Holidays at Tern

First Masked Booby (ʻĀ makaʻele) egg of the season!!!  This MABO is located on East Island, near the center of Kanemiloha'i (FFS).  Photo by FWS Volunteer Sarah Youngren.

On Christmas Eve, got the boats up and running, and conducted the first outer island survey in over three months.  Yeah!  Melinda captained the Safeboat, while Jimmy and I went in the whaler.  We stopped at Trig Island to count birds and seals, did a drive-by count on Round, and stopped at East Island.  Most of the islands are small sandy islets, but Tern and East (and previously Whale and Skate) islands have scrubby vegetation.

The first masked booby (ʻĀ makaʻele) egg of the season was on East -- go boobies!  Sarah and I puttered home in the whaler while the rest of the group took their first quick look at La Perouse before heading home.

La Parouse Pinnacle (Photo from 2002).

Christmas was a great success -- We had Secret Santa presents, as well as a great feast featuring spamkey (spam 'turkey') and other delicacies.  In the photo below, we modeled our Secret Santa presents:  Santa made Dan a hand-crocheted nautilus to snuggle at night; Paula received a sweetheart photo of her infidel boyfriend, a flat fly named Roberto; Sarah models her Tern Bird Wrangler helmet, complete with feathers and shells (made from a marine debris bicycle helmet); Jimmy plays his Jimmy Dean Original Banjo, made from marine debris; Melinda was adorned with a sporty hand-woven ankle bracelet made from marine debris glass and beads; and Kristina plans uses for her Message-In-A-Bottle Kit (only slightly disappointed that there wasn't any beer in the bottle :-)). 

Tern Christmas 2010.  Dan Rapp, Paula Hartzell, Sarah Youngren, Jimmy Macaulay, Melinda Conners, and Kristina Dickson, around a Christmas Tree adorned with specimen tags, bird bands, flags and other misc ornaments.  Photo by FWS volunteer Kristina Dickson.

Next posting will be next year!!!  Hau'oli makahiki hou, kakou!