Burckhalter, David L., 1967

196 May 6 - Went out with Phil Shelton at 2 am to get Burckha Pad-footed Booby returns from the guy wires. We got into a 7-8' rubber raft and paddled around to all 21 of them. Phil paddled and I tried to net the boobies off the wires. That being unsuccessful, we just waded and grabbed ass. They fell on us, barfed on us, crapped on us, bit us, clawed us all night long. I should also mention that the damn raft was half full of water waist high when we quit at Sam. Results were 19 birds banded and 9 returns and one hell of a good laughing all time May 8-May 18 - See Typed notes - also includes notes by P.C. Shelton from 1 may to 8 may. May 19 - arrived Hono via C-124, flying wildass borear that it is 2200 May 23 - depart on Leewards cruise from Pearl at 1400. Smithsonian Party is composed of our hers, Bob DeTony, Bob Juxson, Chris Thompson, Benon Amerson, T. Heurs and Dennis Stadel who missed the boat and will meet us somewhere? 3 LTs are being used LT2081, LT 2086, and LT 2087. First we will stop off at French Frigate Shals to drop off Benore and TSL, then a short stop at Gardener Pinnacle, then to Midway. These trips aren't meant for such long trips, so it will be rough. I am on the 84 with D. Long - Captain is Jack Molton. Observations were begun at 1430 just off The Bear Harbor Breakwater. Today at sea commonly seen were Forty Serny, Wedge-tailed Shearwaters, Less commonly were Red T. Boobies, Common Noddies, Pomarine Jaegers and one Baird's Petrel.

23 May - as it turned out I got queasy only once and and fully adjusted to the toss and turn of the tug. If it gets real rough, I might just lose my lunch and a few other things. 24 May - not much excitement today - but a hell of alot a birds. Mostly these were seen: Sooty Tern, Wedge- tailed Shearwater, Fairy Tern, Bulwer's Petrel, a few of these were noted: Gray-back Tern, Pterodroma sp., Red-F Booby, Black F. Albatross, Common Mottle, Great Frigatebird, Christmas Island Shearwater, WRSF, Sooty Storm Petrel. I should note that we were initially having trouble identifying the Bulwer's Petrel - they were thought to be Sooty S.P., but are too large in size and lack fork-tails to be such. 34 feeding flocks were noted of ca. 200 birds, mostly of Wedgies and Super-Sooties. Occasionally a frigate would be overhead waiting to pirate. Over 95% of the Wedgies are Lt. phased. 25 May - Today we got French Frigate Shoals in sight at ca. 8:800 and at 10:00 put the 15 man raft over board to get rid of Bimon and TSL from 2081 and also to look around, since we are ahead of schedule. Upon cautiously traveling thru the reef and coral we came upon Tern Island to behold a throng of self-starved Coast Guardsmen welcome a plane which was landing at the same time - they ignored us. Anyway we dumped our goodies, pushed up a beer and took Stadel, our wayward sun self-starved short, into our fold. Birds on Frigate Shoals were: Laysan Albatross, RTTB, Fairy Terns which were nesting (ca. 50 pair RTTB, 100 pair Laysan A.). Now-waters were Fairy Terns, Kāhūa Finch (transplanted); these 2 were hopping around in the Cauparina Trees. Birds from the observations were: PFA Albatross, Laysan A,

25 May - Wedge-tail Shearwater, Sooty Tern, Fairy Tern, Common Tody, Great Frigate, Bulwer's Petrel, Red-footed Booby, Christmas Island Shearwater. Also we observed ca. 50 Pacific Bottlenosed Dolphin ca. 4 miles off FFS. The chief hauled in a BFA while Trawling - croy! 26 May - Gardner Pinnacles - at 0900 today we departed the LTs and jumped into the raft to scale the main and largest of the three pinnacles. Gardner P. are almost a day from the nearest land (French Frigate Shoals) and situated virtually like the desert island one sees in cartoons, yet with a different terrain, not sand and palm trees. The pinnacles are composed of lava with some large boulders and rock sprinkled throughout to give the appearance a cemented rock wall. From a distance it is a sight of two large rocks that don't belong. The larger appears like the hump and head of a camel, the smaller like a phallus protruding upward as the god El [illegible] in the City Nebor, a third, and insignificant rocks are also there. From a distance the peaks look dusty snow caps, not so, but guano. The perimeter of the rocks are covered with algal growth and crabs and a slime of bird origin that has trickled down the crags for centuries. Life on this cliff in the middle of the Pacific is of one major occupant, the bird, better said several species of sea birds. Other animals noted were deceased bottlefish and probably some other carrion types along with into parasites. Plant life noted: Portulaca in sparse amounts with algae and probably some fungi. Only a very brief survey was carried on; just to ascertain what was there and in what quantities and of what activities. We were there for ca. 2 to 2½ hours. Accounts and estimates are done with little time to survey. Speculation

