Weeds and Seeds

This morning I planted about 1,000 peat pots with the bunchgrass seeds we picked up over on Eastern Island. Greg and I also spread a lot of seeds all over a big sandy area by the seaplane hangar so we'll see if any comes up there. We also sprayed verbesina today, like every day.

We banded 4 new tropic bird chicks today. They have to be just about ready to fledge before we band them so they'll be likely to survive and the band won't fall off their tiny legs. When they look like the two from yesterday's picture they are old enough. While we were checking the tropic bird plot, Greg spotted a big glass ball floating in the harbor. It was a 10" diameter green one. We had to fish it out of the harbor with a long boat hook. We also had to duct tape a long stick to the end since it was about 15 ft out.



The greenhouse is pretty much like any other. I've been spending a lot of time here lately.



This is out behind the greenhouse. That's a white tern chick on the wheelbarrow. The adults lay their eggs just about anywhere that an egg will not fall off of and when it hatches, the chick sits there until it fledges. I guess we won't be using this wheelbarrow for a month or so.



A scenery picture from cargo pier.

Chainsaw Thursday

Another day of clearing Radar Hill. We are doing pretty good so far. There is one tree we can't cut down yet because a red-tailed tropic bird chick lives under it. It should be gone in a week or two so we'll wait. We aren't cutting them nearly as fast without the volunteers around to clear the small branches and put the trees in piles. We pile them up so there is still nesting habitat for the petrels and albatrosses. I'll show you a picture soon so you know what I'm talking about.

Tomorrow I have to go check the red-tailed tropic bird plots and count them so your pictures today will be of them.

There are a few parents hanging around their chicks, but usually they fly off and leave their chicks alone while they get food. There are no predators on the island and its warm so the chicks are usually ok alone.

These are two red-tailed tropic bird chicks that live under the same tree but on opposite sides. This day the one on the left wandered over to the other side. They squawked at each other for 5 minutes, then the one went back to the other side. These are the birds who really can't use their legs for much other than scraping along the dirt so it was a pretty big trip for it. These two should be ready to fledge in maybe 2 weeks

Quiet Day

I spent most of the day today planting bunchgrass and processing the seeds for planting later. I guess I should show you a picture of that since I talk about it. But you all are probably used to me being a day or two behind on the photos anyway. Overall it was a pretty quiet day and of course, warm and beautiful. I'll keep it short for you today rather than get into too many details.

See, I told you the dolphins weren't doing anything yesterday.

White tern chicks are great to take pictures of because they are everywhere and they don't really care if you're next to them. The adults are always around too. Today one landed on me while I was emptying spiders out of a bag of bunchgrass seeds.

Eastern Island

Today we took a trip to Eastern Island. Angie went to count monk seals, Jimmy went to count Laysan ducks, and Greg and I went to collect seeds from native bunchgrass to plant on Sand Island. We saw the dolphins on the way over and I took some pictures, but they were being lazy so the pictures aren't that interesting. Just a few fins sticking out of the water. We saw 36 Laysan ducks over at the pond where we were collecting the seeds so even though they are endangered, they seem to be doing just fine here.

There was also another flight of Washington congressional staffers that flew out here to look around to see what we do here and what needs funding.

We had a 727 fly in with cargo last night at 3 a.m. They also deliver to some other island which is why they stop here at such an inconvenient time. But they bring us stuff so that's ok.

Eastern Island still has a lot of leftover metal and concrete from when they had the airfield on this island.

Here's a couple Sooty Terns checking to see what Greg is up to.

This is one of the 36 Laysan ducks that we saw at the pond.

A Brown Noddy chick is waiting on a stump to get fed.

New Birds

Today I spent alot of the day on the computer. I have to do some training to run the tractor with the lawnmower attachment. It's 5 hours of computer training and then I have to get certified by the certifying guy who just happens to be out here this week. We have to get in all our verbesina mowing before the albatrosses come back. Computer training for tractor operation seems kind of goofy, but that's how they do it.

I was out taking pictures yesterday and ran across a new bird I haven't seen before. I saw a white-tailed tropic bird (6 of them actually). They usually nest on cliffs so they don't come to Midway much, but I found a nest up in a tree with a chick. The red-tailed tropic birds nest on the ground so they are everywhere. It was cool seeing these here.

Here's a white-tailed tropic bird. They are a little smaller than the red-tails and they have a yellow bill instead of bright red. Oh yeah, and a white tail. You can check out my earlier pics of the red-tails or I can post another one tomorrow if you really want.

Here's a Curlew that was out near the seaplane hangar. They will come close to you if you whistle at them. There are quite a few down here now. I don't know where these guys came from but they come here after breeding season to hang out.

