Midway Comes to The ABA

Almost all of Midway's birds can be seen performing bizarre, humorous, or elegant courtship displays at some point during the year. Terns are well-known for their graceful, synchronized courtship displays...in the sky. These Sooty Terns were doing synchronized dancing on the ground. I've never seen anything like it, before or since.

Midway Atoll is one of the most incredible places I've ever been, and a large part of that is due to the birds there. With Midway Atoll now within the friendly confines of the ABA Area, I just had a new piece on Midway's seabirds published in ABA's Birder's Guide to Travel. Click on the cover and flip to page 32 (you can access this whether you are an ABA member or not), or if you are an ABA member it should be mailed to you imminently if you don't have it already. I'm chuffed that the ABA wanted to put it out, take a look!

I've probably posted this White Tern photo at some point in the distant past. If not, I'm sorry it took so long.  Holy shit this image gives me the warm fuzzies...this was in my backyard on Midway.

From Anous to Thalasseus: Tern Heroes

Brown Noddy is a truly slick looking bird, with shades of gray, brown and black all somehow seamlessly melting into one another.  I'm told they can be pretty aggressive around nests but in my experience with them you just walk up to them and they let you stare at them super hard. Photographed at Midway Atoll.

I have a plan...a plan to see a certain species of tern.  A species I haven't seen before.  I'm not going to try for another couple of months, but I'm really looking forward to it.  I don't get lifer terns very often (the last couple were Bridled in 2013, Aleutian in 2010) so I'm getting pretty worked up about it. Terns are a big deal.  They are aesthetically pleasing, highly migratory, prone to vagrancy, and often offer a worthy ID challenge.  Many species are stunning, even while still comfortably constrained by The Economy of Style.  In anticipation and celebration of this event, I'm going to post a suite of other terns that have improved my life in myriad ways.

My experiences with Black Noddy, on the other hand, have not been similar.  They look at you from trees and don't want to be near you.  Although I saw many, many Black Noddies while out at Midway, this was the one and only really approachable individual I found...which I am grateful for, because it chose the perfect perch and perfect background. Note the longer, more slender bill in comparison to Brown Noddy.

Sooty Terns sure do get around...around the world, that is.  It's one of two tern species I've seen on the east coast, west coast, and Hawaiian Islands (Least Tern being the other).  This bird was (still is?) part of the colony on Eastern Island at Midway Atoll.

Ahhh, my last life tern, and what a sweet lifer it was.  Before seeing them I was always confounded about how these could be told from Grey-backed Terns (which do have some range overlap in the South Pacific), but I can see a difference now. This Bridled Tern was photographed off Cape Hatteras, North Carolina.

Grey-backed Terns are sweet birds...they sometimes nest in the same places as Sooty Terns, but are always less abundant and less annoying (Sooty colonies are loud and intense).  I've always considered them the luxury car of terns, although I don't know why and that probably doesn't make sense to anyone else.  Note the finer bill and paler back than the Bridled Tern above; Grey-backed also has less black in the primaries when seen from below. Photographed at Midway Atoll.

Least Terns and I go way back...they are one of the handful of birds that I remember well from those dark ages of before I was a birder.  I worked with these birds a lot in San Diego a couple years ago, unfortunately all of their breeding colonies fared horribly and it was kind of depressing (colonies up and down California failed that year).  Photographed in Escondido, CA.

As far as photography goes, shooting feeding terns never gets old.  Here is a Forster's Tern, mid-plunge. Photographed at the Tijuana River Estuary, CA.

Though shackled with a...common...yet horrible name, Common Tern is always a bird we enjoy seeing in California.  Rarely common, we most often find them during fall migration at the Salton Sea, coastal wetlands and well offshore, in the realm of Arctic Terns.  You would not expect to find a bird from the Canadian prairie far out at sea, but luckily birds have a habit of defying birder expectations.  Photographed at Ormond Beach, CA.

Arctic Terns are tantalizing.  Unless you are lucky enough to bird where they breed, they always seem so...ephemeral.  Uncommon off California during fall, they are never really dependable on pelagic trips, and sightings are usually brief and of poor to mediocre quality. I want to see more. Photographed off Bodega Bay, CA.