would best define the report on this select group. Est. max. Height 190', size est. 1 acre in area. Species Account Laysan Albatross - one downy chick of ca. 90 days age. Fledgling-tailed Shearwater - four seen, one came from a burrow with no known eggs or chicks. One dead individual. Blue-faced Booby - 100+ nest site, with 2x as many adults attending them. Most of the boobies were found on top qual along the upper slope of the pinnacles. 60%-70% w/chicks, rest with eggs. Red-tailed Tropicbird - ca 20 nests - mostly with eggs - 1 known chick rested in crevices along upper slopes. Gray-backed Tern - ca 4000-5000 adults using the island, mostly now attending to chicks ~1000 nest sites - mostly spring of all stages - I did not notice many eggs - guess 100. Nested on slopes Sooty Tern - lot. less # than GBT - probably 1/2 as many - all stages chicks appeared to be large no. of egg and chick mortality. Common Tody - ca. 2000-3000 birds using island - nested on lower slopes - ca. 150 chicks White-capped Ploidy - ca 200 birds using islands - all stages resting - eggs to near fledglings ca. 50 Grey Tern - ~300 birds with eggs, young eggs to flying immatures - rested at cruggy peak at top of slopes. Blue-gray Tody - est 25 birds - 2 found with eggs. Great Frigate - ca. 50 birds flying around - some roosting Shorebirds seen - 1 RT, 2 WT A. Monk Seals - 5 swimming on rocks of The Jhallas" Sula leucogaster - Three adults and one chick

27 May - continuing on toward Pearl / Hermes Reef. Today at sea observation were made. Nothing unusual sighted. Mostly BFA, Layou, WTS, Sooty Terns, Bulwers - began to see Bonin Island Petrels for the first time of the trip. 28 May - at 0900 arrived near SE Island & Pearl and Hermes Reef. All 5 birdmen went ashore w/ sailor Coota driving the raft. We stayed, making a general survey until 1900, then we returned to the ship. All in all, I felt things were done in a rather half-ass manner, however, not as badly as on Gardner pennacle - perhaps because this has been my first island expedition and am green at it. Hopefully, the project of the past has not been carried on with people landing on islands, scratching their asses, looking around, and beginning to proceed with a survey in a seemingly ammethodibe manner. Though, I did not accomplish much, I did make a complete count of the BFA by walking around the perimeter and tallying the no. of chicks. Similarly I counted the shroulids. Otherwise, I tagged along after Stadel and picked up what I could about how to detect and knowing where and what to look for. Mainly, I had at the slightest idea of what was going on - I'm not too certain that anyone else did either. Back with Stadel, we took egg measurement of 50 Footes, 30 Chodlies, 30 B.D.Terns, measured the culmens of 75 BFA and 75 Layou Abattion chicks. Also took notes on C. Doddy nest material. I made a half-assed list of vegetation and attempted to learn their names. Returns taken BFB - 737-30195 AM 558-83519 AF ) w/chicks 737-30215 A ? RFB - 737-30240 AM >w/egg BB - 737-30108 AM w/mode 737-30289 AM " WEN - 652-42316 w/egg

