Bill Henry, at UC Santa Cruz Long Marine Lab. As you read this, Laysan albatrosses are dancing their courtship ritual on the towering rugged volcanic cliffs of Guadalupe Island off the coast of Mexico. They arrived a few weeks ago after soaring thousands of miles from Alaskas Aleutian Islands and the Gulf of Alaska . They dance within a few feet of their previous nest site to spend much of the next seven months on tierra firme. While these birds have just returned south, we at the lab are busy gearing up to spend some time with them.

Tale of the Guadalupe Laysan Albatross

As you can tell from the sat photos on the previous post, Guadalupe's a small island. Just a few folks live here: Seven to 10 members of the Mexican military (Armada de Mexico).

We were also very happy to find a particular bird happily incubating an egg.

We returned from Guadalupe Island, Mexico, two weeks ago. The trip was amazing in many aspects.