Researchers Scott Shaffer and Michelle Kappes make cameo appearances in a story -- "On the Wings of the Albatross" -- in the December 2007 issue of National Geographic Magazine, now online. Writer Carl Safina and Santa Cruz, Ca., photographer Frans Lanting put together the feature story. It's a fabulous look at the world's albatross, and features -- in still photos, text and video -- black-footed albatrosses on Midway Island, where Scott and Michelle have been doing research.

Here's a photo that Frans Lanting took of Michelle weighing a chick. More of his incredible shots are in a photo gallery on the National Geographic site.

As is normal in major feature articles like this, a lot of interesting information is edited out so that the article can fit into the allotted space. So, over the next couple of weeks, Scott, Michelle and Bill Henry will be posting blogs here about their research on black-footed and laysan albatross.

We'll also do a couple of feature stories of our own, which will appear on our latest species page featuring the black-footed albatross.

It debuts today.