Sunday, April 4, 2010

More internet trouble, so more pics this week

I didn't get a blog posted last week, as you probably noticed. Our computers are acting up again and it takes too long to upload photos. I finally got them all up so here you go.

The Kahana came back from its trip up to Midway. We loaded our recycling, trash, and a few other things going back to Honolulu. We also said goodbye to Greg, who was a great help with the invasive weeds for the last week. And Melinda also left. She's done satellite tagging her albatrosses for the season. Tern Island's population is now 6 and will be until the seal and turtle people get here in May.

The turtles are getting ready to dig nests. We are seeing a lot more on the beach these days. We've also seen a couple of pregnant seals, so we should be seeing some pups relatively soon.

Today, after our Easter egg hunt, we had a nice Easter dinner of fried spam (we're out of ham), naan (bread), Czech spinach, and pineapple casserole. It reminded me of my grad school potlucks when all the foreign students brought their country's random dishes. It was tasty, and we're all stuffed.

The NOAA seal crew's boat is being loaded onto the Kahana. The weather was windy, rough, and rainy. It kept things interesting.

We take two boats out when we go, so here is the other boat next to LaPerouse Pinnacle.
We had a picnic on Trig Island during our albatross chick count on the other islands. From right to left: Ruth, Dasha, Caitie, Sarah, Greg, Paula (Melinda is behind me taking other pictures). It was kind of a cloudy, but the wind was low, so it wasn't bad. We didn't get as sunburned as usual.

Here are the glass floats that we found so far this winter on the other islands within the atoll, with a pool ball and soft ball thrown in for scale.
This is another Laysan/Black-footed albatross hybrid. This one stays on East Island. We have one that likes to be on Tern. Hybrids don't seem to like each other though, they prefer one species over the other. They have a mixed species dance, so it's tough for them to get mates, although on Midway, I've seen them on nests. We don't know if it is their egg or not when we see that.

Humpback whale. This is as good as I could do with my little camera zoomed all the way, and zoomed some more on the computer. We passed by a couple on the way from East Island to LaPerouse Pinnacle.

This white tern chick couldn't figure out how to get this fish swallowed. It dropped it on the ground, so I gave it back, but head first, so it all worked out.

The Masked booby chicks are getting bigger than their parents.

Sarah gets to do the plot with the Tristram's storm petrels. They are finally old enough to band now. She just banded this little one and is about to put it back in its burrow.

This is a Grey-backed tern chick that was just hatched today. It's already walking around looking for a good hiding spot from the frigatebirds.

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