This is Wisdom the Laysan Albatross. At 70+ years old, she's the oldest confirmed wild bird in the world, having been ringed on Midway Atoll in the Hawaiian archipelago in 1956, when she was already an adult. Since then she's estimated to have flown 3,000,000 miles while foraging for the (probably) between 30 to 40 chicks she's raised, the most recent one having hatched in 2021, since when, sadly, she's lost her mate.
When, in early 2021, I was trying to think of a creature that epitomised unstinting parenthood for a poetry project I was writing as part of my MA course in Creative Writing, I seized upon Wisdom, whom I remembered from a series of articles in the Guardian ('Albatross astonishes scientists by producing chick at age of 62' [2013]/'When I'm sixty-four: World's oldest tracked bird returns to refuge with mate' [2015]/'World's oldest-known seabird lays egg at the age of 66 in Pacific refuge'[2016] ... etc, etc). She was perfect for my purpose because, of course, albatrosses come trailing lots of other associations, especially when it comes to poetry, and soon I had the keystone poem for a draft collection on the subject of inter-generational relationships, estrangement and silence.
Two and a half years later, I'm really pleased to say that 'Love the Albatross' is going to be published by Ronnie Goodyer and Dawn Bauling of Indigo Dreams in late summer/autumn 2024. It will be dedicated to Wisdom, of course.
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