Took folks over to Eastern Island yesterday. There's only one building there now, and the runways are getting overgrown, but, at one time it was an incredibly busy place. During the Battle of Midway, this is where all the ground-based planes that attacked the Japanese carriers flew off from. Very few returned....
Today, it's bird (did I tell you we had birds here?), Hawaiian Monk Seal, and Green Turtle habitat. Unfortunately, there are also a lot of exotic plants. More on those later. As we pulled up , there was a seal way down the beach, but a couple of turtles swam right up to the boat. Of course, I wasn't fast enough with my camera. I also understand now, why people buy the really fancy cameras with big lenses. It's for stuff like this. We walked past an old gun (hmmm, I THOUGHT I had a picture) went past the only building left on the island (hmmm, I THOUGHT I had a picture) and ended up at the hangout of a Short-Tailed Albatross. OK, I'd never heard of them either. Turns out there are only a couple of hundred of them left in the world, down from millions. "Ours" has been showing up here for a number of years, but there are no others to mate with. This year, a juvenile showed up and they danced, so hopefully next year there will be a nest. (Hmmm, I thought the picture would show up UNDER this text. Sigh...) Which one in the picture is the "Golden Goonie?" Hint: it's not the one with the line around it's neck. All but the middle one are decoys set there by biologists in hopes of attracting other Short-Tails. The real one is evidently pretty lonely 'cause he dances with and preens one particular decoy.
Today, it's bird (did I tell you we had birds here?), Hawaiian Monk Seal, and Green Turtle habitat. Unfortunately, there are also a lot of exotic plants. More on those later. As we pulled up , there was a seal way down the beach, but a couple of turtles swam right up to the boat. Of course, I wasn't fast enough with my camera. I also understand now, why people buy the really fancy cameras with big lenses. It's for stuff like this. We walked past an old gun (hmmm, I THOUGHT I had a picture) went past the only building left on the island (hmmm, I THOUGHT I had a picture) and ended up at the hangout of a Short-Tailed Albatross. OK, I'd never heard of them either. Turns out there are only a couple of hundred of them left in the world, down from millions. "Ours" has been showing up here for a number of years, but there are no others to mate with. This year, a juvenile showed up and they danced, so hopefully next year there will be a nest. (Hmmm, I thought the picture would show up UNDER this text. Sigh...) Which one in the picture is the "Golden Goonie?" Hint: it's not the one with the line around it's neck. All but the middle one are decoys set there by biologists in hopes of attracting other Short-Tails. The real one is evidently pretty lonely 'cause he dances with and preens one particular decoy.
Also saw Frigate birds. Seven foot wingspan and weighs only about three pounds. Notorious for harassing other birds until they puke up their last meal and then stealing it. OK, lets see if I can get a picture underneath here... Nope... I suck at this!
OK, time for bed. Snorkelling trip tomorrow morning to "172" a particularly nice area of the reef. Gads! Not only a ton of new stuff to learn ON the island, but there's all the corals and fish, too! Not a complaint, by any means!!!
Later,
Shoe
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