News From Midway

Sad news today...U.S. Fish and Wildlife biologist Pete Leary, who blogs from Midway Atoll, has reported the demise of the volunteer program due to budget cuts for the refuge. Not only does this mean that Midway will be far less accessible to anyone looking to do field work there, it means it will be considerably more difficult to get things done at all, from Laysan Duck suveys to albatross banding to pulling invasive weeds. The volunteers carry out the bulk of Fish and Wildlife's biological field work out there...at least Pete will now have a lot more time out of the office.

I found myself spending a good chunk of 2009, as a volunteer, way out there in the Pacific. To say it was an epic experience would be a profound understatement. The islands are filled with great birds, like the celebrity pair of Short-tailed Albatross that have fledged chicks the last two years on Eastern Island. Hopefully funding will be reinstated soon...or else it will be much more difficult to plot my prophecied return!

Sooty Terns swarm over Eastern Island in spring and summer.

A juvenile Great Frigatebird surveys its facemelting domain.

A Hawaiian Monk Seal and Brown Noddies.

White Tern chick in back of the "duck house".

Grey-backed Terns look immaculate.

Life is good with Red-tailed Tropicbirds overhead (and underfoot).

Good ol' Rusty Bucket.

A Black-footed  X Laysan Albatross hybrid tries unsucessfully to flirt with some Laysan Albatrosses, while a Laysan chicks looks on in it's Chewbaccaesque plumage.

The front of the "float" that a Safely Anonymous Person and myself made for the Songkran (Thai New Year) parade. It was an amazing float.

You Can Fly With Us, Or Hang On To The Walls

A Laysan Albatross over Midway's lagoon.

It's nesting season for albatross out in the North Pacific, and since I attempted (unsuccessfully) to go back to Midway this year, I thought it would be best to revisit them. For those who don't know, I spent 3 and a half months on Midway Atoll last year as a volunteer for the Fish and Wildlife Service. They were 3 and a half months of hell.

Kidding!

To call the place "epic" would be a gross understatement. They have an incredible number of seabirds nesting there, which now include all 3 North Pacific albatross...Laysan, Black-footed....and Short-tailed Albatross, which are one of the world's rarest seabirds.

The Shorties did not attempt breeding last year, but I did get to spend a fair amount of time with them. They are huge beasts that effortlessly make the bold and ornery Black-footed Albatross run for their lives. Truly imposing beings. Of course, there are many other signature birds out there...terns, boobies, noddies, tropicbirds, frigatebirds, shearwaters, curlews, etc....but its the albatross that seem to really set the tone of the place.

This is the famous pair of Short-tailed Albatross that, of late, have been stoking the birding community. When this photo was taken they were obviously an item but I don't think the female was, er, ready yet, although The Golden Gooney was probably down. Thankfully they're taking turns sitting on an egg this winter, and everyone is quite excited for them. Note the decoys in the background.

Black-footed Albatross.

Meet the third Short-tailed Albatross that was at Midway Atoll last year. When on-island (they can spend weeks at sea on fishing trips) it lived a few feet from a bike path. While watching this bird, sometimes from a golf cart, I frequently thought of the millions of rabid birders who would kill for an opportunity like this and it made me feel all warm and fuzzy inside.

This Laysan Albatross chickie had a grisly hang out. That's a pile of dead albatross it's sitting on.

The seabird community out there is amazing....everything seems big, loud, flamboyant and eye-catching, and almost every little thing you did was like some out-of-control birder fantasy. Let's take going to dinner for example. You walk outside to your bike, which entails stepping around and over several Laysan Albatross and their chicks. As you ride away you glance into the naupaka bush in your yard and see a Red-tailed Tropicbird lurking beneath it. On your bike ride you are briefly accompanied by a couple White Terns, and a few Ruddy Turnstones and Pacific Golden-Plovers calmly step out of your way. Black Noddies fly overhead with nesting material. Everywhere you look are albatross. You park your bike between a couple of attendant albatross chicks and gorge yourself (it's always all-you-can-eat at the Clipper House). At dinner you discuss playing cards later that night and who you liked and didn't like in the last tour group that came through. You then share your review on the state of the soft-serve ice cream that evening. On your bike ride home the air is warm (but not hot) and a touch humid (but not like a sauna), and you are in no rush, because stress and anxiety seem to evaporate just a bit faster out there than anyplace else. When you look up there are thousands of Bonin Petrels in the sky, just coming back from sea. You call this place home and can't help feeling a little smug.

