This week at Tern Island

The Kahana delivered 8 pallet tubs, 10 propane tanks, 2 ½ barrels of diesel, and two outboards to Tern this week. These supplies were much needed – particularly the food, if we don’t have a March Kahana. We gave a very quick eco-tour to a couple of the Kahana crew, and got their advice on the outboards. Thanks to everyone in Honolulu who helped prepare this material for shipment!

Offloading supplies from the Kahana (the ship delivering supplies) to Tern Island.  The Kahana is the small dot in the center of the picture.  La Perouse is the dot ot the right of center.  The captain and crew are always helpful and fun -- They're always welcome on Tern!  (And the supplies don't hurt!) (Photo by FWS Volunteer Sarah Youngren.)

Kahana offload at Tern Island dock, January 2011.  The Kahana is the small dot, center of page.  La Perouse is the small dot in the mid-right of the photo. In the past, the offloads were made by a larger vessel from the Kahana.  More recently, offloads have been conducted by the Tern safeboat and a small vessel off the Kahana, each carrying one pallet tub at a time.  This particular trip, the offload was to be made by the Tern safeboat alone, but that plan fell through when the safeboat’s outboards became inoperable.  Midway came to the rescue, and gave up two containerships to make room for the small vessel (shown in part, above) to offload in place of the safeboat.  Considering that it is about 2 miles each way to the boat --  almost 5 miles round-trip -- and given we were trying to stock up 6 months of supplies, this was quite a taxing day for both the small boat engines and its crew.  

This was our first week of the new semester – and the first week of our intern-classroom projects.  The FWS volunteers from Tern introduced themselves to the classes via email, with photos and stories about themselves.  Each week, they will be updating the classes via email and/or Skype, with stories, data, and/or photos, depending on the class projects.  We hope to have pictures of the classes soon!

Each week, on Monday, Wednesday, and Friday, we monitor reproductive plots.  Each volunteer is responsible for monitoring a couple species.  Dan monitors white terns and black noddies; Kristina monitors red-footed boobies and red-tailed tropicbirds; Jimmy monitors Laysan and black-footed albatross; and Sarah monitors Tristram storm petrels and masked boobies.  We count the number of nests, eggs, chicks and fledglings in each plot each time.  The number of nests and eggs helps us to track reproductive effort -- this tells us about how the population is doing.  The number of chicks and fledglings helps us track reproductive success -- to estimate how the next generation is going to do.

White terns – Manu o Kū -- enjoy using the edge of the barracks for nesting.  The pairs you see are parent and offspring.  The red lines and numbers on the wall below the birds are part of the reproductive monitoring plot for white terns – We can keep track of which birds lay eggs, which eggs hatch, and which chicks survive to fledging. 

Manu o ku (white tern).  These birds nest in the Northwest Hawaiian Islands.  In the main Hawaiian Islands, they nest only in Honolulu!  They nest in big trees in Kapi'olani Park, and on the mauka side of the mall -- probably because these trees are big enough to be above the usual cat and rat-climbing level. (Photo by Paula Hartzell)

Manu o ku (white terns) lay their eggs right on the branches of trees -- or ledges of the barracks, in this case -- with no 'nest' to speak of.  The pairs you see here are parent and offspring.  The red lines and numbers on the side of the barracks are to help us track which terns are which, as part of the reproductive monitoring plots.