Johnston, D. W. 1964 17 18 Apr Wake Island Spent most of the morning getting nets, poles, etc., ready, but when we tried to string th nets over the brackish water pond, it was impossible. The wind was just too strong. Immediately thereafter we gave out of gas and had to walk back. I walked back at the edge of end across part of the sand flats at the end of the lagoon. In so doing I saw no more than 10 Golden Plovers, 3 Tattlers, and 4 Turnstones. That is, until I noticed at 3 p.m. ¼ mi. away a flock of 16 Golden Plovers rise from the sand flats and fly straight out of sight over the NNW corner of the lagoon. They did not circle but simply gained altitude straightway and disappeared from my view. It seems quite likely that they were beginning their long over- seas migratory flight. About ½ later I found a flock of some 44 birds standing and sitting quietly on an "island" of Sesuvium out on the flats. It may be anthropomorphic to state that they appeared to be resting--they weren't feeding or even walking around as single plovers were doing out on these flats or along the airstrip. When I flushed these birds, they broke into two smaller flocks and simply flew farther out on the sand flat where they settled down again. This group contained birds in several degrees of breeding plumage--all the way from "winter" type to full breeding type. Just before dark we went out to band terns on Flipper Point. To our surprise a large group of sooties had come across the "dry" inlet (separating Flipper Point from Peale Is.) over on Peale. They had already started laying fresh eggs on the coral sand between the grass clumps and between the Tournefortia trees. These birds were most unstable, however, probably because of the fresh eggs and couldn't be