I'm just giving you this picture because it looks like the white tern is bigger than the seaplane hangar.

Midway Museum

Today was another relaxing day. As usual it was beautiful outside. I did some reading and talked on the phone. I also took a few pictures. The pictures today are from the museum we have here. It's not much. It's just a room in the hangar where we have a few artifacts, but it's interesting.

This is some general information on the Battle of Midway.

During the cold war in the late 50's and early 60's they flew these "Super Constellation" planes out of Midway as part of an early warning system for missiles.

This is an engine order telegraph and a compass from an unkown ship.

Someone made this model of Midway in 1990. It's around 10 feet long so it's pretty big. It's cool to see how many buildings used to be here, and how few ironwood trees.

Last 2 Days

Hi, I was way too tired to post last night so here's your 2 day update. The little going away party over at the Refuge Manager's house was nice on Thursday night. I took some pictures of pictures in his house, so I'll tell you about them in a minute. 10 people left yesterday, but 8 showed up. I have the house all to myself for now so we'll see how long that lasts.

We had a "plane night" at the All Hands Club last night. The band was practicing and one of the guys made popcorn and brought about a dozen flavored salts. So that was the big excitement, except for the wedge-tailed shearwater flying into the room and going after the drummer.

I think I'll have more time for reading now because the volunteers always liked to do things every night, and the long term people mostly do their own things.

Tonight is beach volleyball night, so that will keep me busy for now.

One of the traditions around here is to sign a poster for people when they leave. Here's Jimmy signing one for Michael.

This is the sign from the old Pan Am hotel that was built for very rich tourists on their way to Asia in the 1920's. This sign disappeared for years and then one day a package came in the mail with the sign in it. It was from someone who's dad was stationed here in the Navy. The son went to school here on the island and he stole the sign when he was little. He had been feeling guilty about it for years, so he finally sent it back. I don't know how old he is now, but now the sign is up on the wall.

This is the Gooneyville lodge. The sign is barely visible back in the shadows.

This is "Reef Hotel". It was built for people who were drilling into the atoll to find out how deep the actual island is. The island sunk millions of years ago and the atoll is here because the coral grows as fast as the island sinks. The islands here are actually just sand and coral pieces sitting on a coral reef. The buildings are on stilts to keep above the surf. All that is left now is the rusty stilts that are sticking out about 4 feet above the water. This is one of the spots we went snorkeling a few weeks ago.

I saw this green sea turtle yesterday afternoon in the harbor eating all those little plant pieces around it.

Good Thursday

Today was fun. After spraying some verbesina and pulling some by hand, we went to spit island to get rid of the verbesina over there. We had to cut off the flowers so the seeds wouldn't mature on the pulled out plant. We also went snorkeling since we were out in the boat. We went outside the atoll for the first time since I've been here. We went to a place that was about 30 ft. deep. It was pretty cool. There were lots of fish. I'll have some good underwater ones if I ever get them developed. There were 3 Galapagos sharks hanging around the whole hour we were out. They were little ones about 4 ft. long so we weren't worried about them (at least most of us weren't worried). They just went about their business and I think I got a few good pictures of them.

Tonight we're going over to the Island Manager's house for a little going away party for the volunteers. Like I said, it will be quiet around here until more show up in November.

My pictures are sometimes behind, so here's what we did last week.

This is the trail we made up to the gun emplacement from the doctor's cemetary.

Here's the gun emplacement all cleaned out and ready to look at.

Chainsaw Wednesday

Another day of getting rid of Ironwood trees. We moved it to Wednesday since our other volunteers are leaving Friday (as long as hurricane Flossie doesn't cause problems). As usual I took my swim in the ocean when we were done since we didn't have filet mignon for dinner tonight (it was seafood spaghetti).

Tonight I played a few games of cribbage and squashed about 6o little carrion beetles that were flying around Capt. Brooks' Tavern (since there aren't many dead albatrosses left, there isn't anything for them to eat so they were going after my Doritos and mango salsa). They'll be gone in a week I'm sure. We also played a few games of beach volleyball. I think I still like it here.

I've got some bad news too. The Bonin petrels are back. Those are the ones that dig the holes everywhere around the island. It's nice when they aren't here because when we fall into them we don't have to dig the little guys out. Since the sand is so soft around here, sometimes we'll collapse the sand into 3 foot holes. It's really hard to walk anywhere off the roads here because of them. They are nice little birds though and they don't peck at you when you pick them up to move them.

Bonin petrel in back of my house. He's looking for a good place to dig a hole.

