Another Beautiful Week

I try not to title my blog entries "Another Beautiful Week" every time, even though it is, but it works when I don't feel creative enough to think of something better.
We're losing a few more people this coming week. The monk seal crew is about done with their seal monitoring this summer. Shawn and Darren are going to be leaving as well as Pablo. That will bring us down to 7 people. The bird work is slowing down a bit since the last of the albatrosses are now gone from the island and most of the summer nesting for the other species is dwindling too. The only birds that are early in their season are the wedge-tailed shearwaters and that will keep us busy when those 700 or so chicks need banding.
The wind is finally starting to drop a little bit. It's been 15-20 mph for most of the summer. It keeps it a little cooler, but the chicks in the bushes have a harder time staying in their nests and get blown out fairly frequently. If we can find the nest, we will put them back, but that's not as easy as it sounds. If they get put in the wrong nest, they'll get pushed out and if they stay on the ground, they'll die, but we try.

One of the last remaining Laysan Albatross chicks. This one had a pretty good hairdo (I know it's not really hair!) As of today, there aren't any left on the island.

Here's a white tern chick up on the roof of the barracks.

An adult white tern on the basketball hoop at the boathouse.

This is an elegant coris and a goatfish under some coral.

A bluestriped and a threadfin butterflyfish swam by during my last snorkel.