HABITAT

Tussock World

Unique Kidney Island in the Falklands --"a precious little world of its own"

Olin Sewall Pettingill, Jr.

N THEMANY treeless islands that When Mrs. Pettingill and I went to the watchers. We were welcome to use the emerge from the windy oceans of Falklands for six months in 1953-1954 to hut for as long as we wanted it; nobody the Southern Hemisphere, no plant study and film birds, we were im- had occupied it recently. Snapping up form is more characteristic or provides mediately advisedthat, of all places, we this opportunity, Eleanor and I spent more important habitat for birdlife than must not miss Kidney Island; indeed, altogetherfive weeks on the island dur- the tussockgrass (Poa spp.). It thrives we shouldspend as much time there as ing three different periods in the late dose to the sea, blanketing the smaller possible. It was one of the few smaller springand early summer. islands and fringing the larger ones. tussock islands off the coast of East Rarely does it reach inland beyond the Falkland, just seven miles away from IDNEYISLAND, above the tide line, moisture-laden winds and storm-tossed Stanley, the capital and the colony's covered 80 acres. Its north side spray. only town. Its cover of tussock grass faced the open sea with 50-foot cliffs. Tussock grass grows on rocky sur- (P. fiabellata) was especially luxuriant; When we viewed its south side one half- faces, starting from crevices or other consequently over the years farmers mileaway from ,what We indentations--wherever it can gain had made a practice of harvestingit for saw was a low pale green rise from the foothold. Once established, its roots their cattle. To facilitate the farmers' sea, as soft in aspect as a cushion. But from succeedinggenerations gradually overnight stops and to provide shelter now, nearing the same side in our char- build up a pedestal of peaty soil. The from suddenstorms, the government of tered ship, we soonmade out a beach of older the pedestal, the higher and more the colony erected a sturdy hut of cor- yellowishsand (to be our landingsite) in massive it becomes and the more lux- rugated steel equipped with built-in a cove protected by craggy ledges at uriant its crown of live blades that droop bunks, benches, table, stove, and little either end and uniformly backed by tus- in veritable skirts. Clumps of tussock else. Word eventually spread about the sock clumps so immense that they sug- grass may completely cover a ledge, colony that Kidney Island was as nota- gestedpalm trees. In the sunlightwith enshroud a steep slope, or festoon an ble for its plentiful birdlife as for its the wind stirring them, their long blades entire escarpment. tussockgrass. In time, as the need for glistened and shimmered. (I could Among the many islands where tus- tussockgrass decreased, Kidney Island clearly understand now why the first sock grassis a vegetationalfeature are was practically abandoned to bird Europeans, who sighted the Falklands the Falklands, an archipelagonow well known to the world in the South At- lantic lying roughly 300 miles northeast of the southern tip of South America between 51 ø and 53 ø South Latitude. Comprised of two main islands, East Falkland and , and over two hundred small islands and islets, the Falklands have a total land area about the size of Connecticut. They have been a British colony ever since 1833, whose principal economy in this century is basedon sheepranching, and the larger islandshave been heavily grazed to the extent that tussock grass, which once grew along all their coasts, has been destroyedin all but a few spotsinacces- sibleto sheep,either by beingfenced off or on too-steep slopes. Only on the smallerislands where grazinghas never been attempted, does tussock grass thrive in its pristine luxuriance. Aerial view of Kidney Island/Photo O.S. Pettingill.