May28 - cont. Layzand - I counted 350 ch. in a small column while taking and shoring boobies. On the whole it was a lousy event. The LA seen to nest inward on the island, few found on the shore line. Individuals in groups of 2 to 6 were seen going through the motions of pair formation and maintenance, but there were SA chicks since all eggs were hatched about 60 days ago. Found one clutch of 45 chicks alone inland. Black Foot A - Counted 1234 chicks by walking around the perimeter I consider it an accurate count. For a total estimate of BFA chicks on the island I would say 1500 since I did notice small branches inland that I didn't count. The BFA typically nest on the shore line or where vegetation begins. Wedge-tail - quite a few seen and numerous burrows, no known eggs. Xmas Soland Shearwater - Stadel saw one or an egg Brim Island Petrel - found only 2 chicks, about ready to fly - one in a burrow, other under Eragrostis. Sooty Storm Petrel - one skeleton found with feathers. Identified by Stadel - I saved the skeleton. Red T T Bird - numerous, though I did not make an estimate (about 50 pairs?) - most are eggs, few with some young chicks Boobies BFB - abundant along shore and inland - most had large downy chicks, though some had still eggs. (35 pairs) RFB - probably 20+ pairs on the island - past 5 chicks which had to be the oldest booby chicks on SE Island - had begun preening. - nested in Seacocks along shore first had one egg in nest. Bb - primarily nested inland - most numerous booby ca. 50 pairs? about 50% eggs, 17% chicks & all eggs

May 28 cost. G.D. Tern - most numerous bird on island next to albatross + Doty Tern - all stages of breeding. Many separate colonies Doty Tern - probably the latest nester on island in some places along with noddies. - never nests on perimeter of island. (included part of nests, beginning to hatchlings though higher % of eggs on perimeter.) Common Noddy - mostly eggs - say 15% or so. downy chicks most of the CN nests were of tubulus, feathers, bones, and some seaweed and other leafy material - located on edge of shoals and begin of vegetation WC Noddy - numerous in some sea-ovels bushes as they rooted in groups of 25-50 - found nesting in Eragrostes in some places where Jaysan finches were. Some have seen chicks - most eggs. Ca. only 1% of pop (ca 1500) were nesting Great Frigate - mostly nests on the island - found only a few roosting. ca 10% w/ chicks ca 90% s/eggs estimated Breeding population ca. 200 pairs Shore birds: Golden Plover - saw only! R. Turnstone - made a complete island count in the morning - 59 W. Tattler - counted 4 Brenton J. Curlew - saw only! Jaysan Finch - probably 50+ pairs on the island found inland around Eragrostes. Stadel and I located 7 nests one with 4 eggs, 3 eggs, 2 eggs; 3 w/ no eggs and 3 that appeared vacated. Midway May 29 - Midway arrival - Stayed for a day - messed around. Bought 12 tops at 2.50 ca. Went to the Officers club and snarfed up Votter Collins' at .25/ drink. Not bad. Birds on Midway were Jaysan, A. all over, Fairy terns in Casuarina trees W.C. Noddy, RTB - these were all I saw.

Roger, These are D. Buchhalter's notes from Leventi #19. E. Valory

D+H R May 30 - Returned to SE Island of Pearl & Hermes Reef at about 1600. First thing we did was to unload the raft and pitch the camp since we are staying for 2 nights. Afterwards a continuation of our previous survey was made. 2 new techniques were introduced to me by Gadel: #1 Egg flotation: one places egg in tin of H2O and note whether egg not the egg floats and how it floats. 10 Sooty tern hatchlings at ~28 days 1-5 days: egg on bottom, 5-15 mid, 15-25 egg rides high, if the egg tilts. The yolk is used up. This method of egg dating can enable one to gain an insight into sub-populations, when birds landed ---- #2 To take an estimate of a nest population: measure an area, then measure 30-50 distances between nests and figure out density and population. Sooty Returns (of interest: 903-08519), 2 RFB, 2 GF, / WC Nolly, found 8 albatross bands. One of the GFs had an orange streamer (737-37124). Of interest, I found 2 frigate nests with least Sooty Terns inside - food. Flushed 1 Laysan Seal from Seacurine. At night we bled birds and branded those bled. We accomplished 100 Laysan Albatross, 50 Great Frigate, 30+ Wedgetail. Got to bed at about 3am. May 31 - Inez and Thompson went back to the 2887 to spin the blood samples. Me and Stike and Bob and Dee jumped in the raft to survey the other islands. Due our eagerness to depart or whatever, no one brought food - so we didn't eat until 1700 that afternoon. Talk about hunger, I was ready to eat an Albatross raw or not! On each island or bar or patch of coral, a survey was made along with taking a few returns. Map - not to scale SE Island 1- Bud 2- bar 3- Bar 4- Bar Used 5 tally number indicates the 1st, 2nd