Here's a random picture of the bananas we hung up in our garage to ripen. The branch broke so we didn't leave them on the tree.

More Visitors

Another Coast Guard plane came in today. It was a group of people from Washington D.C. here to check on the funding here. They took a tour of the island and left after about 4 hours so it was a short visit.

We're kind of wondering here if we'll have any problems from hurricane Flossie that's over the Big Island right now. That's still about 1600 miles away, which is about the distance between San Francisco and Dallas. Since the water here is cooler too, the storm shouldn't gain any energy. It could still mess up our flight on Friday, so we'll see if those 10 people can get out of here.

Today was an exciting day of getting rid of castor bean trees. We cut off the seeds to burn and then cut down the trees. I guess they used to grow them here for some reason, but now we're trying to get rid of them.

Here's the plane. It's a little nicer than the plane that takes us back and forth.

Here's a great frigate-bird just for something else to look at.

Monday

Last night was alright. It was bowling night first, then it was martini's out on the deck at Capt. Brooks Tavern to watch the meteor shower (I had to email someone coming back on the plane to get vermouth since we didn't have any on the island). Actually, there were more meteors on Saturday night, but there were a few more impressive ones on Sunday night.

Today our tech guy J.J. was busy. The coral reefers had an underwater camera start leaking on them and he tracked down the major source of our slow internet. Someone had a virus that was sending out millions of Spam messages all day, every day. He'll get his hard drive wiped, but at least we'll be able to use our internet now.

Today was my chainsaw maintenance day and I also did some greenhouse work. We are trying to get a couple of native plants to start growing here again, so I made up 200 pots for popolo plants and chenopodium plants. They'll grow from seeds that we collected on Eastern and Spit island. In a couple years we hope that they'll be all over the place.

You only get one picture today since I haven't taken many lately.

This is a very rare sight right now. I only saw about 4 albatrosses today so within a week they'll either all have died or flown away.

Sorry I'm Late

I know it's been 2 days since I posted but I'm back now. Friday night we had a going away party for the volunteers who left on the Saturday plane. One of them was my roommate and my other roommate is leaving this Friday so I'll have an empty house. It already seems different with 10 people gone. That was over 15% of our population. A few of them will be back after vacation though. The plane also brought me a nice package from my girlfriend Dasha full of good stuff. Thanks.

I didn't do much this weekend other than read. My roommate loaned me the new "Harry Potter" so I've had to get on it before he leaves. I might finish it tonight. Last night a few of us went out to see the Perseid meteor shower. It was nice not having much light pollution. We're going out again tonight for a while just for something to do.

Here's Kahi, my roommate who left yesterday.

Another scenery picture. This was taken from the little peninsula on the south side of the island. The dark blue water is outside the atoll and the light blue-green water is inside.

Guess what we did today?

Chainsaw Thursday. Another hot day of cutting down ironwood trees. Today was the first chainsaw day that I didn't go jump in the ocean. That's because we had some good food tonight. Tonight was filet mignon night and I wanted to make sure I got some. It was pretty tasty. The food here is usually really good. There's always a couple of Thai dishes in the buffet and then some kind of fish usually and some other meat like beef, pork, or chicken. I've gained a few pounds since I've been here. I'm proving my arguement that excercise doesn't make you lose weight unless you eat less also. That's hard to do when you have a buffet for every single meal.

I don't have any new pictures so here's a couple that I took on Sunday.

Here's the WWII pillbox on South Beach that I showed you before. There's a brown noddy sitting on it.

Here's a closeup of the brown noddy.

2 months and 1 day

There's nothing too eventful to post for today since it was just another normal work day. Normal for me at least, really cool for most people. It was another hot day of spraying weeds in paradise. At least it pays the bills.

Tonight we all hung out at Capt. Brooks Tavern (see previous pictures). I played some beach volleyball and was lazy.

I just got some underwater pictures from Kristen. She took them a couple days ago when we put out the oyster catchers and I saw the shark. Here they are.

Here's me swimming above the little black fabric that the baby pearl oysters will attach to.

Here I am just swimming down to the bottom. Not really that eventful but you get an idea of how the water is around here.

2 Months

I've been here for 2 months now and only 4 to go. It's still great here. I've taken over 14,000 pictures since I've been here. When you look at my pictures today you'll see why. There are only a couple of albatrosses left. I only saw about 20 today compared to the 200,000 I saw my first day here. They'll be back in October (not these chicks because these guys will stay out to sea for 3 to 7 years before they come back for the first time). I'll show you some comparison pictures once I take them. It's really warm around here, usually about 89 degrees and pretty humid. Good thing I like it warm.

