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Monday, May 2, 2011

Seals and Birds

ʻIlio o ke kai (Hawaiian monk seal).  Photo taken by FWS Volunteer Kristina Dickson while snorkeling.

NMFS seal staff Shawn Farry pushes the boat off from a small outer island in the atoll.  Photo by Kristina Dickson.
FWS Volunteers band their 100th albatross chick today -- KZ00 (ʻCuzcoʻ)!  From left to right:  Kristina Dickson, Sarah Youngren, Lindsey Kramer, James Macaulay, and Dan Rapp.  Photo by Curt Youngren.

FWS volunteers gather about 750 lbs of marine debris from East Island.  Clockwise from left:  Dan Rapp, Paula Hartzell, Jimmy Macaulay, Kristina Dickson and Lindsey Kramer.  Photo by Sarah Youngren.

Kristina Dickson dives through the La Perouse cave.  Photo by Mark Sullivan.
Runway chick:  One of several chicks who have made their home in the runway.  We don't have flights in the summer because of so many sooty terns, or we'd have to move these guys out of the way.
cloud of sooty terns
Exercising around the sooty terns can be a bit of a challenge...as Curt Youngren demonstrates.

James Macaulay and Kristina Dickson band a red-tailed tropicbird.
Dan really DOES have birds on his brain.  Sarah shaves a bird in Dan Rapp's hair.  (Ah, social life on a remote island...)
NMFS staff Mark Sullivan prepares for tagging a seal -- Those are seal tags on the rim of his hat, while he prepares antiseptic and gloves.  Photo by Kristina Dickson.
Let's play the stick game!  This young ʻiwa would buzz me ceaselessly until I offered him my camera as sacrifice.  Photo by Paula Hartzell.
A love tern brings some edible affection for its chick.  Photo by Mark Sullivan.
Quiet time on Tern... Dan Rapp enjoys some moments of solitude during the daily entrapment walk around the island.  Photo by Sarah Youngren.

4 comments:

  1. Oh my gosh, every where you look there are birds, birds, birds! I saw you guys were holding that albatross beak shut, bet that thing would peck - peck and cause some serious pain. Also, that is a big chick too eh? Almost 1/2 the length of that persons body, heavy too.

    Me and the dog's saved a crow once, that's about it for saving wildlife for me.

    Awesome photo's and captions are great.

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  2. That is a good photo of the Monk seal

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  3. How many bones does an albatross have? I liked the first picture of the seal. I also liked the black seal pups.

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  4. Gosh.... I should probably know how many bones an albatross has, but I don't! I like the seal pictures too -- Maybe I'll try to get some more for this next week.

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