PHHR May 3) cont. - At each island stop, each man [sort of] had his own bird or birds or what not to survey. I counted BFB rests and, the status of chick or egg and took returns of convenience. Also I counted C. Hody rests/status and B.F. rests/status etc. Step #1 - Took total count of animals there: 8 Horned seals, 18 BFA chicks; 16A chicks; 3 BFB nests w/ one down clutch, nuc; 2E Step #2 - 2 BFB nests w/ 2E, 2M - 8 W.C. Noddies on bar Step #3. Grass Island - shore birds: R. Turnstone - 2, W. Tattler - 4, B.T. Curlew -1; BFB - only one nest w/M ; ca. 25 roosting in Noddy Bonin. B. Petrel - 2 chicks about ready to fledge, on board; complete count of C. Hody rests - 263, 25(4E), 12/S - at most likely nursed some nests - 00 300 would be an accurate estimate. On the periphery ca 150 roosting; Great Frigate - 54 nests w/ 30E, 16S, 8M - some were banded. Bob Tosh returns Step #4 Seal Island - Wedge burrows were numerous - burrows very 3 feet; BFB counted 40 nests w/ 34E, 45, 2M, 13L. Boobies and Seals nested on the peninsula or on the edge of the island, never do. They seem to be mixed with the albatross; BFB returns: Sal: 767-41996-ch., 767-41977-ch., 767-42310-ch., 737-26592-2E & 767-41973-ch, 767-42306 and 767-42308 pair w/1E, 737-26572-2E, 767-42000-E/4 Fairy Terns - saw 3 over island, came down to investigate see; W.C. Noddy on 200 roosting on shore of peninsula; BB Tern - ca 100 nests up to 1st day's chicks on peninsula; C. Hody - ca. 50 nests/up to 8m ch. on peninsula shore birds; (R. Turnstone) W. Tattler - 4, RTTB were present - 3 nests Step #5 BFB nests - 21 w/4E, 45, 6M, 11L BFB returns: 737-30367-ch., 737-30371-ch., 737-30361 and 767-41923-ch & 737-30366-ch, 737-30367 - on fish ball, no vegetation on this island - other birds LA, BFA, 7 Tern * Of general interest, I forgot to note that #1, #3, #4, #5 contained large no. of albatross (LA, BFA) ca >1000 per island except for #1 These islands had vegetation - 3, 4, 5 - others were barren with only fish balls and Gap. Whiskey Bottles.

June 1 - Last night we were to land 500 Wedgies - but such was an aborted idea since we were all so god-dammed tired. We all slept until 0700, having banded the same no. of birds - 2580 - big deal. After picking the coral from my eye and the Tribulus spines from my ass, drinking a beer and taking a piss, I jumped back in my smelly sleeping bags for a few more hours. Now that shakes overcome early morning paralysis, though post Buford remained unsatisfied, I barked a couple of elevations, slugged some Sorties, plucked a tropic bird tail feather and farted, and then proceeded to take 50 returns - got 70 - hard as hell to find. Later we loaded up the raft after taking down the tent and got back to the ship at 1230. Now we are on our way to Lianouski and 5 more days of basketball and bull shit - but I still am enjoying myself! Today we spend on returns and other goodies that require pen and ink and staying out of the sack. Oh, the sack is only second to the wild, naturouse-loving woman in it. Love on 16 June and Nore and the beach. June 2 - Arrived on Lianouski about 1000. Took a walk down the beach to take in what was going on and to see what was going on. When all puppies were on the beach, we pitched the tent and set up camp. - Then spent 5-6 hours circling the island to make a general survey. For the 1st half of the island. I traversed the mid section through mostly Searoela and Dragostis. After a short rest, I headed closest to the shore. This is the summation of my count: Layen G. - ca 1300 - taken mostly inland ±25% BF Albatross - ca 700 - all but ca .50 were from the beach ±25% W.T. Shearwater - ca 30,000, ca 15,000 burrows - This estimate was arrived at by courtesy. £5 Burrows per pair taken in my "arc". This figure that I arrived at was multiplied by 1 to get a breeding pop. estimate. Chustney Island Shearwater - Today I found 5 pairs, and 2 incl. above

