Seeing an albatross
Seeing an albatross is a rare thrill, usually far out at sea or at a colony in Hawaii or New Zealand. Young birds spend years practicing a courtship dance with many partners before choosing one, a model of patient preparation.
What it may mean
Before a Laysan albatross ever raises a chick, it goes to a kind of dance school. Young birds return to the colony after years at sea and spend several seasons in noisy groups, bowing, clacking bills, whistling and pointing their beaks at the sky with one partner after another. The groups shrink as birds pair off, and each couple refines its own routine, so that many do not lay a first egg until they are eight or nine years old. It looks like play. It is also rehearsal for a partnership. Anyone who has learned a craft, a language or a relationship slowly will recognize it. The dancing pairs at an albatross colony show patience before commitment, and the practice that makes it work.
Depending on how you saw it
Far out at sea
Most people who see an albatross do so from the deck of a ship in the Southern Ocean or the North Pacific, where the birds can follow a vessel for hours. Old sailors' lore treated the sight with suspicion, while older mariners counted it a good omen. Which sign in your own line of work has changed its meaning since you started?
Dancing pairs at a colony
On Kauai and Midway, Laysan albatrosses nest close to paths and lawns, and visitors can watch pairs dance just a few steps away. Each couple's routine is slightly its own. Which shared habit with someone you love has become a dance only the two of you know?
A chick waiting alone on the ground
Albatross chicks sit alone for days while both parents fly huge distances to fish, returning to feed them oily meals. The chick is not abandoned, only waiting. Who in your life is working far away on your behalf right now?
Royal albatrosses in New Zealand
At Taiaroa Head near Dunedin, royal albatrosses nest on the mainland, and visitors can watch them from an observatory. Seeing such a bird up close changes its scale in your mind. What looked small from a distance turned out to be enormous when you came close?
Why it happens in nature
Albatrosses are large seabirds of the Southern Ocean and North Pacific; the wandering albatross has the widest wingspan of any living bird, up to about three and a half meters. Young birds spend several years at sea before returning to breed, and Laysan albatrosses practice courtship dances with several partners before pairing, often breeding first at eight or nine.
To reflect on
What are you still practicing patiently before you feel ready to commit to it?