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 spring and 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 East Falkland,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 soon made 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 West Falkland, 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 Falkland Islands? The best cackling of Rockhopper Penguins 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 explorations of 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.