June 2 - cont. - Borneoland Petrel - found 2 dead chicks Red-Tailed Tropicbird - found only nest w/ eggs and I estimated 115 in 100 nests for my area, though the figure should probably be higher. Great Frigatebird - I estimated 168 nests, (probably lower for my area) 602 eggs, 10% bro. 15% med 15% lar. - upon closer examination many of the birds believed nesting were probably roosting. Brown Booby - I found only 2 nests : 1 egg, 2 am. chicks Blue-faced Booby - I estimated 83 nests - 25% E, 25% bro. 15% med 35% lar. - none of these nests were found inland, but along the Nari Dad Fisted Booby - I counted 229 pets which contained about 50% E, 25% bro. 10% med 15% lar. Sitt. Tern - I found only one small colony (ca. 20d) in the area I covered though there are many, many more Sothern Frigatebirds. Gray B-Skin - I found only 5 colonies - est. 30d total nests Common Tern - as a speculative estimate for the area I covered : 12,000 W.C. Tern - ca 150 nests, ca 500 roosting birds for my area in years. Fairy Tern - commonly seen, though in small numbers ca 300 In my opinion, this survey was undertaken too short a time for accurate estimate. I received much criticism from Bob Dedong & Chris Thompson for the beastness of my memo book. I felt much was unjustified as I wrote my results & figures in my journal. I also noted that I could not understand their books which contained little data and little sense to use. I told them if they did not believe my figures that they should get drilled. Tonight we witnessed a Green Turtle laying eggs directly in front of camp. She never took all night. We bled ca 125 Blue-faced Boobies and 25 Red Foot

June 3 - It rained like hell last night and when we woke up the wind was blowing hard. Lt. Com. Alderson thought we should return to the ship so we did - picked up a raft that came undone from that 2086. The day was woolled as we caught up on lost sleep and farted off playing cards. Returned to the island after dinner and put the camp back in a "livable" condition. Later on we were set to land but it started raining again so we waited out the rain and took ca 75 BFB returns and founded ca 100. It was another thrill-packed day. Ho Ho! June 4 - Today each person was on his own. I made a nest study of the Red-footed Booby and of the Great Frigate, also took a few returns. Later on I went out with Stadel and began to take egg measurements. Of the nest study, I sampled 50 nests on each side of the island (RFB) and 54 taken at random for the Frigates. West Side: East Side Contents: Eggs - 25 Eggs - 14 - Naked - 11 Naked - 5 SDC - 9 SDC - 18 MDC - 6 MDC - 7 LDC - 0 LDC - 6 Height of nest - 1ft - 2 1ft - 5 Off ground 2 - 11 2 - 26 3 - 28 3 - 15 4 - 7 4 - 4 5 - 2 5 - 0 6 - 1 6 - 0 Nest materials used - Seroela - 50/50 50/50 Tribulus - 48/50 50/50 Wild Cucumber - 19/50 2/50

June 4 cont.- General information on nesting: KFB body nests have been as close as 1 to 2 feet from each other or as far as in distant and different Scaevola bushes. Usually nests were clumped in 3 to 4 per bush or group of closely growing ones. Actually there appears to be no actual dense nesting colony here, but many scattered single or groups of nests. Most nests were constructed of Scaevola and Tribulus, some having Wild Cucumber in them. In the general areas of nesting the only plants were Scaevola, Tribulus, Wild Cucumber, Fragrant, Berberis, and Sporobolus indicus - the latter 3 were not used in nest construction. The cucumber leaves were found only in nests close to these growths. The KFB nests were usually from 4" to 6" in depth and >1 ft. in width. On the top of the nest was further material, most indication that most of the sites were previously used - also old nest materials and guano deposited on the ground indicated this. All nests examined were constructed on Scaevola bushes where branches forked out to provide a level base for a foundation of Scaevola twigs. Upon the initial coarse layers of S. were found usually Tribulus and sometimes Wild Cucumber which added softness to the nest. S. leaves were often found on the top layer. Most of the nests were from 2-3 ft. off the ground as most bushes were of this height. I returned G. Crider from wit - one was fresh orange streamer #587-90406 on a fresh egg. Pugati nests = 54 were checked Height of nests 1 ft - 10 | 07 Scaev. - 57/54 Spor. ind. 1/50 2 - 20 | 5} cobony Trib. - 53/54 3 - 4 | 12) WC - 6/54 At night we went out to band Footy Ferns and Wedgies. I did 500 Sooties and 100 WTS before I got sick and barfed all over the place. During the day I had had only one meal, and that on top of 3 beers at the Navy Beach party. Some how I crawled back to the tent with Limerman.

