Sunday, January 9, 2011

Short-tails

A lot of good stuff has been going on out here, as usual. I just got back from Sunday bowling night. I haven't bowled since I was here a couple of years ago. We also had beach volleyball on Friday night, which I also hadn't done since I was last here. About 80% of the people are still the same, so it's almost like I never left.
I forgot to tell you some big Midway news last week. We have a short-tailed albatross nest on Eastern Island. That's big news because there haven't been any recorded nests of this endangered species outside of Japan. I've shown you pictures of these two birds a couple of years ago, and they've now got an egg that should hatch within the next week or two. We've got a camera on Eastern Island to keep track of them. It seems like our decoys actually worked.
I'll give you a few pictures that I should have shown you the last few weeks.

This is the female Short-tailed albatross on the nest (she's sitting by the bunch grass). She still doesn't have her full adult plumage yet (she's only about 8). They've been swapping out about every 2 weeks so far, but the male just showed up today (at only 11 days after his last shift).

This is the male. He's sleeping or has his head tucked most of the time so it's tough to get a good picture of him, . Plus, we keep about 150 ft away, so we don't disturb them. He's over 20 years old so he's got his adult coloring.

Here's a picture of the moon during the lunar eclipse on Dec 20. If you look at my old posts, I have a similar one from 2007. I would have put up a nice series, but I forgot to go outside until the moon was already orange.

We had a white elephant gift exchange on Christmas at the All Hands Club. The glass floats were popular and got stolen from people quite a bit. I ended up with a boxed wine. I can't compain about that. I just noticed something, the elves look a lot like our 3 volunteers and I never did see Santa and Darlene at the same time.....hmmmm???

We had a bingo night at Capt. Brooks on New Year's Eve. Yes, those are 4th of July decoration hanging from the ceiling.

Just an another albatross flying around at sunset. I hope I don't burn out my camera sensor by taking these pictures!

A Black-footed albatross is coming home, probably after a couple weeks of fine dining on caviar (flying fish eggs).

11 comments:

Forest and Kim said...

Great moon shot.

Anonymous said...

I followed your great posts from Tern and looking forward to the posts from Miday.

Ray Pitts

Fadhilah MPA Online said...

your blog is good. visit my blog too

Unknown said...

Great to have you Midway blog back and running Pete. Hope to see you in Mpls.
Vikram

Anonymous said...

As usual, great shots! So nice to have you back on Midway and blogging again.

Buzz

Kathleen Bisbee said...

Hi Pete, I don't know how I ran across your blog, was just googling tsunami videos....I LOVE YOUR PHOTOS...I wish I was a marine biologist....I'm a nurse who appreciates ppl who can take fantastic pictures and love wildlife...enjoyed reading and viewing your profile...Kathy

Kathleen Bisbee said...

Hi Pete, I don't know how I ran across your blog, was just googling tsunami videos....I LOVE YOUR PHOTOS...I wish I was a marine biologist....I'm a nurse who appreciates ppl who can take fantastic pictures and love wildlife...enjoyed reading and viewing your profile...Kathy

Unknown said...

Hi Pete. Love the blog.
Could we use your pictures on our broadcast (with proper credit)
we would like to do a story on the midway tsunami damage.
please email us at news@kitv.com
or call us if you can at
808 535-0440 as soon as possible.
mahalo! Paula Akana KITV channel 4

Unknown said...

On behalf of all the monachus, assorted species, science, and mankind in general, Mahalo Nui Loa.

TT40 / 2AQ
29 year-young Monachus Schauinslandi

william said...

Was stationed at Midway in the 1960's. Was so interested how Midway took the Tsunami. Great Memories of my year on the island. I have several picture from that era.

Unknown said...

What a thrill to find your blog on Midway Atoll. We were there for three weeks in 2004 and are saddened at the photos of tsnaumi damage. What great news about the 'golden gooney' chick. We went to Eastern one day with John K when he was replacing batteries on the amplifier for the golden's calls. Watched a golden 'snuggle' with one of the decoys when the amplifier started up. Awesome experience. What about the dolphins? Did they survive?
Nenn Stuve