Ancient mariner
Its wingspan is two men, its range the Southern Ocean. And it is dying in vast numbers – but there is hope too. Simon Barnes watches the wandering albatross
By Simon Barnes
Some birds are content with a little patch of woodland, a short length of ditch, a back garden or two. Albatrosses have more expansive ambitions. For most of them, home is the entire Southern Ocean. They have their being in distance: their job is the sea and the wind that never dies.
They can lock their wings and travel for ever, gliding at a ratio of 22 feet (6.7 metres) travelled for every foot lost. They can make a trip of 13,000 miles (21,000km) as a matter of routine; they mate for life, which can be 60 years. Albatrosses are about grand ideas. There are 22 species; the biggest is the ineffable wandering albatross, with a wingspan of damn near 12ft. They can effortlessly—and that is the word for their startling economy of energy—travel 600 miles in a day.
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