World's Oldest Bonin Petrel!

Bonin petrels are nocturnal seabirds that live only in the Northwestern Hawaiian Islands, and a couple small islands off the shores of Japan.  They are a little bigger than your hand, and feed at night alone or in pairs, near the surface of the water.  Because they are nocturnal and breed in burrows (or artificial nest boxes), they are difficult to monitor.  They can only live on islands that have no predators like rats, mice, cats and dogs.

The largest BOPE populations exist or existed on Lisianski, Midway, and Laysan Islands.  Those populations were heavily impacted by the recent tsunami, as hundreds (or perhaps thousands) of active nests were inundated.  Unfortunately, the petrels are not monitored at those locations. At Tern Island, however, we have a very small but steady population of Bonin Petrels that we study at night throughout the breeding season.  Our small population appears to be holding steady or increasing -- but we only have a 20-30 breeding pairs on Tern, versus 10s of thousands that are/were on Lisianski, Midway and Laysan.  We do have an excellent opportunity to study the birds at Tern Island, however.

We just got the official word, and three petrels that Dan Rapp and Sarah Youngren observed this winter all break the existing record for oldest (longest lived) Bonin Petrel in the world!  The previous record was a 22 1/2 year old BOPE.  Dan and Sarah found two birds that were breeding adults in 1981, and one bird born in 1981, as identified by their metal bird bands.  The two older birds are probably at least 35 years of age, although we don't really know for sure, other than they were breeding adults 30 years ago.  Not only did these birds break the record for longevity, they have been breeding now for 30 years.  Pretty amazing!

Sarah Youngren with the last of the season's Bonin Petrel chicks from Tern Island before fledging, June 2011.  

Changing the Old to New

We are very sad to say goodbye to the outgoing volunteers -- Sarah Youngren, Jimmy Macaulay, Kristina Dickson, Dan Rapp, Lindsey Kramer, and Curt Youngren.  Thank you all so very much for your hard work, your caring, your friendship, and tenacity while at Tern.

We also welcome our new Assistant Manager, Meg Duhr Schultz, and our two new volunteers, Erin Kawakami and Scott Sturdivant, and the Turtle Crew members Irene Nurzia Humburg and Tyler Bogardus.  Along with the folks still on Tern (Manager Paula Hartzell and seal crew Shawn Farry, Mark Sullivan, Brendan Hurley, and Ben Cook), these folks will make up the summer crew here on Tern. 

The Searcher (of 'Lost' and 'Voyage to Kure' fame) offload at French Frigate Shoals on Sunday.  

NMFS seal crew members load gear into their Montauk at the stern.

Sarah Youngren with just some of the many, many buckets of supplies we offloaded from the Searcher to Tern Island.  We depend on these offloads for food, equipment, supplies -- anything and everything we eat, drink, use, sleep in or on, or use for work -- so these offloads are very important!

Speed offload!!!! Sarah Youngren, Jimmy Macaulay and Dan Rapp demonstrates the fastest safest offload technique in history.  (The others were busy hustling buckets to the barracks, and putting things away.)  

Team Tern 2011

The New and the Old:  Outgoing and Incoming Crews.  Top Row:  Ben Cook, a Searcher Crewmember, Mark Sullivan and Brendan Hurley.  Second Row:  Erin Kawakami, Scott Sturdivant and Dan Rapp.  Third Row:  Curt Youngren and Linsdey Kramer.  Fourth Row:  James Macaulay, Kristina Dickson and Sarah Youngren.  Bottom Row:  Paula Hartzell and Meg Duhr Schultz.  (Not pictured:  Incoming Turtle Techs Irene Nurzia Humburg and Tyler Bogardus.)  E komo mai!  

"We love you and miss you!!!" from the fledgling leaving Tern Island to the volunteers leaving Tern Island. (Photo by Sarah Youngren)

Fledging Albatross, Baby Seals, and Immersion Suits

"I'm flying!!!"  Well, almost.  The kaʻupu chicks have started to fledge this week -- We've seen several taking off from Tern and Trig Islands.  They'll continue fledging over the next month.  The mōlī (Laysan albatross) will start fledging in the next couple weeks as well.  These birds will spend the next several years at sea, not returning to land until they are ready to start learning how to be parents.  Most of these birds will return directly to Tern.  Its been very exciting watching them grow up!  Photo by Paula L. Hartzell.

