Deputy Secretary

For such a small place, it sure seems like something is always going on here. The Deputy Secretary of the Interior, Lynn Scarlett, was here last week for a few days. She and the Monument Management Board came out. What's a MMB? (I'm having to learn a whole new alphabet soup with the FWS!) The Monument is run by the FWS, the state of Hawaii and NOAA. They just completed a Draft Monument Management Plan for the new Monument. Did it in less than a year; it normally takes two or more. I read the Concept Plan for Midway and hope I live long enough to see half of it completed. It's a great plan, but, it's going to take millions to complete, mainly because of logistics and decay in structures. The Visitor Center exhibits I'm working on will only be temporary, the permanent VC will be in the Midway Mall. The plan is to re-use as many structures as possible or build new on existing concrete pads. Why? To avoid impacting potential wildlife habitat. Great idea!

We took Lynn over to Eastern and toured around. She also planted some Erigrostis, the native bunchgrass. Found a Wedge-Tail Shearwater trapped in the one small building on Eastern. John got it out and let it go. Kinda sat there dazed for a couple of minutes, then flew off.

She also found the first Christmas Shearwater we've seen this year. Tough to get a picture 'cause it's hiding out, nesting.

And, of course, the male Frigates were doing their thing. Amazing what a guy will do to get laid...

Saw the Spinner Dolphins on the way back and finally got a picture or two of something other than blue water. I'll keep trying for somthing better. We have over two hundred who hang out in the lagoon during the day and go out to open water to feed at night. They love to ride the boat's wake, and get bored quickly if you stop and just sit there.

Got a little rain yesterday and saw this Laysan chick and adult getting a drink from the water running off our roof.

Went for a walk yesterday after the rain quit and saw that a lot of Tropicbirds are on eggs right now. Some have already had chicks. Check this one out; it's gotta be several weeks old!

Getting late and tomorrow is Monday and back to work. Be well, everyone.

Murray

Marine Debris

John sent me a comment a while back about marine debris out here. He'd seen the BBC spots that were broadcast from here. These BBC guys came in on the same flight I did and were great guys. They broadcast thre different spots that were seen by an estimated 90 million viewers. Unfortunately, I was still in my "I don't know anything about this place" phase and didn't get to do much with them. But, basically, the problem is that a HUGE amount of debris ends up in the ocean, causing a lot of fatalities with wildlife and then much of it ends up washing up on reefs and beaches. Nets, floats, lighters ropes, bottles, cans; you name it, it shows up. Rope and nets are especially a problem as they often entangle and kill wildlife. At one time, a lot of stuff was just tossed over the side of ships, but, with stricter laws and more awareness that problem seems to have decreased. A lot of the stuff seems to wash into the ocean from the land. Think about it. That dead lighter laying on the street could end up washing onto the beach at Midway! The reason I mention lighters is because the damn things are ALL OVER out here. The BBC guys picked up something like 40 in about 20 minutes. The amount of stuff out there is truly amazing and hard to imagine. You have to see it to believe it.

There are piles in many places on the atoll. We hold cleanups and gather it off the beaches and out of the water, but, then what? Some is burnable, but not all. Brent, one our volunteers, is making a hammock out of some of the fishnet. Cindy, a volunteer who also is an officer with the Friends of Midway, makes necklaces out of little floats. Winia, one of the Thais, does some amazing etchings on Japanese glass floats. Maybe we should start a little cottage industry "Midway Arts and Crafts."

Yesterday, I was asked to go fill a box with a representative sample of debris. Y'all know me, I always have to know "why". Evidently it's being shipped to Japan to be burned. The idea is to see if it can safely be burned and used as an energy source. Hmmm.....it would certainly help with our problem of disposal, but, I think you'd have to have some really good scrubbers installed to take care of the toxins.

Another problem with the plastics is that the albatrosses eat the stuff. The way they feed is to hang out on the ocean's surface and just grab what comes by. Mainly they are after squid, but they often end up with floating pieces of plastic. I've found countless bird skeletons or near skelotons, full of plastic. One had a piece of plastic pipe six inches long in it. The estimate is that nearly 10,000 pounds of plastic comes onto the island each year from adults regurgitating it into their chicks.

Plastic is a great material and has lots of great uses. But, do me a favor. Don't use it unless you have to...