June 4 out - Who also got sick, but did not get to sleep until about 3 am. due to my pathetic conditions, a wet, sandy sleeping bag and tons of flies. God damn, that night was one of the most miserable I've ever lived. June 5 - Things got better as the navy or DeFong or somebody decided that birdmen should eat just like anyone else (i.e. 3 meals/day and juice instead of ruskly bread and warm We get STEAKS and some juice !! In the morning we went out and banded 1570 Albatross - 60 and Armerman did 300 Layson, the rest of the day was spent finishing up survey, started earlier. I went back to the Tugs with Chris and Lux to get more juice and merely to take a shower since I smelled like a sweat boy. Whoo! That night I went out with Stadel to band bird returns Blue-footed Boobies. We banded 48 boobies and 83 returns - then helped the others band some Wedgies before turning in at 2 am. June 6 - Got up about 0900 and started to break camp - taking down tent, burying garbage and taking pictures. I closed 5 miserable, educational days on Laysan. Upon return to the Tugs, one of the rafts came afloat. Like an ass-hole, I jumped in after it with on our and swam out about 100 yds before I realized that the current was taking it faster than I could swim. I headed back to find DeFong behind me - gasping a little - we had to throw in a line to pull him out of the drive. Thank Odin and Zeus and the other jokers up there that no sharks were around. I'll never do an idiot stunt like that again. It may ruin my plans to beat Methuselah. Anyway, we are heading toward Layson and feather episodes in getting tired, parched by the sun, infested with frigate Nebulocid, bitten and chewed on by boobies, pedroced by flies, pooped on by boobies and scratched to death by Wedgies. Such is the life of a Birdman. We must live a tough, noisy life.

June 7 - Arrived at Layson Is. about 1000 and immediately set up camp. Afterwards we set out around the island which is ca. 7 miles in circumference to survey the birds. Needless to say this took the rest of the day. I tromped thru the Scavola just inside the sandy beach for my part of the count. My estimates are as follows for my area: Layson Albatross chicks - ca 4800; Black-foot chicks - ca 1400; Red-footed Booby - 70 nests, 29 of which contained 13 eggs, 10 SDC, 1 MDC, 5 naked chicks; Brown Booby - 3 nests - 2 of which had eggs, the other none; Blue-faced Booby - 18 nests - 8E, 7SDC, 5MDC, 2LDC, 1 naked; Great Frigatebird - 466 nests, 267 of which contained 100 eggs, 95 SDC, 4 MDC, 68 naked - ca 50 mou were vacant; PTTB numerous in Scavola - only checked 12, 17 eggs, 4SDC, 1MDC; The following birds were noted in great numbers, but an attempt was made to estimate their numbers - Wedge-tail Shearwater, Bonin Banded Petrel (near fledgling chicks), Christ mas Island Shearwater, White capped Noddy, Common Noddy, Gray-backed Tern, Sooty Tern, Fairy Tern. Bulwer's Petrel. The WTS have slightly vocally enlarged brood patches indicating that eggs are less though they haven't been found yet - their courtship is intense. Gray- backed Terns are flying already (young). Sooties in the N are later resters than in the S - one small colony has chicks - but many birds are still coming down to lay. At night we kept up the pace by each landing 1000 Sooties and 100 Wedgies. I decided to fast off Sooty return and see how fast I could brand. Beat everyone to bed by an hour. It took me less than 2 hours. Job for me. It's probably never get another chance to develop my skill. Josh 5 wedgie returns. Tomorrow we are going to play games with Albatross - band them. June 8 - Josh off with Timpson to play bands on 300 Layson chicks north. When we got done on the other side of the island we almost collapsed on the way back it was so god-damned hot.