Team Tern on East:  From left to right, Dan Rapp, Sarah Youngren, Kristina Dickson and James Macaulay banding black-footed albatross (ka'ula) chicks on East Island.  We are excited about banding on the outer islands of the atoll, because this information will help us better understand how these birds adapt to changes in island geomorphology, storm events and tsunamis.

An ʻilio o ke kai mom and pup move up on land to sleep for the night.  A healthy mom will stay with her pup throughout the nursing season, never leaving the pup to feed.  A fat mom is a good mom, because she births fatter pups and nurses them longer.  Attentive moms are also more successful at protecting their pups from sharks.  Photo, with La Perouse Pinnacle in the background, by NMFS crew Mark Sullivan.

View of Gin Island from Little Gin Island.  The NMFS crew has been camping on Gin for two weeks straight, in an attempt to monitor and protect pups on that island. Can you imagine staying on such a small low island overnight by yourself?!?  Photo by Paula Hartzell.

Lindsey Kramer and James Macaulay cheerfully pump gas into -- and back out of -- the Spam.  Sometimes you think you're going somewhere, sometimes not.... But they kept a smile on their faces regardless.  You never know what the conditions or challenges will be, so you have to be willing to roll with the punches...

Safety Training!!! The team practices with immersion suits... Kinda funny on a tropical island!!!  We need to know how to use the suits, though, if we have to evacuate via boat for long periods of time, or at night, when hypothermia is a real possibility.  Still, it was pretty funny to see the honu swimming up to check out the bright orange people....  Here the team practices making a raft with their bodies, for an ʻinjuredʻ person to rest on top, out of the water.  Practice makes perfect -- especially when you need to be able to rescue yourself, even when the situation is scary.  It is very important to be knowledgeable and practiced at emergency procedure when youʻre this far out at sea.

Sarah demonstrates relaxing in an immersion suit...a tricky proposition at best.  :-)  

Beauty and the Beast:  Fratricide in the MABO world.  Masked boobies, ʻA makaʻele, have two eggs as insurance in case they lose one.  If both eggs hatch, either the parent or the other chick will most often kick the weak one out of the nest to die (and hence why twins are rare).  Mark Sullivan caught this event on camera -- Nature is often incredibly beautify, and horribly harsh at the same time.

Dancing with Manta Rays.  Kristina Dickson and a manta ray enjoy underwater ballet.  Gorgeous photo by Sarah Youngren.

Me!

Happy seal pup.  Photo by Mark Sullivan.

"Give me your ankle!!!" [Sooty Tern, ʻEwaʻewa]

Chick bands, and two weeks to go

The bustle of activity on Tern this week and next is preparation for a change of all the volunteers in two weeks, on June 18.  The current volunteers are working hard to make sure their projects are complete, and all materials are ready and organized to handoff to the new volunteers.  Our focus now is getting chicks banded before they take off onto the Pacific; it will be years before most of them return to land to breed as adults.

Lindsey Kramer learning banding and release of ʻā maka ʻele chicks.  1,000 sooty terns supervise.  Although the masked booby chicks aren't ready to fledge for a while, they're large enough to band -- so we'll get them done with the current crew, which has quite a bit of banding experience under their belts by this time.     

See no evil, hear no evil, speak no...well, you can’t really expect masked boobies to be quiet.  This parent proudly shows off not one, but two chicks.  This must be an oceanically productive year, based solely on the number of twins hatched and raised this year. 

 Eagle Eye James Macaulay found this Agrius cingulata moth this week – so we definitely do have a resident population of this nonnative pollinator, and not the native endangered Blackburn's sphinx moth.  (Ah, well, one can dream....)  Photos by Sarah Youngren.

