A Typical Sunday

Today was a usual Sunday. I slept in a little, ran the 5k course that John mapped out, ate brunch, then took some pictures. Some of the albatrosses are pretty funny when I run by them. They snap their beaks at me as I run by and then think they did a good job protecting their egg since I ran off. Kind of like dogs barking at the mailman, except they don't run after me. After dinner I went bowling and now I think I'll just kick back and edit some pictures. So overall it was a nice relaxing day as usual on Midway.

This Laysan albatross found a pretty spot for a nest next to the hibiscus.

Yesterday the Chugach guys were shoring up the old seawall with cement that was too old to use for anything else.

Another Beautiful Day

The visitor group left last night. It went pretty well for the first time. They even bought some beer and drinks for the island residents as a thank you to have after they left. Thank you, and I hope that a few of you check my blog now besides Mary. Mary said she was reading my blog before she came out here, so it’s nice to get some feedback in person (I like the web comments too).
The pizzas came out on the plane and there were even some leftovers. We get pizza at brunch on Sundays but it’s not quite the same as Papa John’s and Pizza Hut.
Today was another beautiful day. I took a lot of pictures but most were birds flying and stuff so I’ll only post two for now and save some of the others for days that I can’t get out and take any.

Two Black-footed albatross are up on their tiptoes doing their dance.

Here’s another example of why we can’t have planes landing during the day. These are all albatrosses which have at least 6 ft wingspans.

News From Eastern Island

Today I heard that the short-tailed albatross on Eastern Island finally has a friend. Some pictures were taken and it looks like one of the birds that was on this island. At least that older bird finally gets to see another one of it's own species over there.

Other than the bird news it was fairly uneventful. I just sprayed some verbesina and did some computer work.

I heard that some pizzas were ordered and will be delivered on the plane tonight. I'll let you know tomorrow if we got to have a pizza party tonight.

One of the young short-tailed albatross is being harassed by a nearby black-foot so it's getting kind of mad. This isn't the bird that went over to Eastern island.

Here's a morning glory plant that I'm trying to identify. There are a couple of species that look very close to each other. I'm trying to find out if it is Ipomea indica. That species was native to Midway but was wiped out. We now have a few plants brought over from Laysan island and we are trying to get it re-established. I found this growing way back in the weeds so either it's the native Midway indica and we should save it or it's the invasive kind of morning glory that we need to spray. We'll see.

Beautiful Day

It was a very nice day today. Sunny, warm, and not too windy. It's good that it wasn't windy because we took the opportunity to get our flag unstuck from the flagpole. The flagpole is about 70 feet high and our lift only goes to about 60 ft. We tried yesterday and we thought we'd tip over in the 20 knot winds, today we got it down. This morning I also went out with the visitors (the education group) and cloned bunch grass with them. They went snorkeling this afternoon since it was the first nice day since they've been here and I think they all loved it.

Last night a visiting news columnist/bird counter (Susan Scott who writes for the Honolulu Star Bulletin) gave a talk on her sailboat travels to Palmyra and Tahiti. Palmyra is an atoll south of Hawaii and it looks a lot more tropical and rainy than here. There were a lot of great pictures.
After the talk, one of the teachers (Derek) brought a group outside and pointed out stars and constellations. I've forgotten a few over the years so I went out and did that too.

And I almost forgot, for those of you who wish you could work out here for a while, we are hiring a visitor services person who will take the visitors around on tours, snorkel trips and other projects. It's a 6 month temporary job. I'd think about putting in for it, but since I'm married now I think I'll spend some time with my wife and still take off in June. Here is a link to the job if anyone knows anyone who'd be interested. It would basically be showing other people all the things I've already shown and talked about on my blog. It's on usajobs.gov if the link doesn't work. http://jobsearch.usajobs.gov/getjob.asp?JobID=67071169&AVSDM=2008%2D01%2D09+10%3A47%3A09&Logo=0&q=tva-08-003&FedEmp=N&sort=rv&vw=d&brd=3876&ss=0&FedPub=Y&SUBMIT1.x=0&SUBMIT1.y=0

Here's a view of the FWS office across the parade field that I took from the lift about 30 ft up.

This is the area we've been spraying the last couple of days.

This albatross found a spot in the Doctor's cemetary for a nest.

Cool Day

Everyone has been telling me how warm it's been here for the last month. Since I've been here it's seemed pretty cool. Only in the 60's and 70's. After the below zero temps in MN, I was kind of hoping for 90's. Oh well, you take what you can get. At least it was nice and sunny most of the day.
I got back to spraying the verbesina today. It's coming back in as a carpet over many of the areas we did in the fall. We're getting rid of the seed bank at least.
There's a lot more albatrosses here than when I left. The juveniles have come to look for lifetime partners so there's a lot of dancing going on. Sometimes it takes them a few years to find a mate that's good enough for the next 60 years. The older albatrosses are a lot more tolerant of others now since they've found their good nesting spots, so there are a lot fewer fights.

These Black-footed albatross looked like they were in Antarctica yesterday with the sand blowing drifts over them.
Here's the crowded parade field now. Sorry for the dark picture. I'll get a better one when it's sunny.

Back to Work

Today at work it was too windy to do any spraying, so Greg and I just around the island in the golf cart to evaluate and prioritize our efforts. Most of the big verbesina has died, but it's sprouting everywhere and it will grow like crazy with all of this rain we're getting. It will be impossible to keep up with it, but we'll do what we can. That's why it's low stress around here, there's way too much to get done, so we do as much as we can, and feel good that we even made a dent.

I only saw one short-tailed albatross today on this island. It's young so it doesn't have the adult plumage yet like the one over on Eastern Island. It will lose its dark feathers on it's head and get gold ones instead. You can check out the adult on one of my earlier posts.

This white tern looked like it was almost dead because it was so tired from hanging on to the branch in the strong wind. Greg and I put some bark in front of it as a windbreak so I hope it will get some rest now.

This Laysan albatross is liking the windy day as it flies over Rusty Bucket.

6 More Months

I'm back to the warm weather. Thanks for all the messages and congratulations. Now I'm not planning on being off island until I leave in June.
It's been rainy here so far. That means the verbesina will be sprouting up like crazy soon.
We started our visitor program now and our first group of people came out yesterday. They are teachers and people in a position to educate others about Midway and the other Northwestern Hawaiian Islands. I think they're liking it so far.
We've got 2 short-tailed albatross on the island now. They are both juveniles and are dancing together, so that's a good sign. The one over on Eastern island is still there by itself.
Well I'll leave it there for now and give you a couple of pictures.

This was Minneapolis a couple of weeks ago.

This was Midway this afternoon.