So here's why I've taken so many pictures. Here's only 2 bad ones out of the 15 in this series that I took to get the good one at the bottom.

White tern again.

More Visitors

Today we had some action again. Another Coast Guard ship pulled in and another Coast Guard plane came in at the same time to take some crewmembers back to Hawaii. It was the USCGC Boutwell (WHEC-719). This ship was much bigger than the other ones that have been here. It's even longer than my sub was at 379 ft. They are on there way to China and a few other places for some PR I think. I had to go put out rat traps and line guards when they came in. We don't need any rats here again. A bunch of us then took a tour of the ship. They only came in to drop those people off and to get a few hours on the island so they could see the historic sites and the wildlife. So they left this evening already, but at least they can say they've been to Midway.

Here it is tied up to cargo pier.

Here's only the second picture of me so far. This is their Dolphin helicopter.

There were lots of turtles swimming under the pier today. I saw 6 of them.

Nice Sunday

Today was a beautiful mostly sunny day. It was warm but there was a nice breeze keeping it a little cool. I went out and took some more pictures today. I filled up my hard drive today so it wouldn't let me transfer all of my pictures. I'll have to clear some space tomorrow. It's really hard to figure out which pictures to delete, but I don't really need 20 of the same sunset.

Tonight was the first night since I've been here that there wasn't a single bird on the road as I came home from the bowling alley. Most of these last birds that are still here look like they may not make it. Although it's a good sign that they've lasted this long.

Today one of the construction workers was sitting on the beach and watched a tiger shark catch and eat a young albatross. That's the first time this year anyone has actually seen that. I think the sharks are coming closer to shore since there aren't that many birds out farther now.

A big fat monk seal is resting on the beach. Good thing I have a good telephoto lens since we shouldn't get close to them.

Here's an older white tern chick.

Skipped a day

Sorry I couldn't post last night. More internet problems. Anyway, yesterday was pretty busy. We sprayed a bunch of weeds in the morning and in the afternoon we we over to the doctor's cemetary to do some work. There is another gun emplacement right near the cemetary (it looks just like the one I posted pictures of the other day). It was really overgrown with weeds and trees so since it's a historical site, we cleared a path to it and chainsawed the trees growing out of it. Like the other one, I didn't even know it was there even though I'd been by it many times. At least I had an excuse to go jump in the ocean again at the end of the day. It's so relaxing.

Last night Kate (the girl from New Zealand) gave a talk about the place she works. It's called Taiaroa Head and they have Royal Albatrosses there so it was interesting to see those. They are bigger than our Laysan albatrosses (the chicks weigh up to 28 lbs while ours only weigh about 8 lbs). It's funny that they have a whole complex to just watch less than 100 birds since we usually have over 800,000 albatrosses at Midway.

Today was pretty lazy. I watched some TV and talked on the phone. Tonight we had a going away party for our safety officer who's been here for 2 1/2 years. He'll be out on the Friday flight. We had a pool tournament also but I got beat out the first round since I scratched on the 8 ball. The band played too. "Hotel California" just doesn't sound the same when the singer doesn't speak english, but it adds to the island atmosphere. I took a few pictures last night before Kate's talk so here they are.

"C" is at the bottom right taking a picture of the sunset.

Here's a juvenile albatross enjoying the view and deciding when to leave.

Another Chainsaw Thursday

I did my chainsaw weightloss plan again today and lost another 4 1/2 lbs between 1:00 and 4:30 this afternoon. I weighed mysdelf before and after again, too bad it all comes back when I drink water. We are making good progress on getting rid of the ironwoods on Radar Hill but we still have a long way to go. Of course we jumped off cargo pier afterward just to clean off and relax before dinner.

One thing I hate worse than the wasps around here are the fire ants. At least with the wasps it only hurts bad for a couple minutes. Some fire ants stung me while I was in the banana and papaya patch 2 days ago and their stings are still swollen and itchy. Darn invasive species!

Here's why I told you I don't really like emerald beetles. They are eating the one papaya that is starting to get ripe. I don't have any pictures of the fire ants at the bottom of the tree.

Here's some red-footed boobies hanging out with a great frigate bird on top of an ironwood tree.

White Tern

Last night I got a haircut from our undertaker (the guy who collects all the dead birds in town and carts them off to another part of the island so it doesn't smell so bad in town and bring the flies). He did a pretty good job and only charges $3.00 so it's not bad.

Today I pretty much just went around and identified plants around the island to know good weed spraying spots vs. spots we have to pull by hand. There wasn't much news around here either. So I guess I'll just leave you with one white tern picture.