One More Day on Midway

Only 1 day left before I'm outta here. It has been a very quick 6 months. I was browsing through my pictures and I really have seen a lot of good stuff here. It was sunny today but cool, and after work a few of us decided to go jump off of cargo pier. By the time we got there it was cloudy and breezy, but we swam a little anyway. The water is definitely getting colder. It feels like it's high 60's, but it's still warmer than a lot of places I've been swimming.

Tonight we are supposed to have another medevac flight. Another Japanese fisherman needs help. The Coast Guard will fly their C-130 out to pick him up. That will probably be about 1 a.m. and I have to help out on the boat when we go out of the atoll to pick him up, so I'll be tired tomorrow. I'll try to get a little sleep on the plane to Hawaii. We'll probably get to Honolulu around 3 a.m.

Since my girlfriend (Dasha) is coming to meet me in Hawaii for a week, we decided that that's as good a place as any to get married. So we'll do that on the beach on Wed. We will visit the families for Christmas and that will be enough of a reception I think.

Anyway, I might not have time to post anything tomorrow before I leave so if not, check back in early Jan. when I get back to Midway.

This white-fronted goose lives over on Eastern Island. It's trying to get fat enough to make it back to wherever it belongs. The ducks don't seem to mind it too much.

These ruddy turnstones are sitting on one of the fuel pipes that runs out on the fuel pier.

Thai King

I didn't make it to post last night. There was a celebration for the King of Thailand's birthday. It's a national holiday in Thailand. There are so many Thai guys working for our contractor Chugach, that everyone there took the day off. The band played and it was a nice party.

Today we went over to Eastern Island. The short-tailed albatross wasn't there today. It might be flying around somewhere looking for some food. We didn't get the calling station working today, so John will have to get that going when he gets back.

Here was the set-up for the Thai King's birthday at the All Hands Club.

It was another gray day today, but the water is still a nice color.

B-MOVIE PSA!

Thanks to my main man Dumpster Diver in the BMFV Forums, I got to see this cool fan-made "B-MOVIE PSA Announcement." Check it out below.



All your faves are here including "Troll 2," "Bad Taste," "Q: The Winged Serpent," "Plan 9 From Outer Space," and more!

And for good measure, here's another cool montage of b-movie clips set to "I Will Survive."



Enjoy b-movie fans!

Winter is Here

So now I see what a winter day is like on Midway. The we have a nice NE wind at about 40 MPH, the temperature is in the low 60's, and it's been cloudy all day. A few ironwood trees have blown over and killed a lot of albatross (plural is either albatross or albatrosses). There are 3 big trees that have fallen just between the office and the Clipper House. I found one tree that had just fallen and freed a couple birds from the branches. I also had to move a couple of eggs because the bird couldn't squeeze back under the branch to sit on their eggs. I'm just glad huge tree in my yard fell down last year because otherwise I would be worried.

Today was another inside day of data and organizing.

Noddies and boobies on a dead tree. I obviously didn't take this picture today. I doubt if there are any birds on this tree today.

Cloudy Sunday

It's another gray day on Midway. It's cool today also. There hasn't been a lot of good photo opportunities without the sun, but I still took a couple today. I've only got 5 days left until I leave for 3 weeks. Dec 7th was my original exit date so I'm leaving then and coming back the first week of Jan. So after Friday, I won't be putting anything up until then. I hope you all don't forget about me. I'll keep posting until then though.


The albatrosses make their nests out of whatever they can reach from their egg. If they are on sand or gravel, that's all they get. We like the ones that live in the verbesina and pull it out for us. I wish they would walk around and do that.

New Albatross News

Remember when I wrote about satellite tagging the albatross a few months ago? They're still getting data from 2 birds, so it's worth checking out where they've been. I'm sure they've put on more miles than many of you.

http://www.topp.org/species/black_footed_albatross

There is also a good albatross article in National Geographic magazine this month. It's very well written and you get details about what it's like that I sometimes don't give you.

http://magma.nationalgeographic.com/ngm/2007-12/albatross/safina-text.html

We spent the day today marking nests and banding birds. I think the majority of birds have nested so it will take a little less time each week. I'll show you a picture of one of the birds we tagged. I don't know if it's one that's still transmitting or not.

These birds are nesting in the parade field.

More Birds

The birds have been laying eggs like crazy lately. In one of our Laysan albatross plots, we had 9 nests last Friday and today we had 56. We still have about 15 more to mark in there tomorrow. So we're keeping busy, but between the birds and the computer work we've been falling a little behind on the weeds, but like I said, they are growing slower this time of year.

The plane was full tonight. The new volunteers are here and I've got my new roommate. They'll all be working mostly with the birds for the next few weeks so Greg and I should be able to make some weed headway.

Here's a good example of why we need to get rid of the verbesina. We mowed this area and sprayed it once to keep the sprouts down. We had to stop here because there were baby ducks in the vicinity and we had to give them a lot of space.

A Black-footed and Laysan albatross are sitting next to a memorial for the Japanese military men who died near Midway in WWII. I heard there was some controversy about honoring the enemy, but it got put up and it's small, out of the way, and only written in Japanese.