The Octonauts and the Pelagic Birds
By Gale Force
It was a calm day, and there was barely a ripple on the surface of the ocean to create waves.
The Octopod floated on the surface of the water column, and all of the Octonauts, as well as the Vegimals, were seated in lawn chairs on the top of the Octopod.
Each Octonaut, and Vegimal, had a notebook and a pencil, and as a bird flew by – which was a rare occasion – they wrote it down in their notebooks.
Sometimes a bird would alter his or her course to fly by the Octopod and wave at the birdwatchers – the Octonauts had many friends among the birds who knew them to be tireless in cleaning up any garbage patch they might find on the surface of the water or even deeper in the water column.
But most birds simply flew past on a mission of their own.
Once again, it had been the Vegimals who had prompted this desire to start birdwatching – the Vegimals wanted to learn the names of all the birds they saw and recognize the sound of their cries.
"What we're seeing," said Shellington, "are pelagic birds. You remember what pelagic means, Vegimals?"
Tunip burbled an answer.
"That's right, Tunip," said Shellington. "'Pelagic' means 'ocean', and what we are seeing are birds that spend most of their life in the ocean – like the Macaroni penguin, or flying over the ocean, like the albatross. Seabirds, on the other hand, are birds that spend a lot of their time near the shore, although they do venture over the ocean on occasion."
"What's that bird, Shellington?" called Kwazi, pointing at a bird far in the distance.
"That's an albatross, Kwazii. As you can see it has a tremendous wingspan, over 12 feet. It looks rather clumsy on land, like most seabirds, but once in the air it's beautiful. Like all pelagic birds, they go to land only in order to lay eggs and look after their babies."
"How do they sleep?" demanded Kwazii. "They can't sleep on the water, they'd never be able to take off!"
"That' s right, Kwazii. Albatrosses sleep while they're flying, of course. In fact, young albatrosses, once they are able to fly, will fly from five to ten years before they return to their nesting place to mate. They fly so high up in the sky that the wind just continues to carry them while they glide and doze. That's the case with all pelagic birds."
"Like that one?" asked Dashi, taking a photo of another bird flying close to them.
"That's a sooty tern," said Shellington. "As you can see it has white underparts but its wings and back are black. You see it has about a three-foot wingspan."
"That-a that-a?" burbled Tunip.
"Those are petrels," said Shellington, looking at two birds that seemed to be walking on water toward them.
"Oi," said one of the birds. "I'm Pete the Petrel, and this is my wife Petra. Are you the Octonauts?"
"Yes, we are," called Captain Barnacles. "How can we help you?"
"Oh, we don't need any help, thank you. Just thought we'd say hi. A few of our friends have told us about the Octonauts and their orange Octopod."
"Well, it's nice to meet you. I'm Captain Barnacles."
Barnacles introduced the rest of his crew one by one, and they all waved a friendly greeting at the petrels.
The petrels flew up to the roof of the Octopod and relaxed for a few minutes, chatting with Shellington. Then they flew off.
Tunip, Tominnow, Grouber, Barrot and Codish were looking up at the sky. Just a few minutes ago it had been a clear blue, with only a few wisps of white clouds. Now, to the west, storm clouds were rolling in and the wind was picking up, and so were the waves.
The rest of the Octonauts stood up.
"Well, I guess they don't call them storm petrels for nothing," Captain Barnacles laughed. "Let's go inside, shall we? Dashi was taking video of the birds as they flew past. Why don't we watch that and see if we can identify the birds we saw today?"
"And have some hot chocolate, too," suggested Kwazii.
"Of course," agreed Barnacles. "Let's go, everyone."