New Crew on Tern

Welcome to our new crew on Tern!  The Kahana arrived on Monday with the new summer crew:  Summer Manager Meg Duhr Schultz, and volunteers Catherine Fox, Ryan Potter, and Megan Juran.  The new and old crew will work together over the next 10 days, passing the torch.  The winter crew will be leaving when the Kahana comes through on its return trip to Honolulu, and Meg will be taking over the blog.

Offloading supplies and getting new crew:  Left to right:  Dan Rapp, Ryan Potter, Morgan Gilmour, and Abram Fleishman.  Photo by Sarah Youngren.

Abram Fleishmman and Megan Juran stack milk in the food room.  All food must be labeled with date of arrival and stored in its proper place.  This food will last the crew -- plus folks from NOAA's seal and turtle crews this summer -- until October, when the next crew switch-out occurs.

Biologically, the honu (Hawaiian green sea turtles) are starting to show up in slightly higher numbers -- from 0-1 per day on Tern in mid-winter, to more than a dozen per day now.  (It will be more like 100/day on Tern later, and double that on East Island in peak season.)  We're seeing a few turtle 'rafts' or 'dog piles' -- a bunch of males vying for a female turtle's attention. 

Basking honu on Tern Island

'Old style' metal tag, #G692.  We were lucky to happen to see the first female turtle of the season digging high up on the beach, checking out good spots to nest later in the season.  She was last seen nesting in 1996 and 2002. 

 We also saw two red-footed boobies (ʻĀ wāwae) with signficant oiling in the past month.  One had about 15% of its body covered, and another had about 30%.  We've spotted a handful more with small (quarter-sized) spots.  The oil looked to be old, but we collected feather samples, just in case the oil needs to be analyzed. We'll be keeping a sharp eye out for additional oiling, and are starting to photograph the 'small spot' birds in order to assess how many birds have actually been affected.

Sarah Youngren finds a returned invasive -- sandbur -- under the clothesline.  It was probably accidentally reintroduced by people coming back from East Island, where the weed reappeared four years after 'eradication' -- perhaps due to old seed bank being exposed by record-breaking turtle nesting activity last summer.  Bird, seal and turtle crews will have to be particularly careful not to accidentally move these sticky seeds around more; right now we're hoping to keep re-eradicate the weed in the next several years.

The only bummer news for this week is that because Paula (the manager) has to go back to Honolulu to work in the office, and won't be staying or returning this summer, the benthic monitoring project we were planning to start this winter (but hadn't yet because we had no working boats) will not be carried out.  Of course Paula is very sad to miss out on all the summer actvities (particularly the benthic plate project, as well as helping out the turtle and seal crews), but Meg will be carrying the torch high and proud, and all the other activities will carry on under her guidance.

Dakshina Marlier (USFWS), Abram Fleishman (USFWS), and Morgan Gilmour (UCSC and USFWS) will also be sadly returning to Honolulu, but they have great plans after that!  Dakshina will be moving on to a summer biking position in Alaska, and Abram and Morgan have wildlife jobs in California.  Morgan may be entering graduate school, and if she gets the permits, returning to Tern next winter to continue tagging albatross and boobies, and working on her dissertation tagging great frigatebirds!

More good news is that Sarah and Dan will be staying on at Tern to work on Paula's data quality project, funded by the USFWS Inventory and Monitoring Project, so we can get some of the 30 years of bird monitoring data.  They'll also be able to complete their work on acoustics, plastics, burrowing seabird habitat, working alongside Meg, Megan, Catherine and Ryan.  Yeah!!!

Neighbors.  Snorkeling photos by Abram Fleishman.

Ka Hiapo, our eldest mōlī  (Laysan albatross) chick.  Notice his nice new 'wrist-bracelet' -- a flexible poultry band used to identify chicks.  Ka Hiapo, a.k.a. Goliath, is also the heaviest of our chicks, and part of Dan Rapp's study looking at the effects of plastics on chick growth.  Photo by Sarah Youngren.

Dakshina Marlier, enjoying the sunset.  Photo by Abram Fleishman.

Measurements before applying a geolcator tag to a red-footed booby ('a), as part of Scott Shaffer's (UCSC) study.  The tag will provide us with a map of where the booby goes to forage.  From left to right:  Abram Fleishman, Sarah Youngren, Morgan Gilmour.