I first met Sandwich Tern at Bolsa Chica Ecological Reserve (in Orange County, CA) back in the mid 90's when one had teamed up with an Elegant Tern to make hybrids.  It would be over 10 years before I saw another, but now we make sure to eyeball each other with more regularity. Photographed at the Dry Tortugas, FL.

Elegant Terns are a common sight up and down California in summer and fall.  As breeders, they have increased in the state over the years, forming colonies in San Diego, Orange and most recently Los Angeles Counties...no minor achievement, considering how few breeding colonies there are in the world.  Photographed at Half Moon Bay, CA.

Unlike on the Atlantic coast, Royal Terns do not venture very far northward; they are a rare bird away from southern California.  Despite frequently associating with Elegant Terns (which provide great comparisons), they are often misidentified...but such is the fate of many terns South Padre Island, TX.

For the world's biggest tern, you would think Caspian Terns would have some different behaviors from the rest of the family...but aside from monstrous vocalizations, they are pretty similar.  Fortunately, those horrible calls are quite charming.  Photographed at South Padre Island, TX.

Gull-billed Terns, on the other hand, know how to stand apart.  Gull-billed Terns are just as content foraging for horned lizards in the sand dunes as they are fish in the surf line.  They hunt bird eggs and chicks, and will get mobbed by other tern species.  They are everything Caspian Terns wish they could be, all while carrying themselves with a certain grace and elegance. Photographed at the Tijuana River Estuary.

Black Terns have always been there for me.  Back when I started birding, a Black Tern was one of the first Vague Runts I ever saw (at the Ventura Water Treatment Plant, if you must know). They are always there for me at the Salton Sea in the summer.  When I needed them most (for lack of humanity to spend time with), they were there in the greatest of numbers in North Dakota.  I would be lying if I said I wasn't dying to see their Vague Runt brethren, White-winged Tern, but until I do Black Terns will continue to validate my existence.  Photographed at Lostwood NWR, North Dakota.

White Tern is a singular bird...there's nothing quite like them. They nest pretty much anywhere that isn't the ground, just plop out an egg where hopefully the chick won't be too exposed to the weather. They are tame. They come hover next to your head as you walk by their perch. If you haven't seen one, they are your favorite bird waiting to happen. Photographed at Midway Atoll.

Last but not Least Tern, I finally give you a stupid tern pun and offer you an honorary tern, a Black Skimmer. Skimmers look great on the wing, but they always look so grumpy at rest. Maybe if no one could tell that I had eyeballs, I would seem grumpy too.  Photographed at South Padre Island, TX.

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.

Time To Kill, Feelings To Feel

A Sooty Tern announces its plans for landing to its flockmates. All photos today are from Midway Atoll.

Three weeks left back in the states before I go down to Mexico again (which now sounds more like masochism and less like a vacation), so I better get deep back into blogging. Get all the nerdiness out of my system for a couple months, you know what I'm saying...but who am I kidding? I've got far too much geek in me to do that. Who will want to trade obscure and embarrassing Star Wars quotes if no one speaks English? Who will care that Choking Victim, Leftover Crack and Star Fucking Hipsters all share some of the same members? Who will be able to sing the newly-classic (thanks to Youtube and Schmoyoho) "Double Rainbow" song with me? Who will endure my revolting and heretical "what-would-you-rathers"? I don't know what I will do with myself.

Grey-backed Terns are the less numerous and more pleasant relatives of Sooty Terns.

For some reason I think this picture is really funny. White Tern.

Well, as promised, I'm going back to the bank for some photos for ya'll. I really, really wish that wasn't the case....but it is what it is. What have you guys been up to? I mean, what do you people do when not absorbing wisdom from BB&B? Do I even want to know? Since these are not questions I can readily answer, I will dispense some advice based on stories and experiences from our roadtrip.

1) If you have something on your finger that looks like "weird mud", do not smell it or wipe it on your pants.

2) If you think the world is about to end, you should probably do some weird stuff before its too late.