Later,

Murray

Pacific Grace

The ship that came in was beautiful. An all wood sailing ship. They were on the second to last leg of an a year round trip. The organization is called S.A.L.T.S and they teach kids sailing and life skills. Kids (OK, young adults - most everyone seems like a kid to me these days) can go on one or more legs and they go to some amazing places like Fiji, Tahiti, New Guinea, the Cook Islands, China and Japan. They ran into bad weather and were getting low on some supplies, so asked for permission to come to Midway. Frankly, there was some concern about them being a wild bunch since they'd been at sea for 24 or 25 days, but, they were great. Took 'em on a hike around the island and took a while for some to get their "land legs" again. Had some good volleyball games and the last night, they showed us a brief slide show of all the places the ship had been in the last year.

They gave us a tour of the ship one night. I won't be signing up for a trip soon. Don't get me wrong, it would be a blast, but, the quarters are REALLY tight. Check the picture. That is THREE bunks! Way too much togetherness for me.

The table in the galley has a weight underneath so it stays in place as the ship rocks. I saw a short video showing the seats swaying with the motion of the boat, but the table never moved. What a great idea!

They were only here for about 48 hours and then off to Honolulu. I wish them well.
Later,

Murray

A Few More Signs

With no visitors here, I'm now starting to work on other projects. For you Parkies out there, the concept of no visitors must seem like a strange thing. Still does to me too. Since Diane was asking, here's the scoop. This program is so new that about the only people coming out are with one organization called the Oceanic Society. I must say I'm impressed with them. They don't just take folks on tours, they get them involved in preservation efforts. The way it stands right now, we don't have have the capability of getting individual travellers out here. There is no regular air service, so we charter a prop plane (don't want to get an albatross sucked into your jet engine) a few times a month. We can't really "sell" seats on the plane, so how do folks get here? That's one of the many tasks I have while I'm here. I'm looking at different models of how to get individual folks out here. SOMEONE has to charter the flight and sell the tickets. If anyone has any ideas let me know.

Our folks, so far, have been great. They fly in at night, when the birds are less active, we put them in golf carts (our version of a Limo) and take them to the hotel (Charlie Barracks) for the night. Next morning they all come over to the FWS office for a mandatory orientation where they hear about history, endangered species, resource concerns, closed areas (there's a lot) distance you have to stay away from the endangerd species (15o feet, and it's hard to estimate, I missed it by 25 feet) and how to dig out petrel burrows if you accidently cave one in. Later we do a history tour. Over the rest of the week they go snorkeling a few times, do lots of birdwatching, go to a few evening programs and just generally soak it in. Most folks like to volunteer to help do habitat rehab. So far, they've been helping us clone and out-plant Erigrostis, the local native bunchgrass. The invasives are horrible here (Verbesina, in the Sunflower Family) and if you don't put something in after pulling it or spraying it, it fills right back in. Sounds a lot like my yard. Oh, and they eat. The Clipper House is the only place to eat and is a social hub.

So, over the next couple of weeks, I need to learn Midway cultural history (Pacific Cable Company, Pan Am Clipper ships, WWII, Cold War, FWS), natural history (plants, animals, fish, endangerd species, life cycles, etc.), put together some programs, figure out how to get rid of mold and mildew in a bunch of exhibits (thanks to Vickie and Eric for the tips), move those exhibits (hopefully in one piece, if not, recreate them some really old files that we can't really open),etc. etc. Frankly, I love it. Overwhelming, but I love it. Oh, and today I learned how to operate two different kinds of forklifts. We use them to get our boats in the water. I drew the line on the large crane, 'cause my little peabrain can only absorb so much in one day. I figure I know just enough about them to be dangerous...

Tomorrow morning a large sailboat is coming in that's low on gas, low on food and low on morale. Thirty-seven people travelling around the world. They'll stay for 48 hours. More on them later.

Game night at Captain Brooks. Sara, I still suck at Boggle...

Here's a couple of the signs at the airport hanger. I'll just keep showing a few now and then as I show you around the island.

Goodnight,

Peace to you all!

SongKran

What the heck is SongKran, you ask? It's part of the Thai New Year's celebration!

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thai_New_Year

Here on Midway, since most of the people who keep this place running are Thai, we had a fantastic celebration. I had no clue I was going to get a great cultural education while I was here!

We started with a parade. Not many people were lining the streets 'cause we all joined in. And, of course, there aren't that many of us....

Everybody was gettin' down!

A mixture of baby powder? and water was applied to all.

Part of the ceremony is to wash the Buddha and give water to the elders. Uh, I guess I'm considered an elder???? Actually, I feel honored.

