This Off And On And Back And Forth And Home Then Gone

One of the White-eared Hummingbirds that were hanging out in Arizona's Miller Canyon last summer.

Just when you thought my short attention span was going to get the best of me, I'm bringing it back home. Mostly feathered, one scaled and scuted, some respledent, some drab, but all nerdy action for you. There is no real unifying theme here, but here's a few photos that I don't think I've ever put up before. Since I've yet again stayed away from any Christmas Bird Counts this year, this will have to be my contribution to you....you the bedraggled, you the unsocialized, you the wealthy, you the probably white, you, my kindered spirits....you, the birding community.

In other news, I have developed a deep and unabiding hatred for California's unemployment program....whoever set it up to run how it does must have a severe case of shitbrain. Absolutely brutal.



A female Berylline Hummingbird goes back to her hair larder. She had impaled a small dog on this fence earlier.....truly the new butcher bird.



One of the many friendly White Terns that reside at Midway Atoll.



All sea turtles have a terrible survival rate in their first year of life (something like 99% get killed I think), but once they grow up, life seems good. If you pass out face down in the sand it generally means you did something horrible the night before, but it's just daily routine for the turtles.



Another beautiful day at Midway, with another beautiful Laysan Albatross. I must return.....

Liberty Is A Glorious Beast

I'm still in San Francisco, taking in the social scene, great food and questionable people that the city offers. Ive taken a much-needed Haightcation in the last couple days, and things are starting to feel Right again. I no longer am stricken with a sense of Fear and Loathing whenever I encounter large groups of people, although uberhipsters and ultrabros are still a bummer to be sure.

The big news is that I was offered a job with Bat Conservation International in Pennsylvania, which I accepted yesterday. So I will be Eastbound And Down in a few weeks, but until then I can float around in California.....indeed, some sort of human debris in America's Great Western Human Garbage Patch, waiting to be eaten up and fed to the next generation of Americans. A dubious fate to be sure.

Here is another crop of pictures from my last couple weeks at Midway......enjoy!

I Prefer The Company of Animals

Laysan Albatross aren't very graceful on the ground, but they know how to look good in the air.

How's that for a title? I pulled it out of a Western Addiction song, but for people here I think its pretty applicable. It's more interesting than "Wind" or "More Wind" or "Steve Isn't Very Good At Bowling", which sums up the last few days. I think I can now say that I've talked to Laysan Albatrosses more than any other species of animal, and I'm pretty proud of that.

Yesterday at another outstanding Klavitter Cocktail Party, we watched an adult tern bring a huge fish in for its chick; the fish was about twice as long as the chick. We all cheered the chick on as it slowly worked the fish down (young terns take their food whole). For about an hour it just hung out with part of the fish sticking out of its bill.....it eventually got the whole thing. An impressive feat of eating.....it would be the equivalent of me trying to swallow a 12 foot anaconda whole. Truly inspirational. They're a lot of fun to have around, I will miss them on the mainland. I'll post pictures when I get around to uploading them........

I only have a few weeks left here.......which is a strange thing to be saying. My time here has slowly gone by quickly, if that makes any sense. Next weekend we get three days off though, so I will do my best to make it worthwhile.



Ole Blindy, the completely blind Laysan Duck. I took the liberty of giving him that very original name.

I can't think of a whole lot I want to do before I leave that I haven't gotten to do already. It would be nice to kayak some more. Otherwise......maybe spotlight some ducks with Jimmy, use the sauna, see a Bulwer's Petrel. Some sort of bonus shorebird migrant would be ideal.....but I will take what I can get.



Of course, part of what makes Midway Midway is the people here. I will try to fill up my social calendar for the last few weeks. There are rumors of a marathon next weekend.....I am seriously consider running it. I mean walking it. Let's keep it real, right?

Ok. That's it for now. I miss you all. I will leave you with some wisdom from one of the finest American's that have ever lived. Good night.

It's a strange world. Some people get rich, and others eat shit and die. - Hunter S. Thompson

Your Perseverance May Outlast My Ambition

Do you know what sucks? The tropicbird chick and the petrel chick that are pictured in my last couple blogs are already dead. Talk about a bummer. The cause of mortality for both is probably Laysan Albatross. Its not that they eat bird chicks, they just don't give a fuck. They like playing with stuff. Theyre like cats.....bird cats. Not catbirds though....that would be confusing. Yeah. Anyways. Someone mentioned yesterday that they saw an albatross walk up to a White Tern chick, grab it, break its neck, toss it aside and walk away. Bizarre. Well at least it is the albatross doing this, who have probably been doing this for many thousands of years.....it would be much worse if rats were the culprit. The government spent millions of dollars on eradicating rats from the atoll, and the huge jump in seabird numbers since then has shown that it was well worth it. I don't even want to think of what will happen if they somehow get introduced out here again....it would be an ugly scene.

