Sunday, January 29, 2012

Quiet again, not really

Our visitors from Duke University left last night.  They were a good group and helped out a lot with outplanting native plants and getting rid of non-native plants.  They also helped out with marine debris pickup and Laysan duck surveys.  Our regional office/Washington D.C. office visitors left on Monday, so it was a short, but good visit.
We had a medevac today also.  We had to go pick up a person from a passing cargo ship.  The US Coast Guard will be picking that person up tonight. 
I'll be going back to Honolulu for the next couple of weeks to attend the Pacific Seabird Group meeting on Oahu.  I'm not sure if I'll do a blog or not from there.  I guess that depends on if I find anything interesting to talk about, or if I get enough Midway photos before I leave.

 A Black-footed albatross chick is working its way out of the egg.

 Here's a chick that's a little older.  The Black-footed chicks are usually whiter than the Laysan albatross chicks.

 I tried to get another photo of the Short-tailed albatross chick, but the mom never got up.

Here's one of our indoor soccer games in the gym.  

There have been a lot of turtles on Turtle Beach lately.  This day there were 48 of them out basking.  There were a few nets that had washed up on the beach and the Duke students took one of their mornings to do a big cleanup there. 

The Duke students also got to see the spinner dolphins.

 Another spinner dolphin pic.  I hope you aren't getting tired of them yet.

A few brown boobies are hanging out on a buoy as the cargo ship passes by.

The swells were a bit big out there today.

The waves were smashing the old water barge that is grounded near the channel.  It's been getting beat up for decades, but is still there.

4 comments:

Rachel said...

Love your blog Pete. It's always a highlight in my week. Thanks so much for the pictures of the chick!

Nellie Northern said...

How's the gym floor holding up against the termites?

Mona & Nelson

Pete Leary said...

Thanks Rachel.
Mona & Nelson, the termites are pretty active in the floor, but we're replacing the bad boards. Also, we probably won't know if the Short-tailed albatross chick is a male or female for a few years.

Elinor DeWire said...

I'd love to have a copy of the buoy photo for a book I'm finishing. Contact me at bookrepresentative@yahoo.com. Elinor