Hachiman, C.D. 1967 Field Notes March 21 Southeast Is., Pearl + Hermes Reef Arrived off the atoll at 6:50 am and piddled around looking boats, etc., etc. for quite a while. Finally got into the isled by whaleboat around 9 am. + had camp pitched by 9:45 am. Spent until noon banding + releasing Taylor Teal and Lawson Finch here on Southeast. The first two ducks released took off and headed straight out to sea - out of sight. We may clipped the net of the linds that were released. None of the other finches made any attempt to leave the island. Of the Taylor Finches, male were color banded red and female, color - banded blue. The weather looked threatening all day and was quite cool (about 64° with a stiff breeze) and we all froze toward evening. Built a nice cozy bonfire and sat around it while eating lobsters, cooked in butts and chili and beans. It was a delicious dinner with the lobsters courtesy of John + Dick who did some diving this afternoon and managed to capture about five big lobsters. Around 12:30 p.m. there, Ernie + I went around the isled to tag seals + turtles. This took us about 3 hours because we get side-tracked + spent some time poking around on the reef. Ernie caught an octopus, that was right on the shoreline, after a lot of pulling and tugging and took it back to camp for lunch. I spent about 1 hour beating open a coral head from which I obtained about 7 different types of crabs - all quite small. Around 3:30 we returned to camp. Here and I spent about 2 ½ hours pulling up mustard weed quite to see how much work would be involved in pulling all the plants on the island up. We pulled up an awful lot of mustard but hardly made a dent in the overall area. Gene said the military brought it here on one of their frequent visits. It appears that the mustard is rapidly spreading and that certain plants (Berberis + Tribulus) cannot compete very well with it. Most plants are in full bloom at the present time. After dark Dick + I went around the island checking birds for bands. Didn't have much luck with any of them, then three staged Black-footed Albatross. Every thing else left while we were still quite a distance away. Can with an overcast sky it is much too hard to effectively capturing most of these birds. We went around the island in time + didn't manage to capture much of anything. Hachiman, C.D. 1967 Field Notes Southeast Is., Pearl + Hermes Reef March 21 It sprinkled several times while we were going around the island. It looks very much so if we're going to be rained upon before we get off of this isled - if not tonight then tomorrow. At the present time (11:45 pm) it is sprinkling lightly again and the air for the feel of rain. The sky is extremely dark to the north and the wind in second brisk. I gave up on the birds around 11 p.m. She quit around 10 p.m. + went back to camp while I chased around the island again to no avail. Everything on this island is sparing for some reason or other. Couldn't get within 100 feet of most they bailed. Modely a White-capped Noddy + only managed to capture 2 Blue-faced boobies out of about 17 tried for. Southeast, P+H Reef March 22 It went down to about 60° last night and everyone froze. No one wanted to get up because it was so chilly outside. A couple of those seals finally got up and built a big bonfire in front by the tent and then the rest of us came out. It looked + felt like rain (which we could see off in the distance in several directions) so we stayed around camp doing little odds + ends. Around 9 am I was out counting nest + measuring a few eggs when here called and asked me to go along with him to Gene, Seal + Kettley Islands to help tag seals + turtles. We left camp at 9:15 and arrived at Glass around 10:00 am. There we worked Kitty and Seal Islands before returning to camp around 4 p.m. On the way back we stopped at several seal spots to count seals + turtles. Tried a new tagging system today. It seems I'm too light to hold my end of the tow pole down when tagging the subshell seal so Hank did this (along with Ernie) and I held the tag on the flying. The day before (1 or 2 amish) I had held several seals lift me up + come and under my side of the tape ... my weight didn't seem to slow the seals up one bit. Today with the two heavy weights working the tape there were no problems. The evening before we had lobsters (off the reef) fried in butter for dinner along with some fresh-day chili and beans