3) If someone breaks up with you, its not worth killing yourself over.

4) It someone asks you about a threesome in another language, do not agree to it unless you really want to.

5) If you walk off by yourself and see a flock of Azure-hooded Jays and a Chestnut-sided Shrike-Vireo, your friends will all see Strong-billed and Spotted Woodcreepers. No one will be able to find the other people's birds again. You'll just have to live with it.

6) Corn Crakes and Northern Jacanas are not similar.

7) Dogs and guans are not similar.

8) Unicolored Jays are the best birds in the world.

9) Canavet's Emeralds are best viewed hawking insects off your nose.

10) Don't ever assume a towering, unforgiving tope (speed bump) won't pointlessly be around the next corner.

Right. That's it for now I reckon. Have a raging weekend!

A more typical view of a White Tern.

Friend Against Friend

A male Red-footed Booby, making the world a better place.



Christmas Shearwater, about to unleash the holiday spirit.



I am Beastmaster. Or, SOOTYTERNMASTER.



This pillbox (fortunately) never got to perform its original purpose, which was to defend the island against a Japanese troop landing. Now its a hangout for Brown Noddies.



This is the oldest Red-tailed Tropicbird chick from any of the study plots. I wish it my best.



The classic Laysan Albatross "handshake".



This Black-footed Albatross chick is close to fledging.



Since this one was given The Mark Of The Beast, I'm sure it will live a long, sinister life terrorizing squid and future albatross chicks.



Pure gratuity. That's Kate, she is an algaestar.



My ceiling tile from the All Hands Club. My stuff is in the upper right corner.

I'm back in San Francisco now, trying to adjust to life where just about everything is the opposite of what Ive been experiencing since I first got to Midway. It's not the smoothest transition, but its great to be around friends again where I can feel free to be my loathsome self.....or anyone else, for that matter. So far, so good.

Below is my bird list from the atoll....I think its a pretty good list. It has every species known to currently breed on Midway, some migrants, some vagrants, some wintering birds......I think it's pretty great. Sure its not a massive list by any means, but Out There its quality, not quantity, you know what I'm saying? I might add that the Lesser Frigatebird was spotted on my birthday, and I didnt even use binoculars with it. Pretty sweet deal if you ask me. Here is an identification tip for you that isnt really emphasized in the i.d. books Ive gotten my hands on....the LEFR really is substantially smaller than the many Great Frigatebirds that are out there. Its pretty obvious. That doesnt help if the bird is by itself, but if its mixed in with a big frigatebird kettle like mine was, they stand out pretty well.

I'll post some more pictures in the near future......until then, you can find me getting reacquainted with an old friend (Jameson).

Green-winged Teal
Laysan Duck
Northern Pintail
Northern Shoveler
Eurasian Wigeon
American Wigeon
Laysan Albatross
Black-footed Albatross
Short-tailed Albatross
Bonin Petrel
Bulwer's Petrel
Wedge-tailed Shearwater
Christmas Shearwater
Tristram's Storm-Petrel
Red-footed Booby
Brown Booby
Masked Booby
Lesser Frigatebird
Great Frigatebird
White-tailed Tropicbird
Red-tailed Tropicbird
Cattle Egret
Pacific Golden-Plover
Whimbrel (Siberian and American)
Bristle-thighed Curlew
Grey-tailed Tattler
Wandering Tattler
Ruddy Turnstone
Glaucous Gull
Glaucous-winged Gull
Little Tern
Least Tern
Sooty Tern
Grey-backed Tern
Brown Noddy
Fairy Tern
Black Noddy
Common Myna
Canary

You Just Kept Coming Apart

"YARRRRRRRRRRGHHHHHHHHHH!!!!! YARRRR!!!!! ARRRRRRGH!!!!!" - Sooty Tern

Last week on Midway. How could this happen? It doesnt seem right. This brutal reality is even coming into my dreams....last night I dreamt I was some sort of policeman/detective, hanging out in a suburban neighbood someplace. I noted the three Hawaiian Monk Seals which were (naturally) loafing on someone's driveway. In my dream, I thought this was somewhat strange, but I didnt quite know why. Anyway, I return to this scene later and find that their carcasses have been piled on the lawn. A couple fellow detectives and myself start interrogating the owner. He denies any involvement, and even denies the existence of the eight (8) dead monk seals scattered in his house and on his lawn that we point out. Finally he cracks and confesses that he kills seals because.......he is Canadian. Obvi. Oh yeah, he also had a mustache and looked Italian, which may or may not be related to his pinniped-slaying ways.



