Sunday, November 6, 2011

Red-tailed Tropicbird Visitor

We had an interesting visitor on the plane this week.  A red-tailed tropicbird was sent to us from Los Angeles.  It got picked up on a Korean cargo ship and was brought to an International Bird Rescue center, and after disease testing and USFWS approval, it was flown to Midway to be released.  Here's a short news story about it.

http://www.nbclosangeles.com/news/local/Tropical-Bird-Flies-Commercial-to-Midway-Atoll-133174903.html

A lot of our lead paint remediation workers went home yesterday.  They do most of their work when the albatrosses are off island, so since the birds are coming back, it's time to go.  Here's the photos for the rest of the goings on this week.

 John Klavitter prepares to release the tropicbird from the cargo ship.  It was released in the water and flew right away.

 The male short-tailed albatross came back to its nesting site, and is patiently waiting for the female.  Our remote camera is working so we can monitor for the female from this island.

                           
John is leading a group through the verbesina on Eastern Island.  We received a large five-year grant from NFWF (National Fish and Wildlife Foundation) to get rid of the verbesena on that island. This group was here to evaluate the problem and make recommendations.

 Here's a green sea turtle resting on the beach.

 Eamon, Dani, Anthony, and Greg are installing the roof over the guzzler (duck pool) on Eastern Island.

The sooty terns are harassing a Northern harrier.  At the moment, I think we have about 4 birds of prey at Midway.  2 Northern harriers, a short-eared owl, and a peregrine falcon.

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

Aloha Pete ...I woke up to an average Sunday here on Maui. I would never had thought that I would be here @ 6 something this evening commenting on your blog. A random google map search(of Kona) somehow got me scrolling up the archipelago. I landed on Midway. From there ,Wikipedia lead me to your blog. For the next few hours,a was unable to stop reading.
I'm not even a sure why I felt compelled to comment. If nothing else, just to say that I envy what guys are doing there and keep up the good work------familyman808

Barb said...

Hi Pete,
GREAT blog entry; loved to read & see pix about all the projects underway at MANWR! couple questions--
(1) Would you say the RTTR is a young one? The picture on the link you gave seemed to show "checks" still in its feathers.
(2) Was the RTTR banded? If so, was it fledged on Midway, and that's why it was brought back there?
(3) Gosh *any* chance at all to hook up the STAL camera to the Internet?! Wouldn't that be cool?!

Anonymous said...

Hey Pete can you provide me with an UM visit?:) http://flagsworldwide.blogspot.com/

Pete Leary said...

Thanks familyman808, I'm glad you liked the blog.

Thanks Barb, the RTTR was young, good eye. It was not banded here, but I haven't checked on the band yet. It would be great to be able to put the STAL camera online, but it takes way too much bandwidth.

Checking your blog from Midway won't give you a visit from here. Our internet goes through Honolulu, so that's where it looks like I'm from.