Manu o Kū (white tern) feeding its chick.  Does anyone know if this is a mahi?

'Iolani School, Turtle Diggings and the Oscar Elton Sette

A busy couple of weeks!

We had a GREAT time skyping with JoAnn Stepien's class at 'Iolani School on O'ahu --  Thanks to 'Iolani School teacher JoAnn Stepien and FWS Volunteer Barb Mayer, joined by NOAA E&O Coordinator Wes Byers.  Take a look at pictures Wes put onto his Papahānaumokuākea Marine National Monument Facebook page.  And a most special thanks to the students!!!  'Iolani School's Marine Debris Awareness class welcomed us for a visit last week.  The visit included map study, dissection of albatross boluses, skyping with Tern volunteer Erin Kawakami, looking at marine debris collected off a turtle entrapped at French Frigate Shoals, and other activities.  

JoAnn Stepien's Marine Debris Awareness class at 'Iolani School on O'ahu, pays attention while FWS Tern Volunteer Barbar Mayer leads discussion on Tern Island.  Barbara brought albatross boluses, bones and eggs, as well as marine debris from entrapments, for the class to experience these firsthand.

Students skyped live with FWS Volunteer Erin Kawakami on Tern Island.    Erin is from the Big Island, and has wanted to visit the Northwestern islands her whole life.  One of these kids could be a volunteer, or perhaps the manager, not too long from now!!!

Our next big news at Kānemilohaʻi:  808 Nesting Honu on East Island alone!!!!  This has been a record breaking year, with more nesting turtles than ever recorded before -- the next best year was 589 nesting turtles.  

Honu 808!!!  This was the last of the nesting turtles identified by the turtle techs this field season.  If you look REALLY closely, you can see the '808' on her carapace, with a ying-yang for the '0'.  She is basking on Tern Island in this photo; you can see some turtle eggs she inadvertently dug up in the sand.  We'll expect another big nesting season in three or four years, with lower counts in between.

Balance in all things:  Unfortunately, with so many turtles digging, they have also dug up a large portion of the shrubs along the south side of  Tern Island.  This will probably speed up erosion along the south side, as well as eliminate a good deal of shrub habitat, of which we have none to spare.  (Note the boobies refusing to give up this bush!)  If the decision is ever made to permanently decommission the runway at Tern Island, we will plant shrubs in that area, providing a significant gain in shrub habitat.  Until then, we'll try to encourage both natural and propagated beach naupaka across the island.

More turtle digging means fewer Tristram's storm petrel burrows.  Turtle nest-building has removed a significant portion of the Tristram storm petrel area on Tern Island this year, moving all the way up into our reproductive monitoring plots.  We've been moving the nest boxes back onto solid ground several times this year, but the turtles keep digging further and further back, digging up burrows and tossing nesting boxes aside.  Tristram's usually return to the same burrow to nest; we hope to keep the pairs that were nesting in this area by increasing the number of artificial nest boxes.  Burrowing birds have a difficult time without shrubs to consolidate the soil, and protect the burrows from crushing by albatross, turtles, and humans.

As the turtle nesting season winds down, the turtle team wrapped up their field camp.  The whole gang pitched in to help them take down camp. They spent the next few days cleaning all the field gear, and packing it away for the next season.

The Amazing Summer Team at Tern gathers on the porch to show their muscle!  From top left to right:  Brendan Hurley,  Shawn Farry,  Ben Cook, Irene Nurzia Hamburg; second row:  Erin Kawakami, Scott Sturdivant, and Meg Duhr Shultz; bottom row:  Tyler Bogardus, Paula Hartzell, and Mark Sullivan.

The fall crew -- Scott Sturdivant, Erin Kawakami and Meg Duhr Schultz -- have started on their native plant propagation and planting projects, planning what they will be doing over the coming months.  So far they have created some additional catchment areas for fresh water for their plants, and outlined where they will be concentrating their efforts -- in addition to all of the regular bird monitoring they will be doing.  They've also been finding the first of the turtle hatchlings, and returning them to the sea.  (Some hatchlings get lost and confused in the vegetation.)  More from them in the coming months!