Volume 36, Number 6 915 from one interlaced those of another, literally bridgingthe gap. Our struggle was a matter of grabbing several blades of one clump with one hand, several bladesfrom the one oppositewith the other.then pullingand forcingour way through the tangle. Fortunately the blades were not dangerouslysharp- edged, nor did they break off in our hands--a testament to their great strength.Meanwhile we had the prob- lem of keepingour footingas the ground Kidney Island with top of hut showing. was soggy--and slippery. Worse still, Photo/ O.S. Pettingill. the groundsometimes gave way under Eleanor Pettingill cutting a small Tussock from afar, reported them forested.) As pedestal for peat as fuel, Kidney Island. our weight, delivering us up to our Photo/ O.S. Pettingill. for the hut, our prospective abode, all kneesor farther into nestingburrows of we could seewas its roof pokingup from what must have been big birds. for the day. First, we would explore the tussock well above and back from the landing beach where we had been so 30-foot slopeleading up from the beach. occupiedin getting ashore through the No trail, no path of any sort could we TcLASTWEREACHED thehut. The kelp bedsand up to the hut, that we had see going up to it. few, after putting down their barely looked at birds. Then we would Since Kidney Island had not been loads inside, left us, hasteningto leave go to the opposite side of the island, visitedby grasscutters for over a year while there was still daylight. For us, it over the highest part, and down to the and the hut had not been occupied, was long after dark by the time we had cliffs whoseRockhopper PenguinsI had whatevertrail there mighthave been up cleanedthe hut and settledin, had sup- heard the night before. to the hut had become entirely ob- per, and were ready for somesleep. Anxious as we were to turn our atten- literated by a year's growth of grass. It Sleep'?Not for me right away; I was tion to the birds, we had to cut trails was late afternoonby the time our land- much too excited, tantalized, some- beforehand; otherwise we would be ing craft, after maneuvering through times mystified, by all the sounds out- forever waylaid by battling tussock kelp beds, reached the beach; time was side. There was a considerable wind, grassas we had been in reachingthe hut. running short. With the help of the quite enough to make tussock blades An ideal tool for this purpose would ship's crew carrying our equipment, whip the hut's sides. In the distance to have been a machete, long ago de- food supplies, and coal for fuel, we the north I could hear the surf pounding velopedfor slashingone's way through forged our own way. the cliffs that fronted on the ocean and tropical jungles, yet who would have at intervalsbetween the ocean'ssurging thought to bring along a machete to the I could easily make out the raucous treeless ? The best cackling of Rockhopper thing available in the hut was a saw, a (Ettdyptes crestatus) that colonized the plain old handsaw for cutting boards. cliffs. Now and then, from most any- By gathering a fistful of grassblades in where on the island, came the mournful one hand and holding them taut, we brays of what had to be Magellanic could hack them of(at the base with the Penguins (Spheniscus magellanicus). saw held in the other. However long and And from birdspassing in flightover and laboriousthe process,it worked. aroundthe hut came twitterings, howls, We were reminded during this and wheezes. and other assorted vocaliza- later bouts with tussock grassthat the tions, all eerie. While I never doubted literature on the early explorationsof that most of the birds were shearwaters the Falklandsand other islandsat ap- and petrels, and a few were possibly proximate latitudes in the southern owls, I wonderedwhich birds were giv- oceans alludes to persons who had ing which sounds--and kept wondering managed to survive when marooned on until I fell asleep. tussock islands by subsisting on the At dawn both of us were abruptly grass.Probably true. Its basalcores are The author standing on ledge in front •[ awakenedby some creature scratching white, pulpy, and tender with every in- Tus,ock Grass. Photo/Eleanor Pettingill. and clawing its way up the hut's metal dication of richness in nutrient matter. From the moment we started our as- roof to the ridgepole.Rushing outside, I Tastingthem ourselves, we detectedthe cent I began to appreciate the tough- startled a Turkey Vulture (Cathartes slight flavor of almonds, though we ness, height. and density of tussock aura) which sailed off, eyeing me and pitied the poor hungry soulswho had to grass.Each clump averagedabout eighl circling several times, obviously curi- live on them entirely. The coreswere so feet from the ground to the tallest ous. The hut, reaching high above the small (about a quarter inch in diameter) blades;the pedestalitself was five feet tussock, was probably its favorite that a hundred or more--after the time- highand equallygreat in circumference. perch. consuming task of peeling off their Although the pedestals were three to During breakfast we studied our map tough encasements--would be neces- five feet ap•t, the long droopingskirts of the island and planned our strategy sary for a life-sustaining meal.