This huge wad of cuteness is a Red-footed Booby and its fuzzy progeny.

I saw a gigantic pede today. It was the t-rex of pedes....surely some atavistic holdover from the Jurassic. It was relatively the same size as the one that plopped out of my sheets that fateful March night. It evoked deep memories of anger, fear, agression.....The Dark Side, as it were. I ground it to death with a large stick.....but that won't stop it from biting the crap out of me in my dreams tonight.



Look at little duder! Almost ready to fledge! This bird hit puberty waaaaay before the other chicks. So punx.

.......You Are the Harbinger Of Death

Sooty Tern. This is one of my favorite shots Ive taken since Ive been here. It may appear I'm a good photographer but this dude/lady was only a few feet above my head.

Sports are weird. I've never been very good at most of them. That's probably why I turned into a nerd, started watching birds and listening to punk rock. For all these reasons and more, I have always been grateful that I'm not very good at sports. I've been playing a lot of volleyball lately though, and its pretty fun. I play badly enough to claim that I suck, but well enough to justify playing. Good enough for me. Have you ever noticed that a lot of sports players don't have a very artistic side to them? Its like they weren't built for that. These are the people who thought (and maybe still do) that Limp Bizkit was a good band and that Metallica is better than Slayer. Yeah theres a bunch of exceptions, but there's exceptions to everything.



Moby Dick, The Great White Albatross (Chick). He lives next to Sunrise Seep on Sand Island.

Things are mellow here on Midway. Life is good. It would be incredible to get paid to be here and still do field work.....but those chances are few and far between. The monk seal people here fall into that category, and they all seem pretty great. They leave Thursday morning though, which sucks. One of the guys who lives here has mentioned a couple times what a bummer it is to get to know someone and befriend them here, only to have them leave and never see them again. Its a bit depressing, I reckon, and I can see what he's talking about.



There are ducklings all over the islands now. They are very cute, and although they lack predators in the true sense of the word, most ducklings don't live very long. This one was only a couple of days old, and probably got attacked by another duck. Besides getting beat up on by members of their own species, the Laysan Albatross will often grab a duckling given the opportunity. They don't kill them out of maliciousness, they just see them as playthings. Albatross and human children are not all that different from each other....except I would much rather hang out with an albatross.

A Fistful of Courage, A Heart Full of Rage

A Red-tailed Tropicbird backpedals during an aerial courtship display. When they do this they always hold their long tail-plumes off to the side.....I call this move "The Whip".

Tomorrow is Songkran, the Thai New Year. Since the majority of people on Midway are Thai nationals, this is a really big deal. It involves copious amounts of water, food, alcohol, and some sort of white powder (not cocaine). It kicks off tomorrow at noon with a parade, which I am guessing will be incredible. We have been given the afternoon off, which is a great way to kick off the weekend. I think Gary and I are going to get some kayaking in......stoked.



Although Sooty Terns have been here almost the whole time Ive been here, they have been extremely reluctant to actually land anywhere until recently. They're pretty sweet.....in flight they are shaped a lot like a miniature frigatebird.



Seagull Steve + Laysan Albatross = ALBASTEVE

Marc Romano, the albatross guru of the Northwestern Hawaiian Islands, has been here the past week. We've been helping him catch adult albatross so he could put geolocator tags on them...its been a lot of fun. Although catching an adult albatross can be quite difficult, they are a lot more pleasant to handle than chicks.....the chicks are dirtier, are much more inclined to shitting and barfing, and generally lack the dignity of adults. It's been a lot of fun, although somewhat painful at times.