Albatross can be quite friendly. It's nice when the Black-footeds don't hate you, as they generally don't have the pleasant disposition of Laysans. To answer your questions, no this is not a mated pair, no that is not their egg, and yes I love albatross.

He Should've Been On The Cover

One of the Short-tailed Albatross that spent the spring on Midway Atoll, photographed a year ago.  It is the T-Rex of North Pacific seabirds, and spends its time ferociously.....well, sitting around and sleeping while we saw it.

In news of things that is not short, I am filling out a massive, Old Testament sized employment packet for the feds.  It is an abomination of bureaucracy, calling on me to declare everything I've ever done, thought, or thought about thinking.  Until I can unload this thing and get my fingerprints taken, life is truly pain.

I'd Love You Forever If I Ever Loved At All

Just another raging Thursday night with The Chugach Band.

The island is being overrun with young people. I don't know what is happening. There are even girls here, which is really confusing and disorienting for everyone. Until you are in a remote, relatively peopleless place like this, its hard to appreciate, or even understand, what I am talking about. Instinctively, I feel like I should just start panicking and take it from there.

Last night's plane was probably the best one since Ive been here. It brought some cool folks in (sweet), took some cool folks out (bitter), and brought me a couple of awesome packages from my colleagues in California. I now have snake tattoos and Philz coffee.....what more can a man ask for? So thank you to Misty, Andrea and Jameson for being the brave, courageous, incredible individuals that they are.



Speaking of brave and courageous, Halsey the White Tern chick is growing up so fast. She is the master of her domain (i.e. the top of the wall), much like her namesake. She has withstood rain, wind, and the drastic temperature swings that have killed hundreds of petrel and albatross chicks in the past week. From what Ive seen so far, she is strong enough to outlive all of us. The longevity record for her species, by the way, is about 35 years old. Not bad for a dinky seabird that is famous for nesting in bad places (they don't make nests).



North Pacific Albatross Trifecta (i.e. Black-footed, Short-tailed and Laysan Albatrosses).

We have one Short-tailed Albatross left on the atoll currently. Fortunately, it is the friendly big male that's here on Sand Island that is usually seen passed out next to the bike trail on the south side of the runway. It's getting late in the season for them to be here, so it is a privilege to still be graced with his presence. He doesn't really do anything, which I can appreciate. Occasionally he will stare down a Black-footed Albatross, which he inevitably wins because he is a big, big bird. Black-foots are generally regarded as being the most ill-tempered bird out here, and most people who have worked with them have some scars to show for it. Ive gotten some reluctant nibbles from them (getting a nibble from a Laysan Albatross is the gooney equivalent of a handshake), but most would rather rip out my eyeballs given the opportunity. So its funny to see them getting bullied by the dinosaur-like Short-tailed Albatross.




Wedge-tailed Shearwaters. They arrived a few weeks ago, and you can usually hear them moaning and groaning on certain parts of the island.

Nothing Else Will Do

There are a few birds here that I know individually. Usually, its because I know where there nests are or they are so rare that they are easy to keep track of. There is the White Tern sitting on its egg outside my back door. There is the lone female Eurasian Wigeon, and her three Northern Pintail (all female) girlfriends at The Catchment. There are the three Laysan Albatross chicks next to the front door, and the Pacific Golden-Plover next to our "driveway".

However, by far the most glamorous bird that I've met in the atoll is the adult male Short-tailed Albatross that lives on Eastern Island. He is smart, suave, sexy, strong, and frankly, not to be fucked with. He is the biggest bird here, period, and possibly the best looking. Most of the world's population (which isnt much) breeds on Torishima Island, off of Japan, and one dedicated researcher has seen to it (for decades now) that practically every bird that is born there receives a shiny aluminum leg band that stays on (theoretically) for life. Each band has a unique number stamped on it, so when someone reads it they can find out when and where the bird was banded and how old it is. Shorty here is 26 years old......exactly the same as myself.



The female, on the right, is less than half his age. Draw your own conclusions.

When I first heard this, I was amazed at the coincidence. I too, am the biggest, smartest, strongest, sexiest and most suave person here. Ok, maybe not. But I am 26, and wonder what sort of existence this albatross has had in its similar lifespan. I think he has been coming to Midway for a few years now, and has generally been relegated to bachelor status due to the rarity of his species. He hangs out in a plot of hand-painted decoy birds meant to lure real members of his species to the area.....much like I am relegated to bachelor status and hang out with a bunch of mannequins meant to lure real members of my species into my living room.



Their age differnce, however, is no obstacle for their love!

Who said that? Er, scratch that last statement.