916 American Birds, November 1982 NCEWE HADAN adequatetrail down to the beach, our next job was a trail to the cliffs. Working up from the hut to the island's higher part (be- tween 50 and 70 feet elevation) was not at all difficult; the clumps were shoulder high and far enough apart to let us walk unimpeded between them. On the ground in full view of the sun were several flowering plants, among them little vines (Rubus geoMes) bearing "wild strawberries." Bright red and in- viting, they were juicy enough, we found, but practically tasteless. At a later time we gathered some, put them in sherry under heaps of sugar--the sherry was fine. We were evidently working up through the drier part of the island as many of the tussock pedestals were in- completely skirted. We had been told Rockhopper Penguins in Tussoc• Gras.son Kidn¸' Ixh. td. Pholol O.S. Pelliugill. that the pedestals could be used for fuel since their peaty interiors will burn. We couraged by hearing the Rockhopper or the tussock? The cliffs probably. thought little about it until our third and colony ever closer. Soon we began to since Rockhoppers prefer cliffs or at last stay on the island when we ran out smell it for causes that we were about to least steep slopes for nesting, often of coal. Resorting to our indispensable discover. Upon emerging from the tall forming coloniesfar from tussockgrass. saw, we cut up pedestals in small sec- clumps back from the cliffs we were at When the colony on Kidney Island was tions. dried them as best we could, then once wallowing in a filthy morass be- established in the spring, presumably put them in the stove. With a little kin- tween low, dead tussock clumps on the optimal nest sites were those in the dling and a generous draft, they ignited which Rockhoppers were nesting. The open and were claimed first. After they but gave off preciouslittle heat. It would birds were mud-stained as were their were taken, the remaining arrivals were be truer to say that they smoldered eggsand their partners standingby. To left with the less favorable sites in the rather than burned. reach the cliffs, now so near and yet so tussock. far, we had no choice but to plod Out in the open, within the Rock- Our experiences with tussock grass through the stinking muck and at the hopper colony, were several small, co- so far paled compared to what was to same time risk having these little. 15- lonial enclaves of King Cormorants come as we started down the steep inch high, bellicose characters latch (Phalacrocorax albiventer), their nests grade to the cliffs. For here the tussock onto our legs with their pincer-like bills in depressionsbetween rock strata. All enjoyed maximum moisture from the and pummel us with their sturdy flip- the nests (about 25 per enclave) were sea and spray, hence attained full lux- pers. Figuratively holding our noses, we close together on conical mounds that uriance. All at once we were passing waded through, being attacked effec- the birds had built up from adjacentmud between clumps that towered ten feet. tively only a couple of times, to an en- and lined with fresh tussock blades. Un- their pedestals alone five to six feet tirely different scene. open to the sea. like the Rockhoppers, which had to ac- high. The crowns were actually so high And blissfully fresh air. cept the nearest available blades, the that their blades interlaced over and cormorants flew to edges of tussock above us. Now in deep shade we felt growth outside the Rockhopper colony closed in, claustrophobic, and pro- EREJUST BACK Of the cliffs,in and there gathered blades. After our ceeded cautiously. I say "cautiously" broad spaces between upturned familiarity with the drab-appearingcor- because we never knew whether the rock strata, and on a few ledge shelves morants of North America, the Kings next step would be down into a nesting where the cliffs began to descend, were greatly impressed us. as they should burrow. (By this time we had concluded several hundred Rockhopper nests, have for they are truly among the somewhat facetiously that the entire their noisy occupants spic and span-- world's handsomestcormorants--pure subsurfaceof Kidney Island must be a fronts shining white, backs jet black, white below, lustrous greenish blue labyrinth of tunnels.) The ground under- and heads adorned with yellow "eye- above, and sporting jaunty crests, foot. bereft of sunlight. was soggy-- brows" back of which yellow tufts stuck orange caruncles at the base of the bill, slippery, of course--and matted with out, giving an Oriental effect. Although and blue-violet skin around the eyes. mosses, liverworts, and numerous the nests were outside the tussock, the Fhe beach where we had landed got mushrooms. We stirred up many in- occupantshad nonethelessused blades our attention in the afternoon. Though sects, including huge carabid beetles, for lining them, gathered by hopping largely sand, it was nevertheless strewn and large mole-crickets (Parudenus back into the tussock or filching them with rocks and littered with pieces, sp.), sluggish and strikingly fawn- from neighboringnests rows, and heaps of washed-up kelp and colored. A question occurred to me: were seaweed.I will never forget our stroll on Working down the slopewe were en- thesepenguins here becauseof the cliffs the beach that afternoon if for no other

Volume 36, Number 6 917 So,he typical birds of the Falkland Islands

Rockhopper , Eudyptes crestatus. in nesting area. Photo/ Ma•ellanic Penguin,Spheniscus magellanicus, in TussockGrass. Sidney Bahrt. Photo/O.S. Pettingill. Jr.

King Cor•oraHI. Phalacrocorax albiventer, on nest lined with T,s- Kelp Geese,Chlo•phaga hybrida, c• left, •?right. Photo / O.S. Pettin- sock Grass. Photo/O.S. Pettingill, Jr. gill, Jr.

•? Falkland Flightless Steanter Dtte•, Tachyere:,brachypterus. Blac• Oystercatcher,Haematopus ater. Photo/SidneyBahrt. Photo/Sidney Bahrt.

918 American Birds, November 1982 Great Skua, Catharacta skua antarctica. Photo/Sidney Bahrt. DolphinGull, Leucophaeusscoresbii. Photo/Sidney Bahrt.

Short-eared Owl, Otus flammeus san[ordi. in Tu.•'soc• Gra.•s. Tussockbird, Cincloides a. antarcticus, enticed to eat Photo/O.S. Pettingill, Jr. Photo/O.S. Pettingill, Jr.