Both Sarah Youngren and Dan Rapp received notification this week that their posters reporting their work from this winter on Tern were both accepted for presentation at the Wildlife Society Conference in November.  Congratulations, Sarah and Dan!!!

Hatfight!  The thing about wildlife at Tern is that they arenʻt always shy.... as this kaʻula chick demonstrates, demanding its fair share of Kristinaʻs hat.  You really have to be careful where you set things down, because these young albatross are more than curious, and getting bolder every day.

Pākalakala chick.  Our chicks are growing up!  This has also been a productive year for this species, particularly after we added wooden shelters in the areas where there was (previously) insufficient shelter for the chicks to hide.

Dan's socks.  Maybe we ought to consider paying the volunteers....

Fashion is everything.

Sarah Youngren holds the last of the Bonin petrel chicks to be banded this year (below).  This chick will fledge in the next couple days.  The current volunteers prepare to leave, and say goodbye to all the friends they’ve seen laid, grown, banded and fledged. It will be a hard transition back to city life, so as the volunteers scramble to finish their projects and dream of a cold beer, there is also more than a hint of sadness to the end of the field season.

The Refuge Manager spent a few moments spreading paper flower leis free in the ocean on Memorial Day, in memory of her son, Kerry Scott, who died in Iraq.

A Busy Time at Kānemilohaʻi

Shew, the past couple weeks have been busy!!!

CORAL:  FWS Volunteer Lindsey Kramer prodded us all out in the water at the crack of dawn, boating over to Shark Island (a couple miles from Tern Island) for early morning snorkels.  She wanted to be the first person to witness cauliflower coral spawning in the Northwestern Hawaiian Islands.  And guess what?  It took a snorkeling a couple mornings in the frigid waters of April, and then a couple mornings in the warmer waters of May -- but she did it!!!  We were able to be the very first witnesses of cauliflower coral spawning on May 18th, with more spawning occurring on May 19th.  Way to go, Lindsey!!!

Photos by Paula L. Hartzell

SEALS:  We've had some gains and losses in the ʻilio o ke kai world...  Some new pups, and some pups are gone. One nice event occurred when one of the seal crew, Ben Cook, was camping out on Gin Island last week.  (The seal crew guys take turns staying out on the islands to watch out for the pups.)  A first time seal mom give birth – and then as the mom and pup failed to bond.  The pup wandered off looking for the mom, who was fairly unresponsive.  The pup then got caught and battered in the surf.  Ben was able to rescue the pop, and reunite the pair for the first nursing, which is the critical bonding period for these seals.  The new mom accepted the pup, and it looks like they’re doing well. The pup likely would have died without intervention, so we’re really glad Ben was out there.  

A new first-time mom (above) had problems bonding with her pup.  The pup got 'lost', when NMFS staff Ben Cook intervened, reuniting the pair.  The new mom accepted the pup, and it looks like they're doing well (below).  The pup would likely have died without the intervention, so we're really glad Ben was out there.   

Pups at Kānemilohaʻi face enormous challenges to make it through the first two years.  Insufficient forage for the moms mean less milk and shorter time to weaning for the pups.  The seal pups here are smaller as a consequence, even at birth: the biggest seal pup born here weighs less than the smallest pup born in the Main Hawaiian Islands -- Can you even imagine?!  They're also subject to high rates of shark predation over the past decade or so -- It may be that the sharks are also facing changes in forage, or perhaps they are attracted by the growing turtle population.  For whatever reason, we've already lost 4 of 10 pups so far, and its only the first month of the birthing season.  The seal team literally has to fight for the species one pup at a time!

OUTREACH:  We have to send out a special thanks to our new Education and Outreach Coordinator, Barbara Mayer, who has been working on curriculum for teachers to use this Fall.  An established curriculum and lesson plans will help teachers -- who are already overworked -- have an easier time working information on the Northwestern Hawaiian Islands and Kānemilohaʻi into their classrooms.  That should be great fun for the kids!  Barbara is also working with ʻIolani School for a Marine Debris class this summer -- so those of us on Tern are also busy collecting some marine debris, empty bird eggs, and the like to send back for the class.   She's also the one responsible for making the blog more organized and functional.  Mahalo nui e Barb!

