Chicks are Hatching!

It's another 3 day weekend.  How do they expect us to get any work done when we keep getting days off?  The albatross plots have been keeping us busy lately.  We go around and read all of the leg bands to find out how many have come back from previous years. At least it gives me a good chance to get out of the office.

I've got another source for information on that airplane wreck that I told you about last week:
http://www.papahanaumokuakea.gov/maritime/brewsterf2a3buffalo_midway.html

There's a lot of info on other WWII airplanes as well as all of the shipwrecks in the monument for you history buffs and a lot of other general info too.  You should be able to find interesting things on there no matter what kind of buff you are.

While we were checking the albatross last week, we found this egg starting to hatch.

 The Black-footed albatross chicks are now hatching all over.  This chick is yawning.  They aren't too active at this stage and just being out of the egg seems to wear them out.

 Greg found a large glass ball floating in the lagoon last week.  It's about 16" in diameter.  It has a tiny hole in it, so it's got water and sand in it, kind of like a terrarium.

 This is one of the algae covered seeps at radar hill.  I put this photo up more for you to see how the Bonin petrels have dug up the side of the hill.

 We've only seen one bird of prey here so far this winter.  A White tern is harassing the juvenile Peregrine falcon.

 This Pacific Golden Plover caught a centipede in front of the office.  I watched it shake it around and slam it on the ground for a few minutes, but it looked like it was going to be a while before the bird ate it.  I'm sure it didn't want to try to eat it if it could still bite.

 There was a nice sunrise last week.  This is a picture of the reflection of the sunrise in the window of the office.