Dark-faced Ground Tyrant, Muscisaxicola m. mac- AustralThrush, Turdus f. falcklandii.Photo/0.3. Pettingill,Jr. Ioviana. Photo/Sidney Bahrt.

Volume36, Number 6 919 reason than the tameness of the birds or ticorax) that must have been stalking their indifference to us. Magellanic fish. On a later day we would locate Penguinsstood fearlessly at the water's night heron nestson the tops of tussock edge. In front of us a pair of Falkland clumps that draped the low cliffs at the Flightless Steamer Ducks (Tachyeres island's northwestern end; and on most brachypterus)with their newly hatched, any evening we would see night herons downy brood of seven calmly took to out on the kelp beds, standingand forag- the water, the whitish-headed male in ing. the lead on their way to the kelp beds. Still farther along we surpriseda pair Nearly underfoot were Tussockbirds of Blackish Oystercatchers (Haemato- (Cinclodes antarcticus). Plain dark Short-billed Marsh Wren on Kidney Island. pus ater) from a depression between brown, about eight inches long, and Photo/ O.S. Pettingill. ledgeswhere they had a nest. They were members of the South American oven- almost totally black save for their red bird family, they kept following us at For some unremembered reason dur- bills and eye-rings and pale beige feet our heels; when we stopped,they either ing our stroll we drew close to the tus- that looked nude, untanned, slightly stoppedor walked around and over our sock bordering the beach and got the unfinished.The oystercatcherswere the feet. Their interest in us was puzzling scare of our lives when, above us in the only birds we had seen which made no until we became aware that our walking tussock, a monstrous head loomed up use whatever of tussockgrass. over plant litter stirred up or otherwise belching, snorting, and spoutingsteam, dislodged insects and crustaceans of its breath condensingin the cold air. We which they were fond. House Wrens had aroused a sleeping bull sea lion ESPITEOUR PRODUCTIVE day, I (Troglodytes aedon) were seemingly (Otaria byronia). Forewarned about could not feel satisfied until I had everywhere, fluttering from one rock to what to do when alarming such an enor- seen after nightfall what I had heard the another, disappearing, popping into mous beast: get out of the way between night before, when we were so occupied view, vanishing again. Present too were him and the sea. We did, losingno time. in getting ourselves settled in the hut. Austral Thrushes (Turdus falcklandii), Had we been in his way as he lunged Just before sunset we made our way much like American Robins (T. mi- from the tussock, we could have been up through the tussock to the island's gratorius) except for their duller plum- squashed. Kidney Island was not with- highest point, then climbed up on tus- age and bright orange-yellow bill and out its hazards! sock clumps from where we could view feet. Both the Tussockbirds and Continuing our stroll eastward from far out to sea a thick line of dark birds, thrusheswere adept at pecking holes in the beach we were soon scrambling many hundredsof them, paralleling the the heapsof rotting plant debris. To see over ledgesto a promontory. On it stood horizon and the island for a mile. what they were after, we overturned a a pure white bird, a male Kelp Goose Momentarily the whole line rose up, heap, uncoveringa jumping, squirming, (Chlogphaga hybrida), with no inclina- circled several times, coming closer scurrying mass of invertebrate life. tion to give ground as we drew within a with each turn, and then settled down. We were to learn that all the birds we few feet of him, close enough to see his Every few minutes the performance observed on the beach relied on tussock black eyes, bill, and feet. His steadfast was repeated, each time bringing the for nesting in one way or another. presence was a sure indication of a birds closer as dusk approached. Fi- Magellanic Penguins and Tussockbirds nearby nest which we easily found back nally, not far off shore, as though the excavated nesting burrows under at the base of a tussockclump under a entire maneuver had been scheduled to clumps, the former deeply, the latter curtain of tussock blades and covered bring them close to the island at the less so. Steamer Ducks hid their nests at by his mate. Black, barred with white, moment of twilight, the great congrega- the basesof clumps under overhanging so different from him, she refused to tion lifted up from the water and dis- blades House Wrens fashioned their budge until ! started lifting her up to persed over the island in a whirling ball-like nests of plant fibers into the count the eggs. swarm. Some swooshed by us, making crowns of tussock clumps where they Farther along, from a tidal pool us duck. Without decreasingtheir speed were concealed completely by the dead among the ledges, we flushed a Black- the birds crashedthrough the tussockto but still hanging blades of last yeaifs crowned Night Heron (Nycticorax nyc- their burrows. All around us they were growth. Austral Thrushes built their plummeting. The majority were crow- nestsof grasses,open at the top, on the sized Sooty Shearwaters (Puffinus sides of pedestals, covered by the grisbus);the otherswere the somewhat crowns of tussock blades. larger White-chinned Petrels (Procel- !aria aequinoctialis). From the depths CI_iT•OUG•X•E Tussockbirdsand of their burrows came bloodcurdling ouse Wrens dependedon the tus- sounds--muffled, cat-like howls and in- sock bordering the beach, Magellanic termittent screams of the shearwaters Penguinsand the thrushesalso used the and the strident, oft-repeated screeches tussock in the island's interior. Here too of the petrels•given as arrivals greeted were birds that we never saw on the their nest mates, which had been in beach, the Short-billed Marsh Wrens attendance during the day, and they in (Cistothorus platensis), whose nests •lack-½ro•ned Night Heron nesfingon face turn responded. were much like the House Wrens' and of cliff of Kidney Island. Photol O.S. Pettin- Almost as suddenly as the onslaught situated in the same manner. gill. began, in fifteen minutes it was over.

