Sharp-tailed Sandpiper Sunday

Sharp-tailed Sandpiper (Calidris acuminata), juvenile

What a spot in the ocean to look, and hope for, migrating Asian species. Here's one found this morning. It's been listed as a vagrant in the past on Tern I.

This "peep" breeds in northern Siberia and winters primarily in Australia, with smaller numbers in New Guinea and New Zealand.

Birdwatchers use an umbrella title of "Peeps" for small, extremely difficult to identify, birds that often are found in large numbers on mudflats, shorelines, and shallow standing waters locales. Sandpipers are generally included in this catagory.

This particular "peep" is quite distinguishable. Chestnut-colored cap, white "eyebrow" stripe, yellow legs.... not that these characteristics are brightly discernable to you guys from this photo.

In addition to their small size they are very active.

This spp. may even be smaller than an albatross egg.

Smaller than the grass, its a bit of a disappearing artist as well.

Very difficult to get a picture of. Great, bright binocular views.

An Asian species, this is the first time I have seen a Sharp-tailed Sandpiper.

No philosophy, musings, or additional commentary on life and the living. Just wanted to share an exciting new bird. The smallest bird on the island. Yes, we have many Ruddy Turnstones (Arenaria interpres) on this island. The "ruddies" now get to push someone around.

Well, some.....one.

-mwyork

Creedance Shearwater Revival

"In 1972 a crack commando unit was sent to prison by a military court for a crime they didn't commit. These men promptly escaped from a maximum security stockade to the Los Angeles underground. Today, still wanted by the government, they survive as soldiers of fortune. If you have a problem, if no one else can help, and if you can find them, maybe you can hire the A-Team."

crew geared up for Wedge-tailed Shearwater(Puffinus pacificus) chick banding

The Wedge-tailed Shearwater(WTSH), a bird of the tropical Pacific and Indian Oceans, nests in burrows on offshore islets, atolls, and barren headlands. It is a nocturnal species. This is the bird that has a somewhat cat or even human ghostly moan for a call. You hear these guys quite a bit in the evening. Though less now, since a number of them have dispersed as this particular breeding season is over.

WTSH, light morph, adults

From the first picture, notice the volleyball-type knee pads as well as the long sleeves and gloves.

First the knee pads. Lots of bending down to, and lying on, the ground. Remember, these guys are in burrows. Burrows are located all over, even under barracks, porches etc. Luckily, most are located away from man-made structure.

Regarding the long sleeves and gloves. These chicks will take healthy "nips" at you. Always been told that Northern Cardinals(Cardinalis cardinalis)are the worst when it comes to this. Not so. WTSH chick have a long hooked beak, and the twist back and forth.

WTSH chick, this is not our smartest tech, he decided to go all-John Rambo and hold the bird w/o gloves. Just for this photo op.

"I call the big one Bitey."- H. Simpson

Working the Wedge-tailed Shearwaters was a blast. Yesterday was only day one, we covered just the SW corner of Tern. This little island looks alot bigger from ground-level, burrow-to-burrow.

-mwyork

Send In the Clowns...

For those of you keeping score at home, the first of the albatrosses has arrived. Perhaps a little later than we thought. One employee had 21 October. This guy arrived early this morning, in fact at 12:01 am says a coworker who wasn't sleeping well.

So it's official. October 20. 12:01:22 A.M.

Meet BFAL H611


Black-footed Albatross(Diomedea nigripes)

The Family Diomedeidae, albatrosses, are the largest of the tubenoses(we've gone over a few of them) and seabirds. Noted for their mastery of gliding flight, in a stiff ocean breeze these birds can sail for hours with no perceptible movement of the wings. They rarely approach the shoreline and breed mainly on remote, isolated islands.

The Black-footed Albatross (D.nigripes) is the only all-dark albatross likely to be seen in the N. Pacific. This guy walks in a crouched, hunched over position, unlike others such as the Laysan Albatross(D.immutablis) that should arrive in a week or two.

The BFAL breed October-June in the HI Islands(NW CHAIN, Kaula), the Marshall Islands(Taongi), Johnston Atoll, and Torishima(Izu IS.) off Japan.

Tern Island gets around 6,000 BFAL's, that does not include chicks which I will sadly miss. Tern also expects 2,000 Laysan's.

Not a bad early morning eye-opener on this college football Saturday.

Go 'Bows
and um, sigh, Go Bears

Aloha, good morning from FFS atoll.