June 8 cont. - In the afternoon we tried to work out in the tent under mosquitoes netting - but to no avail since the flies and heat were unbelievable - too miserable to work - so we went back to the tug. Upon return I grabbed my set and went out to take forty returns - got 119 on a Sand-Johnston bird from Sept 1962. At night we took it upon ourselves to bleed our quota of 200 birds per island. We walked down to the lagoon and got 25 BT Bobbies and then stumbled onto several large groups of roosting frigate- got about 125 of them, and then got 50 Wedgies. It was funny to watch the horny old males hop onto the females Wedgies who just bled (sapped of their strength) and bump away like frenzy. The poor old female was too tired to do anything. At 5 am we ended our marathon. We have not eaten the last 4 meals - strictly a liquid diet of juice. June 9- Slept long enough to get back to the ship just in time for dinner and slept the rest of the afternoon. At 1600 I went back to Laupau and took 142 returns, then went out with Stadel later on to land and take Blue-faced Bobby Returns down by the lagoon - Walking around it we banded 50 and took slightly more returns. At 0100 we found a Forty Storm Petrel in The Lagoon - drowned. Apparently, it was a young bird since we have noticed young Brown's Petrels in the same predicament. This offered the only "excitement" of the day other than an additional year afflicted to my wrist by a bobby. Went to bed about 0300. June 10- Today was similar to yesterday - went back to the tug to cut and escape the flies and take a shower to kill perhaps the first case of B.O. I've ever had. If you think I was bad, you should smell that rotten Thompson - whew! Since Bob is still hot for returns I largely got 80 before drinking dinner. Before dark Stadel and I went out to take cuben measurements of Laupau and Blackfoot clicks. Apparently he and some of the earlier birdmen worked out a correlation of age of click with

June 10 cont. - culmen growth on Kure Island. Steve says that according to the data they gathered in 1965? one can tell within ±4 days, the age of the chicks by having a statistical sample of culmen lengths (stat. sample = 30 at least). Our measurements were in mm. (from base to tip). Laysan chicks: 97.5 95.3 105.3 98.4 100.7 109.9 104.5 109.8 101.1 104.5 103.2 109.7 104.0 111.5 104.1 92.0 98.9 103.1 99.0 103.4 109.3 102.8 99.9 112.0 105.6 106.0 90.4 102.0 105.3 102.1 Black foot chicks 102.1 101.0 94.7 102.9 98.1 99.9 104.1 108.8 99.7 105.7 103.5 97.4 104.0 95.2 108.1 106.0 100.7 97.9 101.4 104.6 100.7 106.4 104.5 100.1 107.4 97.3 105.1 95.4 103.0 106.7 At night I set out along the shore to band Christmas Island Shearwaters with DeLong. The others took off to band Palau's Petrels. We also took egg floatations and noted brood patch condition. Christmas birds were small in number as only 46 were banded - all along the rugged shore, where we were the Palau's were extremely abundant, under rocks, on top of them - calling 'woof woof' etc. Bob and I witnessed a scene of territorial behavior over a nest site under a rock. Apparently 2 males (guers) were engaged in combat. They rolled around biting each other - subduing beaks in their fury. They even stood up on "tip toes", leaning against a rock like struggling cowboys, finally falling down. After 5 minutes or so of bullying and puffing and scratching and biting one bird took off and wandered about 3 ft away. The victor walked around that seemingly regaining his composure and went under his ready won home. I placed the loser under the victor's rock, but he immediately flew away. Then flew.

June 10 cont - Tuler on Stadel wandered over and we told dirty jokes for a while, then got back about 3am. I returned 4 Blue-footed Boobies. Stadel saw a Blue-gray noddy at the rocks. June 11 - In the morning I took off to shoot up 2 rolls of film. Got some good birds up the Layson trench and 1 The Laysan Duck. - also one of a BFB sitting on an old albatross egg. At noon we went back to the tiny for food and neck time. Upon return to Layson, I took off with Bob DeLong on a trip should also mention that around the circumference of the island - he surveying the skunkas or much seals, me trawling Christmas birds and counting shorebirds present island while selecting fishballs. I banded 27 on The N Shore Side taking egg floatations at the same time. Got one return 544-45624 (new band 544-52973). In the evening we all roset out to return footies. I could hardly crawl after walking around the island twice already (ca 15 miles). I was going to just the remaining 544 bands on Wedgies, but I heard Christmas Do. calling directly behind camp.- so I checked and found them to be quite numerous in The Scavella - in an hour I banded the remaining 27 needed to complete the string. Following is the date of 2 days taken from X-ear ID. - floatation, status, etc. which were banded: 544-52901 - brood patch complete bpc - brood patch compl. 2 - egg - light to moderate nbpc - " E - egg SDC - your doory clutch 5 - no brood patch m - mid incubation 6 - SDC pair w/#4 h - heavy 1 - light " 8 - E - pipped dbp - defeating 10 - E - m. 11 - nbpc 12 - E - fresh - rent 13 - nbpc 14 - E - pipped 15 - nbpc 16 - bpc 17 - E - fresh 18 - SDC 19 - nbpc 20 - bpc - pair w/#21