Above:  Erin Kawakami and Scott Sturdivant work on creating catchment for their native plant propagation projects. 

The summer crew splits up --  Erin, Meg and Scott (at right) get ready to say goodbye to Irene and Tyler (at left).  The crew arrived together in June.  While the turtle crew heads out until next year, the bird crew will stay on Tern until December.

Hugs goodbye.

One of the small boats off the NOAA Research Vessel Oscar Elton Sette arrives, bringing fuel for us to run our own boats.  Everything we use on Tern has to be delivered like this -- first on a large vessel from Honolulu, then on a tender from the ship to the island.  The Sette crew and scientists normally are performing marine research activities in the Monument; this time they are going up the Northwestern Island chain picking up the seal crews at the end of the field season.  The Sette will be back to Tern in a couple weeks to pick up our seal crew.  

Irene and Tyler leave with the NOAA Research Vessel Oscar Elton Sette crew.   They will ride up to Midway, and take a plane back to Honolulu.  Irene and Tyler worked some seriously long hours recording nesting sea turtles this year, and deserve such a great trip.  Thanks, crew!!!

So that's it for the news for now -- A hui hou, and see you next week! 

This week's gratuitous bird and sunset photos:

This is the life:  ʻĀ makaʻele (masked booby) chick relaxes on a coconut.  Masked boobies nest on open grounds, so do very well on all of the sandy islands in the atoll, as well as on Tern Island.  They have big fat wide feet, like people, for standing on the ground.

Gin Island spit.

Birds of Tern Island.

An ʻĀ wāwae (red-footed booby) chick.  This one has most of his feathers now -- although he retains his chick fuzz-hood.  Red-footed boobies nest in shrubs, and have red monkey-like hands (okay, feet really) which are agile and finger-like, for grasping branches.

La Perouse at sunset.

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.

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!

Another week at Tern -- Mardi Gras, Conners, and Birds

Another week passes at Tern, with the crew working really hard, and the albatross chicks growing.

Finishing up the season for one researcher:   As part of an on-going study led by Scott Shaffer (SJSU/UCSC), Melinda Conners (UCSC) has conducted field work at Kanemilohaʻi for the winter season each of the last four years.  Melinda has served as a half-time researcher and half-time volunteer.  Her work focuses on breeding season foraging and diet of Laysan and black-footed albatross, as well as boobies.   She has been satellite and GPS tagging these birds, figuring out where they go to eat; then when they come back to feed chicks, she collects samples that will let us know what resources these birds depends on.  Today, Melinda collected back the last of her satellite tags for the year.  She has worked very hard to increase our knowledge about albatross and boobies.

In addition to her research, we thank Melinda for the thousands of hours she has served as a volunteer, and the enthusiasm she has shared with FWS staff and volunteers.  Thanks, Melinda!

Melinda Conners (right) with FWS Volunteer Sarah Youngren.  Conners has served as a half-time volunteer/half-time researcher each winter for the past four years on Tern. Having spent about 5,000 working hours on Tern, she has an enormous amount of institutional knowledge and bird handling experience.  Her greatest impact may be on more than a dozen young volunteer biologists she has worked with and inspired.  We will miss her greatly when she leaves Tern for the last time in March 2011.    Photo by FWS Volunteer Dan Rapp.

 And some misc photos from this week:

Sleeping on the beach....This 27 year old female seal ("2LL") has had 5 pups in the past 10 years.  (She deserves a nap!)

 


Black-footed albatross chick playing (building a nest) while its parent snoozes overhead. 

The masked boobies, red-footed boobies and frigatebirds are still working their way up to laying... With great demonstrations of their prowess for intended partners...



Who are YOU looking at???  While masked boobies have flat feet and nest on the ground, red-footed boobies have 'monkey-feet' that feel like little hands holding onto you -- all the better for nesting in bushes.  Photo by FWS Volunteer Sarah Youngren.

Here's a great video by FWS Volunteer Kristina Dickson demonstrating what happens when you set your camera down on Tern Island:  Silly albatross (video)
I'm thinking about discontinuing this blog...please let me know if you'd like to see it continue.

Mahalo nui e a hui hou!

Kristina Dickson baked us a King Cake for Mardi Gras (with Jimmy Macaulay looming for a first bite).