Tern Island

We stopped at another island yesterday, Tern Island. It's part of French Frigate Shoals, it's very small, mostly made up of a runway. It was an old coast guard station but now is part of the wildlife refuge system. It was nice to get off the boat for a while, we walked around looking at birds, played some ping-pong and hung out.

Nihoa pictures

A view of the bay where we landed.
A Nihoa Finch.
A Hawaiian Monk Seal.

The Oscar Sette

Oscar Sette is the ship I'm sailing on. We arrived at Nihoa (a very small uninhabited island) this morning, went ashore and collected some seeds and looked around. There were many archealogical sites there that we were very careful of as they are very important to the navite Hawaiian peoples. It was very interesting. Lots of birds too.

The Oscar E. Sette.
Nihoa, yes, it's mostly rock and very small.
A Brown Noddy and it's chick.

Hawai'i

As you might imagine, it's pretty terrible here. Mid 80's, sunny, rainbows, beaches, beautiful sunsets...





Well, someone has to do it.

Above is a beach on the south side of Oahu, I can't remember the name. Below is Wakiki Beach.

Goodbye Oregon... for now

Laysan here I come!!!

Soon I will begin what might be the most horrific job I have ever had. Living and working on a remote Northern Hawaiian Island. By 'horrific' I mean COMPLETELY, UNBELEIVABLY, AWESOME!! Laysan Island here I come...

Macro Insects

Common Red Paintbush

A lot of people will refer to this as "Indian Paintbrush" which is probably an older name. The book I have calls it "Common Red Paintbrush".

Bunchberry

Cornus canadensis, it's in the same genus as dogwood trees. That's why it is also called "dwarf dogwood".

Candystick

That's what it's called, it looks delicious...

Home Sweet Home

Yes, I live in the woods.

Red Columbine

South Sister Climb

South Sister from below Almost there...
Cool looking melt water lake, very near the top.

Moss-man of the McKenzie

Beware of the moss-man...

I think he is running. Maybe he's a she, I don't really know...

Tiger Lily overlooking the McKenzie River

Bear-grass flower...

Upper McKenzie River, Oregon

Koosah Falls... Sahalie Falls...
Clear Lake...

Macro Rose...

Back to Oregon...

The Three Sisters Wilderness...

Tamolich Falls...

Box Canyon Meadow... They had a very wet winter here, lots of snow. Everything is lush, lusher than normal that is... The only down side is more mosquitos and they will probably be around longer into the summer. Lots of water in the rivers, Tamolitch falls is usually a dry falls but there is so much water this year it's flowing pretty well.

A little macro action...

Dung-beetle

Harsh environment

This horse obviously found the conditions harsh, maybe it was just old. There are a lot of dead animal bones lying around the desert.


I think what this cactus is trying to say is "STAY THE HELL AWAY!!"

Nevada's landscape has a lot to offer...

Like a lot of sage brush... It's different there but I kind of like it, it's so wide-open, kind of wild still. Like me...
The frozen tundra, we had to get up before dawn and go sit in a blind in this stuff and observe birds lekking (doing their mating displays). Needless to say, there were a few times I got really cold, an "I need to get the hell out of here or I'm going to freeze cold". It was fun though.