Underwhelming Hope

Oprah. I don't know anyone who watches Oprah. Or anyone who would admit it, at any rate. Yet it seems people do watch Oprah.....so I will just mention that Midway and The Great Pacific Garbage Patch made it on to her show for the Earth Day Episode this week. I havent seen it, but apparently it got some coverage on the show. All the marine debris on her set was sent from Midway.....yes we are just fiends for publicity out here. But Oprah is (bizarrely) one of the more influential people on the planet, and we are glad that she chose this relatively unpublicized but very serious topic to air on her show. So....kudos to Oprah. Yeah. I never thought I would write "kudos to Oprah", but there it is.

The weekend is again upon us. That was quick. We did a lot of albatross banding this week.....the Black-footed Albatross chicks are getting really big really quickly, and the Laysan Albatross chicks aren't far behind. Jimmy The Duck Jedi found Midway's first Laysan Duck ducklings of the year on Eastern Island. The poker game went very well ("boy's night out"), although, as usual, I lost $. If you ever get the chance to mix Johnnie Walker Black Label, Jim Beam, and Captain Morgan into one drink....go for it.

The much-hyped Chugach Band is playing on the island on Saturday night, so there will be a big party at the All Hands Club. I haven't seen live music since a NOFX show in February, so I'm pretty stoked about it. $1 beers. Its not exactly Tuesday at the Argus with Halsey, but in some ways I think its better.



A male Brown Booby. Brown Boobies are one of several species that only nest on Eastern Island, and we don't see very many of on Sand.

Halsey (the tern chick) is doing well and gets fed little fish on the regular. I look forward to watching her grow up to be a strong, sexy White Tern that will wreak havoc upon the small fish of the sea. I will spend some quality time with her this weekend. Otherwise, weekend plans are always weather dependent. Hopefully I can get out and check the wetlands for vagrants, and get some decent Wedge-tailed Shearwater pictures for you. Of course, if any rad jobs come up, I will attempt to whore myself to them accordingly.

Ok, thats it for today, Ive got some tropicbirds to harass.....