R. E. Grason Journal - SIC 14 1966 53 14 July Howland Is. to 1.56 N; 177-15 W Changed part of the crew at early morning on Howland. Retained Chandler to run bird + myself on today, grid run. Replaced Hoff and Huber with Pearson and Balcomb. Bonding and streaming still going very slow. The crew pulled 25 Red-faced Booby, blood samples off. Roger is mistuned in his many programs on the island and should come up with some good, much needed data. Saw my first Blue-streamered Sooty Tern this morning about 10 miles NW Howland. In the bright morning sunlight it showed up very well. Real great to see some of these terns quickly, and know where they are from. The next year should produce good results from the efforts of this cruise: Another Blue-streamered Sooty Tern and one Blue-faced Booby seen today. Couple of unmarked Sooties collected. Total 3 867 birds, mostly Sooty Terns 728. Floors were plentiful up to 1000, then dropped off drastically for the rest of the day. Night watches held - Total 3 760 birds - 175-57. Practically all noted upon approach to Howland from 0330 - dawn. Howland 0.48 N; 176-4 W - 1.45 N; 176-10 W 15 July Bird numbers only moderately abundant today. Balcomb ran the island. I remained on the island. Ran around measuring up Booby & Frigate nests + eggs for Roger all morning. During the night I was completely beat, couldn't hardly do any work. Then the rains hit about 0200 a.m. and I quit and took the crew back to camp. Everyone cached out, but Chen went out later by himself, banded + streamed a couple hundred Sooty Terns and collected 25 ST blood samples. Good man, this Chandler. Went backs on the shear water at daylight. Kennedy crew on the shear water had flocks up W till 1527 (ca. 60 miles out). R. E. Grason Journal - SIC 14 1966 54 16 July Run the Eastern leg of the grid today with Chen, Roger, + Pearson. Total 3 357 birds. Florence out at about 1400. No Blue Streamer sightings, but this I believe mainly due to very bad light in the morning as we traveled E into the sun. Collected 4 ST and 1 RPTB. The crew got 2 deads SP yesterday (one which flew aboard ship at night). One came aboard tonight about 2020 and was brought from the bridge by Louis Hahn. A few weird Phaethon types spotted today, appear to be Bonin Tern but have a very dark head (all about face + side of head). Night watches very slow until early in morning (ca. 0330) when we were about 20 miles out from Howland. Chandler collected 70 Sooty Terns, 1 Jack and 1 Juan Fernandez Petrel. 4 of the Sooties were banded, 1 of them, Blue-streamered. All from Howland, but old banding. Howland 0.48 N; 176-38 W - 0.12 N - 175-38 W 17 July Balcomb took the Cruise out today. But one Sooty Tern and 1 Blue-faced Booby with Blue streamers. Weather starting bad, heavy minds at night. Total birds 623. Mostly few, but distributed quite evenly through- out the entire leg. Howland 0.48 N; 176-40 W - 0.045 N; 178-05 W 18 July Took the long SW leg today. Very few birds (296). Only a few small Flocks seen throughout this day. 04 Blue-streamed Blue-faced Booby seen. Weather very bad - heavy swirls and rough seas (make for bad observations as well as little chance for collecting). Night Observation were a miracle with only 9 birds, nighted the entire 24 hr. period.