The 'A' Team...

'A' stands for Albatross

Here are the other members of the 'A' team. Top picture is Marc, our fearless leader and Laysan Albatross admirer. Next is McKenzie, aka 'The Mudge Factor", my fellow volunteer and notable Black-footed Albatross wrestler. That black-foot didn't stand a chance.

Data Logger Bird

Yes, there I am. My friend is a lucky Laysan Albatross selected to recieve a data logging device. You can see it on it's right leg. The data logger will collect information such as daylight, air temperature, whether it is in the water or not, and water temperature. It's pretty strange to be able to just walk up to birds and pick them up, they definently don't like it but all we have to do is grab the bill and scoop them up. Other birds around them take notice but no one panics or gets freaked out, they all just continue incubating. This bird will have the data logger on for about a year to 18 months, the only problem is that you have to find the bird again next year in order to take the logger off and download the data. To make finding them easier we paint a stripe on their forehead with nail polish, we like to call it a racing stripe.

Midway Sunrise

Here is this mornings spectacular sunrise.

Christmas on Midway

Here are a couple of Black-footed albatross dancing on Christmas Eve. The ominous clouds were pretty cool and just missed the island. We had wonderful weather for Christmas, we went snorkeling, saw dolphins, a shark, manta rays, eels, puffer fish, octopus... and a many other things I don't know the names for. A Christmas to remember for certain.

Albatross Fly-by

On a windy day the albatross come in low and slow, sometimes only a foot or two from your head.

Green Sea Turtles

This is Turtle Beach believe it or not. Not sure where they got a crazy name like that. I think I counted about 25 turtles on this particular day, pretty amazing. There are some pretty big ones too.


A couple smaller turtles foraging.

Great Frigate Birds

These are two pictures of Great Frigate Birds, they are really cool birds with sort of bad reputations. They are often described as birds that steal other birds' food and eat baby turtles and stuff like that but that's life on a remote tropical island. The top picture is an adult female and the lower picture is a juvenile. The males are really cool because they have this enormous red pouch on their chests that they inflate to attract females. I'll try to get a picture of one of them.

Clipper House

This is the Clipper House and it's our island food spot. The food is really good, almost too good. This building is one of the newer ones on the island, not a Navy leftover.

White Terns

These are the very curious White Terns that will come fly very close to you as you ride your bike or walk. They make a really interesting noise too.

Albatross takeoff

Here is a very nice takeoff by a Laysan Albatross. They have a little harder time with the landings, I'm trying to capture an example.

Night sounds

I took this video clip just after dusk, I wanted to show what is sounds like. It was pretty windy as you can tell from the tree, most of what you see flying around and hear are the Bonin Petrels. They are a nocturnal bird that digs burrows in the ground and come out by the thousands just as the sun goes down. Many places on the island are so saturated with their burrows that you can't walk without caving one in. If you do step in one you have to dig it out so you don't trap the birds inside. Apparenly they can't dig themselves out.

Albatross in flight

My camera isn't the best for taking pictures of birds in flight but I couldn't resist. We were on Eastern Island today and it was very windy, the albatross were flying just above our heads. They may be a little clumsy on the ground but they are very much at home in the air. I thought the pictures turned out kind of cool.

Bristle-thighed Curlew

This is the Bristle-thighed Curlew. Usually they are very shy but this one seemed especially curious and paused long enough for us to take a few pictures of it. They apparently eat the mice on the island, another reason to like them, as if you needed one...

Sunset on Midway

Here are couple shots of last nights sunset.

Spinner Dolphins

These are some members of our local Spinner Dolphin pod. We met up with them on our way to Eastern Island Monday afternoon. Pretty awesome.

Laysan Albatross dancing with sound

I wanted to load another video of the albatross dancing that had sound so you get an idea of what it sounds like around here. They can make some pretty interesing sounds, not to mention dance moves.

I think the most amazing thing is the fact that these birds have no significant fear of humans. When we band them we just sheild their head so they can't bite and they just sit on their nest as we do it. Some are a little feistier than others but some are completely calm. It's strange to just be able to walk up to a bird like that. They clap their bill at you usually but it always seems like a half-hearted attempt to get you.

More Wildlife

Brown Noddy

Sea Turtle

Black-footed Albatross dancing

This is the Black-footed Albatross dance.

This is a White Tern, they are often called Fairy Terns but that is apparently incorrect. They are really interesting birds, they are very curious and will fly very close to you and investigate whatever you are doing. They make a very cute sound too.

Laysan Albatross dancing on Midway Atoll

This is the mating dance performed by the Laysan Albatrosss, these individuals are most likely youngsters perfecting their dance. If they are unable to impress a mate they will return to the open ocean and try again next year.

Marine Debris

On a less happy note, this is the remains of most likely a young albatross that never made it to adulthood. You may be able to tell from the picture that the bird was full of trash, cigarette lighters, pieces of plastic, hose... all sorts of trash. This happens because albatross feed off the ocean surface and prior to man's introduction of plastics to the ocean surface the albatross could eat pretty much anything they found there. Unfortunantly today this means the albatross are eating a lot of plastic and feeding it to their chicks. I don't know about you but I have my doubts about the nutritional value of cigarette lighters.

Here's a picture of North Beach, it's an absolutely beautiful beach and it's the one humans are allowed to use so long as there are no Monk Seals. I walked down this beach (those are my footprints) and came across a seal so I had to turn around. We have to give the seals at least 150 feet of personal space, and you thought some people were bad. We have to do this because the seals are endangered and because they are out foraging for food for days and they come back to Midway to rest. We don't want to disturb them, we are here to manage Midway for the wildlife, they are the priority.

I made it!

Well, I'm here and I've met some of the locals. This local is one of almost 500,000 nesting pairs of Laysan Albatross. It doesn't feel as remote as I expected. The food is great, my house is great, and everyone who lives and works here seem very nice. I'm still looking around taking pictures learning about the other birds here. We did see a Hawaiian Monk Seal today and some Green Sea Turtles. Pretty cool stuff.