June 11 cont - Counting only shorebirds on the perimeter I got 57 Reddy Turnstones, 2 Wandering Tattlers, 5 Bristle-thighed Curlews, 0 Golden Plovers - I am certain that many times these numbers miss the island - inland one finds large nos. of Plovers and Curlews by the lagoon. Back to the night's work, 2 Tosh 106 Sooty returns and one Layman Duck (615-30552). Of the Sooty returns, Havae strange (793-82257, 943-17848, 943-1450) I was so damned physically tired not to being fogged out Tonight alone by falling in Wedge-tail Isles, I managed to find the beach, but turned the wrong way and stumbled along blindly before I found Stadel's light. He led my tired body back to the rock ca. 2 am. Sometime today my KV roommate got married June 12 - Jepson, so anxious as he was to head back to Hono, was up at 0600 - we packed like mad-men, screamed atrocities at each other and at the seals, and water and anything - gift stuff on tugs - To HONO AT 0900. ETA - 0900 15 June Now, I should briefly like to relate the most recent birdman dilemma: We got a message that one of our party was needed as a replacement on French Frigate - no one volunteered. Later it was recommended by Dr. Pyle that Chris Thompson go; he refused. Detong being the BIC turned to me as an alternate. He asked me if I would go if he ordered me to do so. I replied no, but that I would go if Pyle ordered so. A message was sent to Dr. Pyle stating that personnel refused to obey/go. Dr. Pyle's reply was an insistence upon Thompson going. He refused to do so because he felt that he had been "served" by the project enough and that he had leave coming. No one was dropped off at French Frigate Shoals. What fate awaits the birdmen who have tempered their firmness as steel? Will the axe fall? Actually, I think that we'll all get together with Dr. Pyle and have a party over a glass of beer or something. You know, when you get isolated from the world, tempers flare easily, and people become slightly insane. Come on Honolulu!!

LAY June 11 coul - Christmas Island Shearwater data 21 - bpc - pair w/#20 22 - bpc 23 - bpc 24 - bpc 25 - bpc - pair w/#26 26 - bpc - pair w/#25 27 - bpc 28 - bpc - pair w/#24 29 - bpc - pair w/#28 30 - E-h 31 - bpc - pair w/#32 32 - dbp pair w/#31 33 - E - m to h 34 - E - pipped }pair 35 - E - pipped }pair 36 - bpc 37 - bpc 38 - bpc 39 - bpc 40 - bpc 41 - E - fresh 42 - bpc 43 - bpc 44 - bpc 45 - nbp 46 - wb p 47 - E-h 48 - E-m 49 - SDC 50 - bpc 51 - SDC 52 - bpc 53 - E-m 54 - bpc 55 - bpc }pair 56 - dbp }pair 57 - dbp 58 - bpc 59 - SDC 60 - bpc - pair w/#61 61 - bpc - pair w/#60 62 - SDC 63 - SDC 64 - E-m }pair 65 - E-m }pair 66 - E pipped 67 - E-h 68 - SDC 69 - E-m 70 - SDC 71 - }paired 72 - }paired return 544-45624 73 - E-m 74 - bpc 75 - bpc 76 - dbp 77 - bpc 78 - E 79 - MDC 80 - bpc 81 - bpc 82 - bpc 83 - bpc }pair 84 - bpc }pair 85 - bpc 86 - E 87 - E }pair 88 - E }pair 89 - E 90 - bpc 91 - bpc 92 - bpc 93 - bpc 94 - SDC }pair 95 - SDC 96 - bpc 97 - bpc }pair 98 - bpc }pair 99 - bpc 100 nbp