Deadly debris

This week we all got a good reminder that no piece of debris is too small to kill or injure wildlife. First we found this Sooty Tern fledgling stumbling around the colonies one evening. Because the poor creature was unable to fly, we captured it easily by hand and it became quickly evident why it was hobbling around. Its left leg was completely non-functional because a small section of monofilament fishing line had become tightly wrapped around the upper part of it. It had been there for quite some time because tissue had actually grown over the line.

Though this bird was still quite lively and, true to Sooty form, still attempted to bite and jab its handler, you can see from the condition of this bird's feathers that its chances of surviving this are not good. With feathers this far gone and its first molt not due for quite some time, our poor, (de)-feathered friend will not be able to leave the island and forage on its own. This is what will ultimately kill the bird. And while we cannot say for sure that the leg injury caused the feather degradation, its easy to imagine how weeks of hobbling around a seabird colony dragging wings through dirt and guano led to the present condition.

Anybody care to guess how long the offending piece of fishing line was?  Make an estimate, then check the answer at the bottom of this post!* 

These poor little Honu were recently found on the island as well. Since they turned up aways inland, the likely scenario is that they hatched out on the beach and somewhere between the ocean and middle of the island got tangled in this section of net. This particular piece of netting measured only 17" long and 3" wide. Typical commercial fishing gillnets like this can be up to several miles long. If a section this small can kill two turtle hatchlings imagine the damage that a mile of this stuff could do. It's an ugly thought.

We make every effort we can to remove the trash that washes ashore or gets blown inland, but even though Tern is a small island, there's still a lot of ground to cover by three people. We also have to carefully weigh the impact of our increased presence in active bird colonies and monk seal habitat with the benefit gained from removing debris immediately. There are no easy answers and we're still figuring out what our best approach should be. One thing is for absolute certain: it's important that the US Fish and Wildlife Service maintains its year-round presence out on Tern Island. If there were no staff and volunteers out here to collect debris and watch out for the turtles, seals, and seabirds that call this place home, there would be far more deadly entanglement incidents like this.

Shameless subject change! On a completely unrelated, but far brighter note, check out this Red-tailed Tropicbird chick. Born and raised right under our front porch, we get to enjoy watching her grow every day! Their eyes aren't actually quite that big, but they have a thick, black eye ring. So when a tropicbird chick looks at you straight on, their eyes look exaggeratedly large, cartoonish, and ridiculously adorable. Really, is it possible to not smile when you see this face???

 

(*Answer: 13 inches, which is an exponentially tiny fraction of the amount of derelict fishing gear and other debris that's out there in this bird's ocean habitat.)

A calm day on Tern

September 6, 2011: For the first time since I arrived to Tern almost 3 months ago, it is still. The Northeast tradewinds, normally a constant presence at the atoll, are almost entirely absent. Without even the slightest breeze, it's oddly quiet today. Not only do we not hear the sound of the wind moving between antennas and solar panels on the roof, but the sound of waves crashing against the shore south of the barracks is absent. The waters outside the lagoon are glass calm and a more subtle shade of blue than we usually see.

The birds have also quieted down substantially and it feels a little eerie out in the colonies. Everybody's laying low because it's HOT out there. Gular sacs are all aflutter (at least among the boobies and frigate birds), the sooty tern flocks are in disarray without a steady wind to orient themselves by, and everybody else has flocked, literally (bad pun fully intended), to any available shade.

With Tern Island's shrub habitat in decline and roughly 30% of the island taken up by a barren expanse of compacted gravel that does not support native plants (and therefore most of our bird species), shade is at quite a premium on Tern Island. Lucky for the birds, most of the chicks are past their most vulnerable stages in their lives when they lack the physical and behavioral adaptations to handle the heat. Here are a few examples of how Tern's seabirds coped with today's high temperatures.

Frigatebirds (ʻIwa) display perhaps the most diverse (and amusing) range of behavioral responses to heat. Here are just a few of them. There's the open wing posture (apparently this reduces water loss somehow). There's gular fluttering (intensity and duration of flutter typically correlates to how heat stressed a bird is), which really requires video footage for one to fully appreciate (stay posted on this one). And then there's what I've decided to call the 'I give up' posture. C'mon, it's not that hot, is it?

Scott has been steadily amassing a pretty sweet driftwood collection for his study plot in our Active Management Revegetation Zone between the runway and the colonies. Birds are attracted to the wood every day for the perching structure it provides, but today saw especially high interest in Scott's installations for the shade they provide.

