DAY 15 at MIDWAY

Friday December 30

            The new people have arrived and everyone was up late last night as the plane got in a couple hours late.  Rather than an orientation, we all counted.  We lost two from our group and gained one.  We conquered a nasty patch before lunch and I had the highest number of burrows, 23 times I went down.  None of us trust the ground anymore – it is an odd sensation.  I thought I had it figured out yesterday but the terrain changed where we were today, the birds didn’t care about my system.  I found only two petrels; most of the burrows were old ones. The little guys are so sweet when we release them; they sort of drunkenly scoot around until they find an opening to duck into. We are really happy to be finishing the sectors as they will nest in earnest in January.

Martha and newcomer Susan verifying corner of plot before we start into the forest.  Looks like normal ground doesn't it?

The burrows extend through this dried verbesina and through the ironwoods as well

            The picture above shows the burrows in the verbesina.  It is difficult for humans to travel through it and yet some of the albatross have nested under it.  

    Verbesina trap

           Now that it is dried up for the season we fear the chicks will find themselves trapped.  Funding (grants) has been acquired to eradicate the verbesina from Eastern Island – it is a full time, five year program for four workers; we saw them orienting today.

            At lunchtime we saw these little guys and I tried to capture them here.  Had never heard of them before but we have seen flocks take off around the harbor.

Ruddy Turnstones - note the orange legs

            Speaking of Eastern, we went again this afternoon – a happy respite from the burrows and an introduction for the new counters.  We ticked off another sector and were treated to a dolphin show on the way back.  I had heard of the dolphin population that lives at the atoll and they really put on a show.  The water was choppy so I only had one hand on the camera.  Pictures don’t come close, but it is all good.  Legitimately tired last night, first time I’ve gone to sleep before 10pm which is very late for most people here.

Spinner dolphin - with splashed lens

DAY 14 on MIDWAY

Thursday December 29
          It was gratifying to see our hard work for the week so far displayed on the plot map this morning.  We had more of the same all day - every conversation contained the word burrows expressed with grimaces.  We start sector 33 tomorrow.  Ticking them off, that's why we are here.  We are the Counters!

It appears that we are closing in here with more spaces filled than empty

          There was a sense of nostalgia as eight people we didn't know two weeks would be leaving tonight.  Only three will be coming in on the plane that takes them away - back to their lives and jobs on the mainland.  We picked up our dinners and carried them over to Capt. Brooks Pub so we could all wish them well.  Their plane was delayed several times, I heard them roar when it was really time to go at 10pm rather than 7:30.

           I hope to get a better copy of the group photo before long - there were at least 8 cameras taking the same shot.  In the meantime - this one came back from our little fugi camera.  There are five leaders here plus another 12 of us.  They told us tonight we have been a congenial group that makes the work easy.  It helps to hear.

Back row: Gary, Karen, Louie, Gary, Kathy, Martha, Breck, Richard, GIl

Front row:  Jill, Kirsten, Diana, Jim & Penny, Crystal, Jenny, Sharon

DAY 13 at MIDWAY

Wednesday December 28
           This should be short and sweet as we had very little time for pics today.  We did a very large sector close to home, one they saved for us till now, as veterans.  Whew!

Gil got this shot of 6 people and about 28,000 albatross as he caught up with us

there are probably over 400,000 total because the numbers are down from last year

           Our count was to the left and I probably climbed over and under more downed trees today than I remember doing in Colorado in the natural forest I grew up with.  We all rescued petrels from holes and also rescued nesting albatross who were webbed over by the drying verbesina; don't know how the chicks would have a chance getting out to sea from it.

 We have had talks by volunteers and staff the last three evenings

           Monday there was a talk about seabirds, particularly wings and flying, given by our team member/leader, Breck Tyler who is a professor of ornithology at UC Santa Cruz.  We've been observing  their flight for two weeks and it begs lots of questions.  Nice to have someone who can answer them.

           Last night, Tuesday, another team member Karen Courtot talked about what albatross do when they are not nesting, ie, their real life at sea.  Too fun - her grad work project was done from a boat near the Aleutian Islands.  She also works for USGS but cannot talk about that study yet.

          Tonight John Klavitter gave a talk on some of the research projects that have been done at Midway.  Midway's biologist for 7 years, John is now Deputy Manager for Fish & WIldlife.  
          While it is seemingly a contradiction, we are on overload but can't get enough.  Half the group leaves tomorrow and we are already worried that we have to leave next week.  Gil just told me I should record the birds outside our window so when we get home we can listen to them to go to sleep.