920 American Birds, November 1982 But there was more activity to come the beam of my flashhght in the direc- after darkness with the arrival of the tion of their source, I caught the orange much smaller, swallow-like Gray- eyeshineof three owls, each sitting high backed Storm-Petrels (Ga.vdia ner- on a tussock clump. Kidney lsland's eis). We could hear their high-pitched nocturnal predators were on the prowl. twitters and chatters: occasionally we Such was our introduction to the tus- caught them in the beam of a flashlight. sock world of Kidney Island. Later its Soon their invasion was over. Never- evian ecology would be studied and re- theless, all through the night there ported on by Robin W. Woods (Ibis, 112 would be movements of shearwaters (1970): 15-20) who, with his wife, spent and of petrels, both the large and small, altogether seven weeks on the island some arriving, some leaving, many between 1958 and 1968. And in 1971, 1 vocalizing. would return with my assistant, Considering the swarm of Sooty Maurice A.E. Rumboll, for a stay of Shearwaters and White-chinned Petrels twelve days. that we had witnessed, much of the Kidney Island is now set aside as a subsurfaceof Kidney Island really must Nature Reserve as it should be for it is have been a network of burrows to ac- King Cormorantviewing photographer quiz- indeed a preciouslittle world of its own. commodate all the nests. The tunnels zicall.v. Photo/SidneyBahrt. Except for the absence in winter of that I later examined at the western end shearwaters, petrels, and the penguin- of the island were long, twisting, and predator was easy enough to determine cormorant colony, it is the same world sometimes interconnecting. Although by elimination. Since there were no !and from season to season. most of them were large enough for me mammals on Kidney Island, aside from to reach in up to my shoulder, they were the introduced house mouse, and night too long and circuitousfor me to go in as herons never ventured into the dense far as the nests. (It was just as we!!--I tussock of the interior, it had to be a was always fearful that any burrow bird, the Short-eared Owl (Asio flare- might belong to a Mage!lanic Penguin, metes), the only nocturnal raptor in the capable of a painful bite with its hook- Falklands. tipped bill.) The little Gray-backed Storm-Petrels tunneled far into the VEN THOUGHINFORMED that skirts of tussock clumps, well above Short-eared Owls were residents at ground. Kidney Island, we missed seeing them Great Sktta in fiight. Photo/Sidney Bahrt. The next morning along our trails we until the third night, long after dark. The came upon the fresh parts of storm- weather was stormy; a strong wind One must bear in mind that the Falk- petrels--more often than not simplythe shook our hut and tussock blades lashed lands, tempered by the sea, have an wings. Obviously this was the work of a it. Above the din I heard the kick, Mt'k equable climate, seldom very warm in nocturnal predator, catching the birds and wheezy sounds of one bird, the summer, rarely very cold in winter. as they returned or departed in the night same sounds from another and still Tussock grasscontinues green through and devouring all but their pinions. The another. Opening the door and pointing winter and at Kidney Island provides year round cover for its landbirds, all permanent residents, and nesting sites for them in spring and summer. Seeds and invertebratesare in perpetual sup- ply for food. Much as Kidney lsland has to offer anyone interested in birds. it is not ex- actly idyllic. Winds, seemingly inces- sant, lash tussock grass acrossthe face and threatenthe eyeswith its sharptips. Frequent rains soak the tussock, mak- ing the island one of the wettest places on earth. Unpredictably long. severe storms can prolong one's stay for days until navigation is again safe. All the same, the tussock world of Kidney Is- land is one of the most extraordinary placesfor birds that I have experienced in my lifetime.

--P.O. Box 97 Rockhopper Penguin close tip. Photo/Sidney Bahrt. Wayne, Maine 04284

Volume 36, Number 6 921 ß

922 American Birds, November 1982