When there's a steady wind (which is most of the time) all the sooty terns (ʻewaʻewa) in a flock like this will almost invariably be pointing straight into the wind. Seriously, on a windy day these birds are as effective as any windsock in indicating the wind direction. This is another behavioral response that helps them stay cool. I imagine it also keeps the feathers nice and smooth. You'll see from this photo, however, that on a dead calm day like today nobody quite knew where to stand! A minor detail, I know, but when you share a small island with thousands of seabirds, you notice things like this.

This little dome thing here is a recycled fuel barrel being used as a shade structure. We painted it white so it will reflect heat, drilled a few holes in the sides for cross-ventilation, and then anchored it to the ground. We're still in the early stages with these designs and if you look closely, you'll see a little gizmo on the ground that looks like a thumb drive. This is a temperature logger. We are currently measuring the inside temperature of our shade structures and comparing them to the temperatures under our natural shrub habitat. If these perform similarly, we'll make more and place them out in the colonies in time for the next breeding season.

Even a simple concrete block out on the runway surface makes a difference. We're still not quite sure how this tiny brown noddy (noio) chick made it way out there, but it looks like it's been reunited with its parents and managed to find a good spot to wait out the heat!

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]

Tiger Sharks, Seaturtles, and Birds

Aloha kakahiaka kākou!

This has been an exciting week at Tern Island!  (And please forgive all the formatting errors in this post -- Its giving me fits, but takes hours to upload.)

We witnessed four tiger sharks eating a sea turtle in the lagoon behind the barracks one morning this week.  We do not know if the turtle was alive or dead when it was attacked, but the sharks showed no interest at all in healthy turtles swimming by, nor in albatross sitting on the water nearby -- even "Bob," a turtle with no front fins at all was fine nearby -- so we're guessing the turtle was probably dead to start off with.   Although it may seem cruel on the sharks' part, they have to eat too.... That's their job.

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Still, it was pretty exciting to see some big sharks so excited in the water nearby.  It was a bit of a relief to me see that the sharks really weren't interested in the live, healthy stuff -- and to know that they really must not be all that interested in us, or we would definitely be seeing more of them if they were.

Tiger sharks trying to break open a sea turtle carapace.  The turtle was probably dead when they found it (although we don't know for sure), as the sharks were completely uninterested in the live turtles swimming around -- One turtle swam by within 20m of the sharks milling around, fully within sight and smell, and the sharks were not the least bit interested.  They were definitely interested in the dead one, though!!!

The crew watched four tiger sharks (and a curious white-tipped reef shark) from the roof of the barracks.  We could have gotten better photos in the water, but strangely, no one offered to go diving that morning....  (The dark spot in the lower left is a turtle swimming by.  The four dark spots in the middle are the tiger sharks.)

Team Tern watches from the roof.  Its really nice to have compatriots to share these experiences with.  (And you can see all the hard work that Curt has gone to fixing our roof!!!)

Lindsey Kramer and Sarah Youngren team up to band a Black-footed Albatross chick.  A light cloth over the chick's eyes keeps it calmer.  The hearing protection is necessary because of the ʻewaʻewa (sooty terns).

Bird with an attitude.  ʻewaʻewa (sooty tern) are currently at about 2.5 birds per square meter on Tern -- very roughly about 115,000 ʻewaʻewa on island -- hence why hearing protection is needed.  Photo by Paula L. Hartzell.

 More on a turtle rescue....when the internet allows!

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.

The night of the tsunami, and the morning after.

As I mentioned last night and this morning, we were very fortunate to have had no real effects from the tsunami on Tern.  We have a nice big atoll around us, which serves a a wonderful buffer, for which we are very grateful.  Kure, Midway and Laysan were not so fortunate -- the wildlife were really hammered there.... All the people are safe, though, so that's great!!!

So a couple shots to share the Tern tsunami experience...

We heard that Laysan experienced large waves, so evacuated to the top of the warehouse, a strong weather-proof structure which puts us up out of harms way.  We only had two cushions, though, so all six of us were pretty cozy... Note that we have emergency radios, immersion suits, first aid, EPIRB, etc, all handy.... The team handled the stress of a potential emergency so well.  Either that, or they were actually asleep at the time.  :-)

The crew wakes up after a not-so-comfy night on the roof.  From top left:  FWS Volunteers James Macaulay, Kristina Dickson, Melinda Conners, Sarah Youngren, and Dan Rapp (laying down on the job).  