DAY 12 at MIDWAY

Tuesday December 27

            Off to Eastern Island again today.  We are noticing that food has changed.  The next plane in is due in on the 29^th.  It will carry some folks home that came for a two week stint and bring others in that wanted to travel after Christmas.  The plane will also carry food and other supplies to the kitchen and staff.  Last week when we went to Eastern, for example, we had apples; today no fruit to pack in our lunch.  Thank goodness there is a  greenhouse here that grows produce.  I would find it a real hardship to not have fresh vegetables.  It has been so good.

This hydroponic greenhouse provides daily lettuce, cucumber, and tomatoes 

for the salad bar at lunch and dinner

            I love going to Eastern Island: the boat ride over and back, the diversity of birds just ten minutes away, and no burrows.  The poke weed thorns we can pick out of our shoes at day’s end and climbing up and down a few man-made coral rubble hills is worth the slight view they afford.

            Midway is for the birds.  

Gil got lots of good shots while on hill duty today and at our secluded lunch spot by the beach.

If this male frigate was courting, the red patch would balloon out into a very handsome attraction!

Speaking of handsome, this young booby has reached some adult color

His feet are the classic red and his brown feathers are giving way to white

His beak is yet to turn to pastel blue (he'll be about 3 years old when new colors are complete)

It's hard to concentrate on eating lunch with all this activity, makes me really  want to fly
and yes, we sometimes get whacked by a wing going by

The albatross are so sleek it is hard to see the delicate layers of color in their feathers

When the edges get worn, they will molt them and grow new

Part of their beauty is the subtlety Gil caught here

            I don’t even remember eating as this spot was so spectacular; the wind at the shore gave the albatross a great thorough-fare to zoom along.

On this side of Eastern we are close to the reef edge, really breezy

The bird Gil got the details of is directly behind him - very sweet and mellow

 We managed to complete three sections today and begin our trudge back toward the pier. 

Moving away from the beach we cross the old runway where the poke weed vine spreads.

This frigate took off just as we did

            There are always more birds along the way.  Seeing them is one thing but having time to stop and try to photograph them is another trick. 

This little Brown noddy is taking a break.  He is a true seabird, see the webbed feet?

This shot was pure luck, three white fairy terns were hovering over Gil,

I dropped everything and just kept snapping

 We see them like this but it is hard to share the magic if they are just sitting

There is some discussion we won’t come back tomorrow as they will leave some sectors for the incoming group to experience.  I hope it is not our last time here.

Leaving Eastern Island behind

DAY 11 on MIDWAY

Monday December 26
           We are starting at 8:30 today instead of 8am so here is a quickie before the morning shift.  I have added a link to Dan's blog on "friends and links."  He is a volunteer here for three months and he tries to put in two new photos a day with a blurb.  Excellent photographer,  funny guy, mixes science with humor - worth reading.
           Here is the plot map as of Saturday's input.  They are saying we have done the easy part and now we will really get into it.  

Completion through 12/24/11

           After breakfast we completed one confusing section shared with another group.  We all realized that a day off just tricked our bodies and they were not happy with climbing through scrub.  They weren't kidding about "harder."  This means we started last week with knee high verbesina and graduated to chest high before Christmas.  

           Today it was over our heads, even Gil's. That isn't so bad on its own but we were also in ironwood down fall, sometimes climbing over 2-3 waist high logs and still trying to avoid dropping into burrows.  It was so thick the mice ran on branches rather than on the ground and after circumventing large downed tree trunks we had to hold our guns in the air to find each other and make sure we were still in line.  We weren't complaining, just laughing  that a day off had been almost cruel to our legs!

The leaders figured out where to go next while we rehydrated

           After lunch we did two more small sectors, got hot, tired, and tried our best not to be grumpy.  The white terns always make us smile, flitting in the forest.

White tern observing our work

Laysan Ducks at the Ballpark Seep

           The leaders are great.  It was planned that we would finish by coming out into the open where we caught a breeze at last and were reminded once again that "Midway is for the birds."

           We actually quit early and headed home to throw our clothes (filthy again) in the wash and headed to the pier for another snorkel.  We had heard visibility was great this morning.  We went all the way out to the end of the pier this time (200 yards) and got to see the husky big eye jacks about 3 feet long as well as many smaller fish.  Two turtles came through to check us out on their way to haul out.  Cooled and healed in the salt water, we quickly had dinner, bought our delayed Christmas t-shirts, and went to an informal talk about seabird flight.  Whew!