20 October 2007, sunrise and front deck of barracks

Good bye, Good luck, and Thank You

The last of a species has fledged.. Off to the open ocean, off of this island. The final Christmas Shearwater (Puffinus nativitatis)has successfully left Tern I.

This bird, a shearwater, digs burrows on remote islands like Wedge-tails, to raise their young.

The Christmas Shearwater's range only covers ocean, and islands north and south of the equator in the central Pacific Ocean.

I was saddened not to see it yesterday. To keep up with species phenology, I checked extensively. It has left the island. A wonderful success for that "kid." My sadness comes from the real possibility that I may never see this truly oceanic species again, from any vantage point. Most certain, I won't see it so closely.

This is why I came here, well in part, for spp. such as this.

Sadness tempered with joy that the last, and there weren't many(like the Wedge-tailed Shearwaters all over the island, nearing banding time), has successfully made it.

Good bye Puffinus nativitatis. Good luck, and thank you.

Four of a Kind

beats a Full House everytime



Honu, Hawaiian Green Sea Turtles, Chelonia mydas

I collected these guys this morning and sent them to their difficult watery task right after the picture was taken. The water was clear at about 0745 and each of these guys, after being flipped into the water, quickly came up to sneak a breath and down they went to paddle away. I certainly hope these guys will make it, when in reality odds are good none of them will. While snorkling, I do see larger green turtles gliding under the glass once in awhile. They had to start out at this stage.

Nearly all the green sea turtles that one would see around the main Hawaiian Islands are born in the remote French Frigate Shoals atoll(where Tern I. is), 500-800 miles away.

Anyhow, touched on the federally threatened Hawaiian population of the Green See Turtle awhile back under So You're Saying There's a Chance.

Still waiting for the several hundreds of Black-footed Albatross(Diomedea nigripes) and Laysan Albatross(D.immutabilis), that is several hundred of each species. I will help continue a mark-recapture program that's been on-going at Tern for awhile. Looking forward to it.

We are also on the lookout for Bonin Petrels(Pterodroma hypoleuca)and Tristram's(Sooty)Storm-Petrel's(Oceanodroma tristrami). These species also make there winter breeding grounds on the NW Chain.

Plenty of Mean Incubation Counts to go through. Just finished up one for the Red-Tailed Tropicbird (Phaeithon rubricauda). There are only 12 young left on the island. These guys have a tough time, it seems at this late stage, before flight. There have been several that have died, naturally it would seem. Great bird, though touch-and-go as a not yet flighted juvenile.

Red-Tailed Tropicbird (P.rubricauda), juvi, catch the breeze brah & go already


As always, aloha, and good evening....

as we blow out the flame.

The Sulidae Family, next door

Or all around me at the moment, at least concerning 2 members.

The Sulidae family contains the gannets and boobies. Sula species are large seabirds with long wings, wedge-shaped tailes and stout, conical bills.


Red-footed Boobies(Sula sula)coming in from sea as the sun goes down. RFBO's are quite numerous on Tern. They are the smallest of the Sula spp. of the Tropical Pacific.

Boobies plunge from the air to capture their prey. Boobies are frequent victims of frigatebird(Fregata spp)kleptoparasitism. Its not uncommon here to see a Great Frigatebird(Fregata minor) harass a booby, while flying, to where the bird drops its food and the frigatebird captures it for its own meal. Sometimes doing so before the fish hits the water. But often it will pluck it from the ocean surface.


Great Frigatebird, some people think and speak poorly of the frigatebirds, with terms such as "mean", "bullies". I really don't think our species has any room to judge another species. We received the bigger brain and opposable thumb, and look what we've done with it. I tend to see the frigatebird as opportunistic.

Some boobies are ground-nesters, the Red-footed's nest in trees and shrubs. RFBO's are a pantropical species. Only casually seen on Florida's Dry Tortugas and CA coast.
Other boobies have a more restricted range.

The largest booby is the Masked Booby(Sula dactylatra). There are a number of MABO's on Tern Island. These guys seem quite giant compared to the slighter Red-footed. While on the ground, if walking, they waddle around somewhat penguin like. Seabirds(sans the smallest guys, like Noddies) just don't take off like small songbirds. Therein lies the almost always blowing ocean wind. But even with a 15 knot wind, the MABO if hanging out on the ground which is very common, need alot of running room to get airbourne. It run kicking both legs at the same time.