The crew packs up in the morning, to have bacon and pancakes for breakfast before starting back to work...and another beautiful day.

Our animal friends and their homes are also okay.  ʻĀ wāwae (red-footed boobies), mōlī (Laysan albatross) and kaʻupu (black-footed albatross) chicks in the foreground.  Yeah!

ʻEwaʻewa (sooty terns) and one koaʻe ula (red-tailed tropicbird) fly overhead today.  There's roughly 4,000 ʻewaʻewa flying over the island now -- These birds are so amazing.  They just fly and fly, and donʻt land at all, until it's time for them to lay an egg sometime in the next couple weeks. 

Life goes on in Kanemilohaʻi....

p.s.  We'll try to get a pākalakala video soon!

Pākalakala

Pākalakala (gray-backed Tern)

 The pākalakala -- gray-backed terns --  are back, and starting to find mates!  Pākalakala roam across the Pacific, breeding on the northwest Hawaiian islands and some small islands near the main Hawaiian islands, like Ka’ula (near Ni’ihau) and Mokumanu (O’ahu), as well as a few other Pacific Islands.  They have become locally extinct on many islands due to rats and/or feather or egg hunting.   The largest extant breeding population is in the northwestern Hawaiian islands, although we don’t really have a good grasp of the current population status – Populations studies for this species were mostly conducted in the 1960’s and 1970’s.

Pākalakala look a lot like sooty terns, except sooties have black backs.  Gray-backed terns are also much more flighty, and less aggressive than sooty terns – maybe that's why there’s hundreds of thousands of sooty terns, and only a few dozen gray-backed terns on Tern Island.  Pākalakala live into their 20s, and maybe longer.

Gray-backed terns returned to Tern Island!  Yeah!  Pākalakala may be my favorite bird here, because they don't bite, they don't peck -- they're just kind of more subtle altogether.  The highest numbers of these birds are on Lisianski, Nihoa and Laysan Islands in the Northwest (at least as of the 1980's).  As far as I know, we're the only ones regularly monitoring this population, however.

 There is very little known about pākalakala behavior beyond what little we see during their breeding season.  They are very skittish, and will fly off as soon as a person approaches the area, leaving their egg or chick alone (but they do come back as soon as you leave, or if you sit down in the same place, motionless, for a while).  They have only one egg at a time, but we really don’t know if they re-lay or not, if their first egg fails.  It's very important that we don’t disturb them too much, as the eggs and chicks are very likely to be eaten by great frigatebirds (‘iwa) when their parents are not there. ….This is also why pākalakala aren’t on the main Hawaiian Islands, because dogs, cats, and rats can easily eat their eggs and chicks.

Pākalakala are very funny when they are finding their mate.  They stick their wings out and back, like a person sticking out their elbows with their hands on their hips.  Then they put their heads down and circle around each other with their wings strung out akimbo, and kind of shuffle along.  It reminds me of some traditional country dances.  After they’ve bonded, they’ll chase other gray-backed terns from the little area around their nest.  

Two pākalakala doing the courtship dance.  They remind me of traditional country dancing, when people put their hands on their hips, stick their elbows out, and do little mincing steps.  It's pretty funny.  (Or, apparently sexy if you're a gray-backed tern.)

 Gray-backed terns eat by dipping and swooping, and eat pretty much anything vaguely fishy that is small enough to fit in their mouths.  They’ll eat moths and insects, too.  Their favorite food is probably juvenile thorny cowfish (makukana).  Sometimes they follow schools of tuna, to eat the fish that the tuna scare up.  The male pākalakala will feed the female by regurgitation, and then later they both feed their chick.

Pākalakala pair have the perfect spot -- free from sooty terns and easy to defend from other gray-backed terns -- unfortunately, it also means the egg and chick will be immediately conspicuous to great frigatebirds ('iwa) who feast on little chicks.  We'll follow how their offspring fares this spring, as part of reproductive plot monitoring.

 Gray-backed terns nest along the seawall, maybe because the sooty terns (that will start laying eggs soon after the gray-backed terns) are so much more aggressive, and will kill their chicks.  Pākalakala keep their eggs right along the seawall or rocks, or even in coral rubble along the seawall.  They seem to like the more windswept side, and avoid the leeward side (probably because it's easier to take off on the windward side).

We’re waiting for their first egg this season.  Should be any day now.  

Pākalakala and its mate.  Tern Island, Feb 2011.