"Jackson, C.D. 1965 March 13 Journal Cook Island Christmas Island There are Sooty Terns in the interior on the south end of Cook - we did them - but apparently they aren't nesting. Whether or not they are nesting doesn't much matter because of the moonlight. Since the moon will be up for all but about 1 hour tonight, the sooties will be virtually impossible to band. Later this evening we hope to be able to get enough for 2-50 blood samples and possibly a few more to band. Tonight we'll just fresh around all over the island checking anything we happen to run across. There are lots of odds and ends on this island that we've never had time (or bothered) to band so tonight we'll work them in as well as possible. We had intended to do some diving in the lagoon off of Cook Island for 3 months but won't due to the strong winds. A steady 20-30mph wind has created 1 foot waves and has churned the water too much for good visibility. The entire lagoon, on this side of the atoll, is very murky at the present time. At 3pm Ralph and I headed south to band Red-tailed Tropicbirds and any shearwaters and petrels we could capture while Huber went north. A total of 10 Tropicbirds were found. Hawaiian Noddy Terns are rebuilding their nest, a few already have eggs and 3-4 small chicks were found. A few recently fledged Common Noddys are scattered here and there on the island. About 200 Sooty Tern nestings were working about in the actual underbrush on the south end and of these projects were all injured and on the verge of destruction - the leftovers from the last breeding colony. There are about 14 extra Tern nestlings on the north beach.