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.