ritual.

1 September 2015

The Booby

The Booby

A Booby is a funny awkward little seabird, right? Well... Wrong. Don't be fooled by the name - they should be called stormbirds ore something like that.

15 August 2015

Plastic Pollution Limerick

Plastic Pollution Limerick
My friend and albatross lover Sybren Renema send me this powerful limerick about the problems of plastic ocean pollution:

There once was an albie from Leith,
Who thought he had plenty to eat,
But his health eroded
'till his stomach exploded
For plastic digests not like meat.

1 August 2015

Perfect Landing

Perfect Landing

Yes, Albatrosses do spend years at sea without ever touching firm ground.

15 July 2015

Preening

Preening

Preening - there is nothing quite like it.

1 July 2015

Landsick

Landsick

I hear Albatrosses can spend up to ten years without setting a webbed foot on land. Can you imagine living so long without touching anything stable and firm? And when they come to land they do it for one reason only. Yes, you guessed it.

29 June 2015

1000 Albatrosses

1000 Albatrosses

So today we got 1000 likes on our Facebook Albatrosses page, this might seem unimportant, but just imagine 1000 people smiling at an albatrosses cartoon. That's a thousand smiles. I like that. So I made this drawing for you and if, by chance you'd like to have a 1000 Albatrosses iPhone cover or something like that. Check out our store here.

And keep on smiling

15 June 2015

Shark Shaped Motivation

Shark Shaped Motivation

Every year at fledging time, tiger sharks gather to feast on the less motivated Albatrosses. It's fly or die time.

1 June 2015

The Famous Wing-Lock

The Famous Wing-Lock

Albatrosses are aided in soaring by a wing-lock mechanism, a sheet of tendons that lock the wing when fully extended, allowing the wings to be kept outstretched without any energy expenditure. Neat, huh?

15 May 2015

A Limerick by the poet Albatross

Title
There once was a bloody big Albatross
who struggled to get the idea across
that the great big blue sea
is a nice place to be,
But with garbage it's thick just like applesauce.

Yes, that's right, I've rhymed Albatross with Applesauce. That's how my mind works and I'm not ashamed to say so.

1 May 2015

Vacation in Heligoland

Vacation in Heligoland

I hear that a Black-browed Albatross has been sighted in Heligoland on the 19th of April 2015. Just like last year in May. Remember? I wonder if it's the same bird...

You can read more about this here in this excelent article by Felix Timmermann

15 April 2015

National Geographic Magazine

National Geographic Magazine
You can find the said National Geographic article by Carl Safina HERE. It's well worth the read!

15 March 2015

Self-Conscious Waddlers

Self-Conscious Waddlers

It is a well known fact that Albatrosses are master flyers. Less well known is the fact that they are close to useless on land.

That might explain why they spend so little time there.

1 March 2015

A Haruspex and a Biologist

A Haruspex and a Biologist
From looking at the guts of dead albatrosses a biologist can often say how the bird died. And it's usually due to the ingestion of plastic materials. I wonder what a Haruspex would say of our future by looking at those same guts... What do you think? Let me know in the comments. Do you know what a Haruspex is? Well, look it up and learn something new.

15 February 2015

Oil Slick

Oil Slick

Thank you Paul DeMerchant for the inspiration! This one is for you!

1 February 2015

Release The Fledglings

Release The Fledglings

Young albatrosses will return to land after reaching sexual maturity. But that may take some time.

15 January 2015

A Haiku from the Poet Albatross

A Haiku from the Poet Albatross
This cartoon is based on a Haiku by Julia Fiedorczuk and Gerardo Beltrán for the Ecopoetics project, because some things have to be said with a poem.

1 January 2015

Plastic Food

Plastic Food

Did you know that Albatrosses and other wildlife die from plastic in their food chain? Plastic Food kills and it's not as if those animals had the healthy food option we arguably do.

You can learn more about this on the Plastic Pollution Coalition website.