This turtle had a ring of plastic -- waste from a boat -- caught around its neck.  The seal crew were able to catch the turtle, remove the ring, and release the turtle unharmed.  We saved the ring, which will be sent back to Honolulu on the next ship, for use in education and outreach.  Photo by Mark Sullivan.

TURTLES:  We counted 412 basking turtles on East Island this week!!!   This is fantastic -- and pretty amazing, considering the whole island is about 200 meters (650 feet) long!  

Honu on East Island.  We counted a remarkable 412 basking turtles at one time on East Island on Thursday this week.  Photo by Paula L. Hartzell.

Over 90% of the honu reproductive effort occurring at French Frigate Shoals.  The health of any species is dependent by many factors, and good management requires multi-faceted action.  The honu have benefited from very effective management in reducing fisheries-related mortality, some great luck (for the turtles anyway) in the increase in invasive algae species in Hawaiʻi, strong public support and wide emergency response in the Main Hawaiian Islands, along with the benefit of a totally protected nesting ground in the Monument – this threatened species’ population has been steadily increasing since 1973.  

BIRDS:  

We completed our first estimate of the ʻewaʻewa (sooty terns) on Tern Island.  There are about 133,000 adults and 32,500 eggs on island now -- That is one big bunch of ankle biters.

ʻEwaʻewa (sooty tern).   Now multiply this by 133,000 on an island a half mile long by a quarter mile wide.  Now imagine each and every one pecking your head and ankles.  :-)  Photo by Paula L. Hartzell.

How much effort do we spend monitoring birds on Tern Island?  We closely monitor about 1,500 individual nests each week!  That's in addition to all of the island-wide surveys, banding, entrapment walks, and special projects.

The last Tristram’s storm petrel fledged from artificial nest boxes this week!  FWS Volunteer Sarah Youngren has documented a strong relationship in patterns in weight gain and loss immediately prior to fledging, allowing us to accurately identify when a chick is ready to fledge.  We have made enormous strides in development of consistent, replicable, quantitative method for monitoring TRSP; we have vastly reduced the number of human-crushed burrows; and look forward to development of adult population monitoring next year, thanks to Sarah’s hard work over then last two years – and on into next year.  Good work, Sarah!


BUILDING NEWS:  FWS Volunteer has constructed a new shade-house on the back-porch, and is adding a roof to our front porch.  The shade-house will be used to grow native plants, which is sorely needed to give a boost to the shrubs on Tern Island.  Birds need the shrubs for nesting habitat, shade, and to consolidate soil around burrows.  Thanks, Curt, for getting all this built!

TEAM TERN:

While the bosses were away on the outer islands, the crew found a large rope mass floating in the water near the southeast end of Tern.  It took everyone working together to get it out.  (Apparently they all missed the memo that youʻre supposed to slack when the bosses are gone.)  From left to right:  Brendan Hurley (NMFS), James Macaulay (FWS), Kristina Dickson (FWS), Shawn Sullivan (NMFS), and Ben Cook (NMFS).  Photo by Sarah Youngren (FWS).

GRATUITOUS PRETTY (OR SILLY) PHOTOS

ʻĀ (red-footed booby) chick and its parent squash in for room on the nest.  Photo by Sarah Youngren.

Photo by Paula L. Hartzell.

Laughing kaʻupu.  (Black-footed albatross.)  The chicks have their  adult feathers on their bodies now, and getting some pretty funny hairstyles up top.  

Brown booby contemplates a fine day off of East Island.  Photo by Mark Sullivan.

Lindsey Kramer (top) and Mark Sullivan (bottom) waiting for coral to spawn.  

Sometimes you just have to step on your family..... An adult masked booby protects its chick.  Some might say masked boobies are a little overprotective -- A snowsuit in the tropics?!  Photo by Paula L. Hartzell.

THANKS to all of our readers, to the staff in Honolulu, and to our family and friends who support us.  We are very proud to be able to watch and protect these special resources, that belong to each and every one of us.