No Pics this time

I'm in Shepherdstown, West Virginia for training right now, so no real blog. But in the mean time, if you want to see what's up on Tern Island, you can check out Mary Gibson's blog. She writes a lot more than I do, and she's got a new perspective on things so it will be a lot more interesting reading than my blog is. Go back and start reading at her oldest post (it's only once a week, like mine) for seeing what it's like to come out to these islands for the first time. It's good!

welcometoternmaryg.blogspot.com

Back in Honolulu

I wasn't sure that I was going to do a blog this week from Honolulu, but I've got the time. The plane made it on schedule, and I gave the island back over to Dave. We also got a maintenance volunteer named Jim and Josh who'll be a short term volunteer to work with Melinda on her albatross tagging work as well as other stuff. I'll be really busy this week picking up the supplies for the island. I sure don't miss the traffic when I'm out on Tern. I miss the birds already. The tropicbird chicks are starting to come out now, and the boobies and frigatebirds will hatch while I'm gone too. I guess they'll make it without me though.

It looks like I might be going back to Midway in May on my way back to Tern. There will be some boat rescue training there that would be good for me to have on Tern. At the moment I'm scheduled to fly out with the Coast Guard on one of their C-130's (you can see a picture of it on my Midway blog). Then I would take the NOAA ship "Oscar Elton Sette" back to Tern (you can see that one on my Midway blog too). I'm hoping it will work out because I'd really like to get back there for a couple of weeks and see everyone. I'll try to post some pictures from my trip to the Czech Republic in April. It may be a few weeks before I post again.

Here's the volunteer group that's still out taking care of Tern. Cindy, Jim, Mary, and Melinda. They just came back from counting all the frigate bird eggs on the island. Thanks guys (and gals).

Here was my parting view of Tern island from the plane.

This is where I stay while I'm in Honolulu. There are 5 other people here at the moment, 1 budget person here on detail from D.C. (Hi Kathy!), and 4 new people for Laysan Island. A couple new Tern volunteers will be showing up this week also so the 7 beds in here will be full.

Bunkhouse living room.

Bunkhouse yard. There's a very busy street just past the fence.

The garage is getting full of supplies for both Laysan and Tern. The Kahana will be taking everyone in a couple of weeks.

Last Week

The plane was a few days late, but Jim, Cindy, and Mary made it out here. And Brie, Kelli, Kevin, and Sarah all made it back, and Melinda is still here. These 3 are a lot busier since they have to learn all the ropes and jump into things at full speed, but it will settle down a little on Thursday when 3 more people come. I'll be going back to Honolulu, but they'll still be +2 on the help.

I haven't got to do anything fun with this group yet either. The weather has been overcast and really windy. They'll get their chance though (I hope).

I'll be doing some training in West Virginia, then going back to Cleveland for a week and a half. Then my wife (Dasha) and I will be visiting her family in the Czech Republic for a couple weeks. I'll be back here in May. I'm not sure what dates yet, but I'll try to do an update when I get back from CZ.

Here's an out of focus black noddy. I almost deleted it, but decided it looked cool enough to keep.

I got a couple more pictures of the barracks. Here's the common room where we watch our TV series and movies. Right now we're doing the 3 seasons of "Arrested Development".

Here's one of the unoccupied bedrooms. It's got a great ocean view, but that's too hard to get a good exposure. Nothing fancy, but it works. People usually find some sort of decorations out on the beach.

Here's a the baby red-footed booby that I showed you last week. Now it's about 3 1/2 weeks old. It's on the ground because it's nest disintegrated. I hope the parents keep feeding it.

Here's Mary. She'll be leaving the day I come back to the island. I was showing her how to catch and band tropicbirds under the warehouse building. She's obviously enjoying it so far.