EXCERPT-Two Wandering Albatrosses Make a Difference in the World~Alba and Alban Teamwork to Save Young Albatrosses by Laurel Marie Sobol
Australia. Alba and Alban are no ordinary albatrosses, they are extra special birds because of
the rare numbers of their species on this remote island.
They are the largest albatrosses of the world called the Wandering
Albatross. They have a wingspan about 11 feet long and body length of 3-4 feet long. They have
the longest wingspan in the world.
Alban is a little bigger than Alba and he has more feathers on his head than Alba. Alba has
slightly bigger eyes than Alban and an extra skip in her step when she walks with her big pink
webbed feet with three toes in front. Alban has a bill that is sturdy and strong reflecting his
determined character.
Alban and Alba loved their parents who raised them for over a year and taught them to fly and
survive in all kinds of weather over the course of several years. They also love one another and
are mates for life. They are young adult albatrosses now who are about 12 years old. Alba and
Alban have a great love for each other that is even unusual among albatrosses in the animal
world. The love they share is so powerful that a glow seems to emanate and flow between them
and around them wherever they go. Like a cloud of love if you will that is like a golden halo
about them.
When Alban and Alba fly together they fly in tandem like aeronautical flight dynamic
masterpieces of pure genius in action. Alban tends to lead the team but when he tires Alba
takes the lead like geese tend to do when they fly long distances in their classic V formations.
Alba and Alban love the ocean and the waves in all kinds of weather. They are the warriors of
the sea and have many surprises that people have yet to learn about. Alba and Alban are
expecting to have a long life together, spending at least 50 years with one another, and traveling
around and about the globe numerous times altogether. Through all kinds of weather and every
kind of condition, coming into contact with all kinds of sea animals and humans with their
unusual activities and situations.
The world was still theirs to discover, their wonderful world
filled with wild and exhilarating winds, wind currents, wind tunnels, typhoons, hurricanes,
water spouts, tsunamis, and other unknowns of nature yet to be seen by Alban and Alba.
Alba and Alban love to skirt the waves just above the froth and foam, it gives them lift draft to
fly in all the aerodynamic acrobatic styles they love to fly. Mainly they use their stiff, thick, long
wings for fancy flight dynamic and slope soaring. Dynamic soaring is flying high into the wind
and coming down, gaining energy from it, called the vertical wind gradient. Slope soaring is
flight using rising air on the windward side of large waves. Albatross have high glide ratios
which means that for every three feet, or meter, they drop in flight while in the air, they can
travel forward 22 meters (or 66 feet). Albatross have a built in bionic flight template called a
shoulder lock, a sheet of tendon that locks the wing when it is fully extended, giving the wing the
flat out stretched board flight dynamics to fly long distances with little to no effort on the part of
the albatross.
Alba and Alban had learned long ago to avoid the many hazards in the sea that could harm
them like fishing tackle, plastic bait and lines, plastic trash from human waste and refuse.
Alba and Alban like to eat squid and use their powerful smell detection to find it and other fish
that sperm whales and other whales leave behind after feeding or regurgitating their food.
Today Alba and Alban had flown from dawn to dusk on a perfectly lovely day with just the
right amount of sun and wind, waves and food supply. It was a very good day and Alban had
taken the lead for most of the day and Alba didn’t even mind one tiny bit. At sunset the two
youthful albatross found themselves resting together on a coral reef somewhere north of
Australia near the Great Barrier Reef.
Alban and Alba were no ordinary birds, they were extra special, and they were going to spin
The world on it’s axis, yes they were!
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