It is considered good luck for the New Year to get wet. So we did. Over and over and over again, all day long. Started during lunch IN the restaurant (courtesy of Pong (not sure about spelling) our chef extraordinaire, and progressed to 5 gallon buckets pretty quickly. Willie didn't show up for the party, so they loaded a golf cart with buckets, drug him out of his house and nearly drowned him. At that point, he decided it was safer at the party. With the ocean relatively close, some took the Big Ride and went into the surf. Brent was enjoying a moment of quiet solitude, but Kristin snuck up on him and gave him a chilly wake up call.









Matt, the Assistant Refuge Manager (and ex-Parkie) was most definitely not expecting this one from Alex (recent WSU graduate and now airport firefighter).

We barbecued ALL afternoon and were finally informed about 5pm that it was time for DINNER. Gads! The food just kept coming....

Truly an awesome bunch of guys!



A really fun day drawing to a close and as a special treat here's a photo of a Bonin Petrel chick whose burrow got stepped on earlier in the day. (Yep, we have a couple of birds,here). We dug it out, put the little dude back in and covered the top with a doormat to hold him over until he fledges. Oh, Diane, the white bird a couple of posts ago is a Red-Tailed Tropicbird.

Love y'all,

Murray

They're Here, Too!

Cool! My favorite fish, the Longnose Butterfly Fish is here at Midway! For some reason, I thought we were too far north for them, but, yesterday when we took everyone snorkeling at the Cargo Pier, I saw one. Not sure why I like them so much, there are a lot of cool looking fish, but there's just something about them. Wish I had a digital underwater camera...

Had a wedding reception for Pete and his wife, Dasha, who's been visiting out here. They got married in December, but, Midway never passes up an opportunity for a celebration. Of course, I left my camera a home, so you'll just have to believe me that a good time was had by all.

It was unbelievably windy today. Had to cancel snorkeling, but, went out and watched the Laysans soaring around. Being strong gliders, they love a good wind. The Petrels tonight literally did create a cloud as they flew in. Not sure if it was because of the wind or just where I was standing Have a couple of pictures of the Laysans, but this thing doesn't seem to want to post them tonight. Couldn't possibly be operator error.....Ah, there we go......






Here's one of some of the turtles. They haul up in many places, but especially like "Turtle Beach." I counted 34 there the other day.










And lastly, for tonight, this is the first thing you would see if we landed planes in the daylight. The building is mostly abandoned, but we still use it as the boarding area. The new air-ops center doesn't have a passenger area.

Love y'all,
Murray

Mission Accomplished

Several cool things have happened in the last few days.

A few nights ago, about a half hour before sunset, I walked down to North Beach and just stood. Lots of Laysan's (I told you we had a lot of birds, right?) flying about, but I was waiting for the Bonin Petrels. I'd been told that if you hung out around sunset, you'd see them coming back into land from foraging out at sea. Sure enough, as the light got lower, they started coming in. I can't say it was a cloud, but definitely a steady, thought provoking influx. I stayed and watched until dark, pondering the power of their homing instinct, then headed home. Seems like it's easier to see just how many are coming in when you have the trees for a background. After dodging the Laysan chicks sitting in the middle of the road, I parked my trusty cruiser bike on the back porch. There are a lot of burrows just off the porch and the birds were out, so I tried a few pictures. They sucked. There's a reason I'm a Ranger and not a photographer. I guess one turned out OK.

The other thing that I was absolutely overjoyed about was seeing a juvenile Short-Tailed Albatross. I know, I know, I posted a picture of an adult, so who cares. The deal is that one of the visitors last week REALLY wanted to see any Short-Tailed. It was pretty much his reason for coming here. Seems a little obsessive, but, hey, each to their own. I find out late in the week, after days of fruitless searching, that his eyesight is really deteriorating and that this could be his last chance. Shit... Then, the last day they are here, Brian, our LE officer, is out on patrol and spots the juvie. Mass rush ensues. Mission accomplished. Yay, Brian (former Parkie)! And I felt ridiculously happy about it....

I've adapted the Pete Leary (my housemate)method of photography, i.e. take a massive amount of pictures and hope for one or two good ones. It certainly works for him, he's taken some amazing photos. So, the other day, took over a hundred of just a few types of birds. Here's a couple.

Off to bowling night. The alley is circa 1965 and looks remarkably like the one I spent a lot of Saturday mornings in while growing up. Bet most of you didn't know I was a "bowling geek."

Later,

Murray