Image from the Biodiversity Heritage Library.
Contributed by Smithsonian Institution Archives.
| www.biodiversitylibrary.org
Transcription
all the gr. frigate nestlings. Then we moved on until we came to a stand
of dead Cordia around the W end of a 20' guano pile: there red-feet were
nesting in smaller numbers - 40 or so; also Hawaiian noddies had 16 eggs and
4 nesting which I banded. We saw three fiary terns in the area, so far the
only ones seen on the island.
We went on to the N beach crest, finding only occasional blue-faced nests.
Paul and I found three turtle skeletons and one newly-hatched corpse which had
been dead for a short time. Walked the long hot walk back to camp, seeing one
Baker bird, and collapsed for the afternoon. Later, toward sundown, we banded
500 lesser frigate nestlings in the colony near camp.
11 November
Went out at 1 AM again after blue-faced boobies. Paul, Dick and I worked
them until dawn. They were far more nervous than the birds on Birnie for
instance, and so it was slow progress. Fred, Doug and Bob worked red-footed
boobies in the Cordia, taking color notes. At dawn I walked back along the
beach crest looking for shearwaters but had no luck. We had all observed a
Christmas Island shearwater, a record for the island, the previous dusk and it
had flown directly toward the S rock area, as have the other shearwaters
(unidentified) that have been seen.
At 7:00 we left with the guided Tour for the other lesser frigate nestlings
near the N Messerschmidtia patch. Banded 500 of them and then did 500 greater
frigate nestlings in the nearby bushes. After finishing our bands Paul and I
started out in opposite directions with binoculars for a shore survey. We each
covered about 4 mi. of the 8 mi. circumference. This path, not covered by
Enderbury Tours, is about 2 1/2 mi. of broken coral rock and 5 1/2 mi. of sand
with rocks. An interesting difference in our counts was that I, on the S end,
counted 120 golden plovers while Paul on the N saw only 2, though there seemed
little difference in the respective natures of the coastline. I also saw 2
fairy terns, 28 bristle-thighed curlews, 148 Ruddy-turnstones, 23 wandering
tattlers, and one unidentified dark mottled brown bird with light eye stripe,
dark bill and legs, a light brown cap, and mid-way in size - between a plover
and a turnstone. No call heard and nothing marked about flight or walk.
Banded a red-tailed topicbird nestingling and a gray-backed tern nestingling and
the way back.
In the afternoon several boobies and frigates were collected; also gekkos
and skinks from the buildings and wall of our habitations, getting a good
series of both. After dark Paul and I had to catch 13 sooty terns to finish off
a string. This was harder than it sound as all the sooties are in the air in
between-breeding season's restlessness. Out of a flock of about five hundred
a diving crashing attack by us both yielded three birds, and it went like that
for the whole 13.
12 November
Up shortly after midnight again to band boobies, this time toward the N end.
We stopped at the lesser frigate colony to band adults; Dick and I left the
others there to work red-feet and Hawaiian noddies in the Cordia by the guano
pile until it became too light to catch anymore,
Packed up the gear and turned the shacks back over to the hermit crabs for
another three months. Ship's boat came in at 0800 and we left for the first
time with both boats almost dry.