         

MERRY CHRISTMAS FROM MIDWAY

MERRY CHRISTMAS

LOVE TO ALL

GIL & SHARON

Christmas dinner - tablecloths!
Darlene, manager of Chugach got us all between bites (except Dan)

Lovely food
Chugach outdid themselves

CHRISTMAS EVE on MIDWAY

Saturday December 24

            We thought we were going to Eastern today but again it was called off due to winds.  Instead we were pleasantly surprised to learn that Christmas Eve would only be a half day of work. 

We are flexible and trust the group leaders to make all the logistical decisions for us

They are great: serious about the count, fair, and lots of fun

            We took another sector along the beach that would complete the area farthest from Charlie barracks.  The path all the way around the new runway and along the cart road is now familiar.  Several people have had flats, Gil lost his pedal cranks; walkie talkies are used for cart calls when rescues are needed, replacements are made - all part of the routine.

My biking skills were never good but they have improved here.  With an elevation of only about 30’ for the island I haven’t had that to worry about (except for the little hill to the Clipper House three times a day for meals).  I have traversed through both sand and gravel and around potholes and birds in the road (I call any albatross walking in the road George and frequently call out “Hi George”, “Sorry George”, “You are gorgeous George!”)  There are rules when biking together – each bike takes the same path through to disturb as few birds as possible; if you can, pass to the rear of a standing bird as he is less likely to move back than forward.  So far it has worked very well. 

We have White Terns come out and float over our heads or in front of our faces in daytime – probably more likely being territorial than curious.  At twilight and in the dark, the bounty of Bonin Petrels (our burrowing buddies) are in the air and we duck constantly as they willy nilly fly in front and back of us.  No mishaps there either.

Working our plot we come to the beach every other pass through the endless verbesina and chunks of nau paka and sea grape shrub.  There are squalls all around us but we never get doused.  

I was pretty sure we were about to get hit with heavy rain; glad to be wrong

Black Foot airing his wings

            Just finishing up we find another treasure – an adult red-tail tropic bird nesting (see chick from yesterday).  We sneak a quick shot and head for home.

The wind is kicking up the feathers on this guy's head, one red tail feather remains for now

Two new ones will come in later

Another beautiful hybrid, note lighter bill & feet

            On the ride back, Gil & I decide we will grab a quick lunch and go shopping – after all it is Christmas eve and the store is open from 1-3 on Saturday.  While we are eating we have another surprise, the winds have died and they are offering to take us across the lagoon to snorkel.  It was an easy decision, we’ll get ourselves t-shirts next week.  We hurry to grab the wetsuits we have stashed in our quarters.  We get on the boat called Awesome rather than the one we have taken to Eastern twice.  What a sweet ride, in fact it is awesome.  I gave up bringing my camera mask and it breaks my heart. 

Headed to the far side of the lagoon that is the predominent part of Midway Atoll

The two boats tied off to a buoy out here and we had 45 minutes that went too quickly

            The water is cold and the visibility was incredible.  We stayed inside the lagoon mesmerized by the coral heads and fish we know and don’t know.  The large parrot fish stay near us instead of shooting away like at home.  I came up saying it was like swimming through ice, not  because of the cold but because it felt like being inside another world altogether;  too hard to describe. 

            The ride back is outrageous and I am running out of adjectives here.  Another first today, a flock of Laysan albatross are sitting on the water and as the boat goes by, they take off one at a time and fly at our level.  Gil & I look at each other and say “Merry Christmas.”  I’m tearing up thinking of it now.

There are gifts and there are gifts!

Sand Island is on the horizon on the right

            Biking back to Charlie barracks in our wetsuits we stop at the Fish & Wildlife building (everything is open to us 24/7 except the store) to look up a couple fish we didn’t know the names of.  Then we hurry, as usual here, to eat dinner and get to the gift exchange party hosted by Fish & Wildlife.  

Our party is at the All Hands Club which was the bar for the enlisted men at one time

           It was called a white elephant exchange but that was hardly the case.  T-shirts, glass balls found on the beach and alcohol were the hot items particularly for the Thai workers.  It was hilarious with around 70 people being rowdy in two languages.  The night was topped off with Santa reading a Midway style “T’was the Night Before Christmas” that she writes a new version of each year.  Her three elves were completely toasted by now, but the cleverness of the poem brought the house down with good cheer.

Santa and two of her elves, Tall Elf and Limey Elf (from England) who is tilting the bottle

This would be Short Elf with his gift, a case of canned tuna snacks

(or so he thought until someone stole it, and it was a nice t-shirt)

This is Gil opening a lovely glass ball from the beach, it was stolen shortly after 

Merry Christmas

DAY 8 on MIDWAY

Friday December 23

            On the way out this morning, I captured this photo of a monument we ride by frequently.  Refreshing my history, the battle of Midway was the turning point of WWII in the Pacific and this is the low-key reminder.  While in Oahu they have built a major international monument to Pearl Harbor it seems to me that the agenda there must be to remind to Americans and the world that the US was attacked!  Don’t get me wrong, I agree that “Midway is for the birds” and am glad it is no longer a military base; I like this scale of honoring the very brave men of that era.