Masked Booby

All of these guys are great, because rarely is one afforded some close association with seabirds. They are usually dots seen off of a boat, or the lucky blow-over to a coast after a storm. BUT these next two are quite cool. There is only one of each spp. that is ever seen on island. The first pretty much a resident among the MABO's in the colony, the second a fly-in/fly-out guy it seems. Two beautiful "needle's in a haystack...."

For along time the Masked Booby had a subspecies that was found in tropical Pacific waters off of South and Central America up to Baja California's in Mexico. But it has recently been split from the Masked Booby.

The Nazca Booby(Sula granti), pronounced "NASCAR" if you are from Boston. One immature landed on a ship off northern Baja California and rode to San Diego in 2001. There are some iffy records of Nazca Booby off southern and central CA. Nazca is similar to Masked in a plumages; there are some very subtle shape differences it seems. But now note the distinctively orange bill and more orange iris...


Nazca Booby

There is also a Brown Booby. A very handsome bird, very numerous out at La Perouse Pinnacle. I suppose they covet that high, cliff-like, vantage point. But one comes around to tern on occasion. I had seen it 3 times so far. I guess I've been here a month now. During my Entrapment Walk this morning I saw it for a 4th time. We had a brief, but satisfying photo shoot.


Brown Booby,left Red-footed Booby,right

So there is the illustrated lesson of some members of Family Sulidae. A great group of Aves, particularly the RFBO juveniles out here. They are extremely curious, and once they have the ability to fly they are alot of fun. I've had them hover, eye-level with me, while walking or riding a bike. One hung out for around 45 minutes on the backrest of the go-cart seat, while I was working some landscaping. It even rode with me for a little while. I took it slow, but he never got off. He seemed to briefly think about it, and had to regain some balance at first but he kept his perch. That was RFBO '2025. He's a good kid.

I actually get a 2-day weekend. We are taking Saturday off instead of Monday(Columbus Day, or Discoverer's Day, whatever they are now calling it). Could devote a whole essay regarding the topic of that holiday.

I hope everyone is well.

Go UH 'bows. #15 in the country.

Sigh, and go BU Bears too.


I have to go as well.

Peace.

In between time.

There has been a bit of a lull in the biology.




I still conduct my Black Noddy monitoring, will probably band a few this morning, as I hope some of the younger chicks survived the night. BLNO's nest above ground, but the young, if not covered by an adult at an unfortunate moment, can get blown off their nest. It's bad news when that happens. It's difficult to determine where this hopping little chick has come from. It's human nature to put it back up in one of the nest, but overall it lays unattended. Then due to exposure to the elements, not food, they tend to be dead following day.

Where there is much life, the yang of it is there is certainly some death.


Black Noddy(Anous minutus), very much alive adult nest to a weather station I check daily. They generally have two legs. This one probably does too.

We still conduct Median Incubation Counts for various species.

BUT, the upcoming two weeks we will be slammed with biology.

We have Wedge-tailed Shearwater chick banding coming up. There are thousands of
them.

Wedge-tailed Shearwater(Puffinus pacificus)young.

Will have to reach deep into some burrows to pull these guys out. Always fun with spp. that have the hook at the end of their upper mandible.

Another big event to add to the upcoming bio blitz will be the arrival of the Albatross'.

The first being the Black-FootedAlbatross(Phoebastria nigripes)
We actually have bets on their arrival date. My date is October 13th. The two people that are furthest from the arrival date have to make breakfast the following Sunday. Wish me luck.

They came in October 10, last year.

Again this is the Black-footed Albatross

The next flight that comes in will also bring in a big wig from the Seabird outfit of the USFWS(I think)home office in Portland, OR. He will give us a day's intensive training on all things to do with how to work with these birds. Should be some great info to go along with great experience.

Hey, also have a two-day weekend this week.

Oh, a few shorebirds make it to the island:

Ruddy Turnstone
Pacific Golden Plover
Sanderling
Wandering Tattler
Bristle-thighed Curlew

I've been meaning to talk about a couple of them. But I am running out of time. So a couple of pics:


Bristle-thighed Curlew(Numenius tahitiensis), this bird had been on the island since the first day I arrived. Interesting, that they have a winter molting of feathers that leaves them flightless. I don't believe he's reached that molt. We haven't seen him in a week or two.

The one Wandering Tattler(Heteroscelus incanus) still is arround.

The lone island's Sanderling(Calidris alba)

And LOTS of these guys:

Pacific Golden-Plover(Pluvialis dominica)

Gotta run.

Have a good morning.