At any rate, he is one of my favorite birds here (and was a factor in me deciding to come here over another island), and I was happy to see yesterday that he managed to get a female of his own species to do a little dancing with him and to do some mutual preening with. If you are not acquainted, all albatross perform elaborate, multi-step dances with each other (the Laysans are rumored to have 27 steps in their routine) when they are seeking mates, which is pretty funny to watch. Once they are hooked up, or if they are both interested in each other, they will affectionately preen each other for extended periods of time. Its really cute, and not anything like the disgusting PDA (Public Displays of Affection) that I have to endure when I'm watching my coupled-friends grope each other in broad daylight. It was pretty funny watching them preen each other though, because the female probably isn't old enough to breed yet (should we name her Lolita?) and didn't quite know what she was doing, so the old male would frequently snap at her when she did something wrong. I'm sure she will figure it in a year or two though, and hopefully they can start raising their kids here on Midway.



These are Christmas Shearwaters. They live over on Eastern Island, and aside from having a great name they make these weird little moaning haunted-house sounds. They're great.

Transparent Transgressive

Well we finally got some good weather today. Warm, with just a touch of breeze. Welcome to The Goldilocks Zone (i.e. not too hot, not too cold, not too windy). However, I am beseiged (yes.....beseiged!) with allergies that come and go at random. The Verbesina which grows all over the place here (and does whatever it can to make the lives of albatross more difficult) puts out a lot of pollen, and a lot of people don't handle it very well. I'm hoping to build up some resistance, but there is still a long way to go.



The subadult Short-tailed Albatross that was here when I first arrived returned yesterday after spending a month at sea. I got to see it walk around for the first time.....it moves like how I would expect a dinosaur would, swinging its massive head to head from side to side. It walked up to Black-footed Albatross that was lying in the grass, lowered its head and stared intensely at it. The Black-foot must have felt awkard because it got up and walked away after a minute of this. The Shorty promptly sat down, enjoying its new-found personal space.

Jesus. I have been so busy working and staring at birds Ive hardly had time to think and act human for a change. There may not be a wide variety of things to do here, but I am rarely bored. Its strange to suddenly not be constantly thinking about and dealing with the things that driven you for the past couple years (friends, girls, politics, religion, music, The Future, money, "growing up", more girls, quality of life, The Sad State of Affairs, raging, more friends.....you get the point). Ok well apparently I am thinking about some of those things, buts its a pretty weird situation.It seems like there is some kind of bird-vacuum in the place of all that, but I havent quite gotten my mind around it. But, you know what they say.....When The Going Gets Weird, The Weird Turn Pro.

Drying Off From Dolphins,

Seagull Steve

You can run, you can hide.....

Bathroom gecko of an unknown species. Any help? Habitat: my razor and toothbrush.

Russians and Pedes aside, the volunteers get worked pretty hard out here. Right now we are handling Red-tailed Tropicbird monitoring, Laysan Duck surveys, marine debris monitoring, Black-footed and Laysan Albatross monitoring, and all the associated data entry/proofing/etc., as well as pitching in with the ongoing war on nonnative plants. Ive done tuckered myself out today, you know what Im sayin? So I'll just post some pictures of the some of the wildlife that I haven't gotten to yet, because they all make up an interesting part of the community here. Most of the wildlife is pretty friendly except for a few of the ducks and shorebirds, so something interesting is going on whenever/wherever you happen to be paying attention.




This is a Great Frigatebird (a frigatebird is the thing tattooed on my leg, for my nonbirder friends), pausing during his display to attract females flying overhead. I wish I had a gigantic inflatable throat pouch, dont you? It would be a great conversational icebreaker I think.



This is one of two Short-tailed Albatrosses/Golden Goonies Ive seen out here. Short-tailed Albatrosses are insane. They are enormous. This one isnt quite an adult yet, but is still facemelting. Notice that it dwarfs its Black-footed Albatross buddy, which is already a massive bird by anyone's standard. This is one of the species you are supposed to stay 150 feet away from to avoid disturbing them (its one of the world's rarest seabirds), but since I was standing right in front of it when I noticed it, I had to take a picture before lurking off. Obvi. Possibly the coolest bird out here.



Hawaiian Monk Seal. Also highly endangered. This one was hauled out on the old WWII seaplane ramp......we see them pretty often.



This is a Bristle-thighed Curlew.....not as rare as the last two, but still less than 7,000 individuals in the world.....they are pretty easy to find here though (I could hear one from my dining room this afternoon). They are possibly the top terrestrial predator here, since they prey on mice (Ive seen it!) and have no other predators. You guys can keep your pumas, wolves and eagles......we've got curlews.