After a warm restful night with the movie last night we headed out to the sector from hell today.  Three separate groups tackled it and managed to complete it.  As a reward for going in and coming out alive, we finished the day with a long narrow sector along the beach again and it is always a treat with unexpected treasures among the bushes. 

This monk seal hauled out and all the way up into the beach nau paka to rest

We are happy to see him and move quietly on

Red-tail Tropic bird chick

           This little guy is probably a week from fledging and he provoked an interesting discussion between the two bird experts on our team.  One that it is very late in the season for him and the other is that tropic birds are asynchronis in their breeding (unlike the albatross which are extremely predictable and virtually all hatch out within a week of each other.)  At any rate, he is adorable in this checkerboard state and without his red beak and famed foot long red tail feathers yet.  

Thinking we would just get it partially done we were all very excited to see the plot flags near us and we agreed to make another couple passes back and forth so we could whack another sector off the list.  We took a much needed early, quiet night.

DAY 7 on MIDWAY

Thursday December 22nd
           Our trip to Eastern was cancelled for today due to weather reports of high winds expected to reach gale force by nightfall.  We didn’t have to rush so much in the morning – that was the good news.  Our progress at Eastern had made it to the door of the Clipper House by breakfast.  Yellow areas are complete.

Plot map for Eastern Island on left (334 acres total)

Plot map for Sand Island on right (1200 acres total)

Staying on Sand today, we headed out knowing it was likely we would have rain and wind all day.  The birds were happy to have both – we imagined the ones nesting were wishing their partners would return so they could fly.  There was excitement in the air. 

We started counting only to discover they were spraying herbicide in our plot so we postponed that one for a day or two.  While we worked we had put our packs in large garbage bags, we had rain gear with us – we were ready.  It didn’t rain though and we were like individual saunas with our protective clothing. 

            We changed plans and headed to a different area some distance away.  The rain hit us while riding, my pack no longer wrapped in plastic - it was soaked through including an extra 
 t-shirt I had brought.  I learned my rain coat was not waterproof and I had rain running down my neck and arms inside.  We pulled into the old runway building we were skirting our way around.  While there I snapped some vintage shots.

This one is interesting

This one just cracks me up

            We finished a sector across from where we worked the first day.  This included sand dunes up to the beach, more verbesina, nau paka and also sea grape.  The latter two are a tangle of roots with enough opening, some birds like to go under it to nest.  It is very hard to keep straight lines and requires painting each nest so we all know if it has been counted.  The closer we are to the beach, the more black foot albatross there are.  They are noisy, snappy, and gorgeous birds.  It was great to check a sector off the list as partials are accumulating. 

Here we worked from the road to the left, up and over the dunes to the beach

            Having finished ours in the morning, the leaders of several groups decided to share a huge sector in the afternoon – the sector from hell, basically made up of burrows among ironwood with lots of downed trees.  There is plenty of verbesina as well and since there is a seep in the sector we found other vegetation to amply disguise the burrows.

The lumps of sand are what the burrowing petrels kick out of the holes they dig

Our task was to the left of this old cart track and we went up, over, and/or through whatever 

Petrel hole just cleared with bird inside - he is free to continue prepping for nesting season

            We notice a large amount of Black Foots within the ironwood forest, not normal for them. Two factors have changed, the beach line moved outward and the forest is younger than the genetic return pattern of the birds.  We realize how little we understand about time and space and appreciate that these creatures just try to adapt to conditions whether altered by humans or long periods of dynamic natural phenomenon.

The bill and feet are so black, the rest looks air brushed

            We are filthy and tired from climbing over logs and through vegetation.  Our shoes and sleeves are full of sand.  Someone will say as we hit a new difficulty “at least it isn’t raining.”  The next one says, “at least we don’t have mosquitos.”  When it gets really bad, someone says, “at least it isn’t snowing.” The white terns (fairy terns) entertain us and keep our moods up, often flying right over our heads or in front of our faces or watching us from a nearby branch.

A white tern perched in downfall we have to traverse to count nests directly under and beyond

           Happy for this day to end we ride back, shower up and meet in the lounge of Charlie barracks to watch a Christmas movie, Elf.   Sue, the manager of Midway FWS,  joined us with popcorn and cookies to munch.  It is nice to just sit and laugh before heading back to our rooms to sleep.