Baby Birds

The last time I was at the Seward SeaLife Center, they had taken me and my guest back to see the birds in the aviary. They had several eggs cooking in the incubator, and were just about ready to put them back under their actual mothers in hopes that they would hatch.

Last week, sinc I was arranging the whole Squid Thing (see previous posting to this blog) for the weekend, I asked if it would be possible to go back again to see the results. Thankfully, Kerri – the supervisor of the Aviary – was happy to show off her babies to us.

Kelly and I headed back with Kerri once we had finished our squid dissection while Mother and Danny elected to sit in the café and have another cup of coffee.

The first babies we got to meet were two little Long Tailed Ducklings. They had just taken a bath in the tub and were drying off under a heat lamp when we arrived. They were tiny little things! Normally, they would be in a brood with many, many ducklings all together – so the staff at the SeaLife center placed a mirror in their tub, to simulate the crowded conditions they should have had.

Right behind their tub was the computer monitor where the staff keeps an eye on the birds out in the exhibit. We got to check in on the Red Legged Kittiwake chick via the computer monitor. He is a monster, according to his handler. Kerri said that he is voracious and demanding, and his parents work day & night stuffing food down his throat. He is the same age as the two ducklings, but much larger by far!

Red Legged Kittiwakes are extremely endangered here in Alaska, with only 26 known mating pairs left – so this little boy (assuming he actually is a boy – it’s almost impossible to know for sure without blood work) is very precious indeed.

We got to go in the back, outside, next to visit the King Eider ducklings. These two are fortunate enough to have a very attentive mother who takes very good care of them. They, too, are much larger than the Long Tailed ducklings. Might just be the breed, since I know that all of them are very healthy and well taken care of.

Kerri told us that the puffin eggs just didn’t work this year. They did get some actual chicks hatched out of them, but they didn’t survive. This is very distressing, but since the breed is not endangered, I suppose it’s not so bad. They will certainly try again next year.