Next week is Gary's last full week here. He got here the same time I did (he is the other volunteer here), but is leaving several weeks earlier. I'm not sure whats going to happen when I am the only volunteer here........I might institute some "migrant surveys" (aka go birding) or something if left unsupervised. I'll probably be too busy though.



This turtle was left stranded on the reef by a low tide.

I watched Sideways today. Great movie. I recognized a lot of where that movie was shot. Amusing that they had a scene in it from Oxnard. But I think the Oxnardness inhanced the scene. And why, why, is it called Oxnard? Its a terrible name for a horrible city. You know, if they named it "Tealtown" or "Dendroica" or even "Bushtit", there would probably be no homicides or gang warfare at all. What does Oxnard mean anyway? All the cities around there have very obvious Spanish-sounding names (Port Hueneme, San Buenaventura, Santa Paula, Camarillo).....Oxnard does not fir the motif. Oh well, at least it gave birth to "Nardcore" and the 2006 Man Of The Year, Carlos.

Too much wind this weekend. No bueno. It makes me restless and think about migration. Whats the point of talking about the woes of Oxnard anyway? Sheesh.



One of my few Bonin Petrel flight shots. It's a hard picture to get, since they are usually only around after dark.

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.....

You Must Confront Vader

Some of you know my history with the amazing phenomenon known simply as Turtle Style. If you are not acquainted, I highly suggest you make yourself so. Fully embracing the energy-saving, cold-blooded lifestyle ("The Slow Movement"), even for brief periods of time, can be quite fulfilling. I got a whole new perspective on all of that today, as I was finally allowed to hang out with some of our turtle buddies here.

This morning Gary and I were summoned to help dig the grave of a sea turtle that had recently died on Turtle Beach, where a lot of the sea turtles in the area go to hang out, for reasons no one can know or understand. There are a lot of perfectly good beaches here, but they are really into that one area. Anyways. So we get there and find a big, bloated dead one next to the seaplane ramp, and also find one turned upside down that was being washed in by the surf. It was like turtle genocide out there, pretty disturbing you know?

I walked over to the overturned one to see if it was really dead.....although they are kind of screwed if they find themselves stuck upside down (they weigh hundreds of pounds), they are Strong and can hold on for quite some time. It seemed to weakly wave a flipper at me, like beckoning me closer to hear its last dying wish. "Vader", it hoarsely whispered. "You must confront Vader. Then, and only then, a Jedi will you be."

What? I think that must have happened to someone else. Anyway, I grabbed a hold of a flipper, and it kind of tugged at me a bit, so I got everyone to come help flip it over. It swam away immediately after.....I didnt know they could move so fast.




Greg was taking some measurements before gravedigging commenced. Its measurements were Big, Heavy and Dead.

Gary and I got out of actually digging the hole for this dude, due to marine debris commitments. We heard it didnt go well. Maybe if they just piled sand on top of it, it couldve worked, but that would have just looked ridiculous.

Otherwise, things are good. Im listening to Dillinger Four right now, rejoicing in the fact that I was able to buy a bottle of Jack and a case of Miller tonight. You dont take these things for granted on Midway. I saw a couple Brown Noddies this afternoon, which were pretty sweet (Black Noddies are the common noddy right now). A White Tern appears to be sitting on an egg outside our back door, and all our yardatross chicks seem to be doing well, including the one with the malfunctioning eye. Life goes on.



This is our dead buddy. It had been there a few days. Weekends can be hard on reptiles too, I guess.



For the living turtles, life goes on. Slowly.

Hands Tied With Past Lives

Eastern Island, looking glorious and glamorous. Sand Island, where Im living, is out in the distance. It does not look like this today.

It's still winter out in the middle of the Pacific.....hot and sunny days are punctuated with bleak, windy days that spit rain and do nothing for the human spirit. The albatross seem to like it though, since it is essentially the wind that is made them what they are, and they seem to do better in it. They're really noisy right now. Its hard to tell what the young fuzzy ones think though, since they are usually panting in the heat or curled up and shivering from the cold.



Turtle Beach, looking positive and prehistoric. This is where a lot of the turtles haul out to rest and get some sun.....the turtles are probably there, but it does not look like this today.

I learned today a 747 tried to land here a few nights ago because someone was having a heart attack on board. They essentially got denied because there are not the resources here to really help with something like that.......which is not something the pilot wanted to hear Im sure. But sometimes it is best to keep it real, no? Even, or especially, in life or death situations.........

Well the weather is still crapping on us today, so that kind of limits things to do. I spent the morning doing a Laysan Duck survey and spent the afternoon gratefully sleeping. I have forgotten that sleep comes at a premium when doing field work all the time. I woke up thinking, "Jesus God, what the fuck am I doing here?", but all the albatross noise started filtering through my mental fog and I remembered.

I hope you all have a raging Saturday night!



A Black Noddy, looking cold and fashionable. Very SF. This is probably what it would look like about now.