New Bird Videos and Sound Clips

Short but sweet this week:  Dan Rapp, who is practicing recording at burrow entrances and artificial nest boxes with a night-vision trail cam, has shared some videos of nocturnal seabirds in front of artificial nest boxes on Tern Island.  Nocturnal burrowing seabirds can be very difficult to monitor, so it is difficult to track if their populations are increasing, decreasing, stable, or gone.  Night vision is one way we may be able to 'see' these animals without accidentally crushing burrows, sticking our arms or equipment into their burrows, or otherwise disturbing them.  Few people will ever get to see these birds -- so this is pretty cool to see!

Tristram's storm petrel video (sound at end)

Tristram's storm petrels live only in the northwestern Hawaiian Islands and the Bonin Islands of Japan. These giggly little seabirds flutter and patter over the ocean when they feed. (If you watch the video, keep watching to the end -- the sound actually comes after the bird moves out of sight.) 

Dan Rapp checking on trail camera at Tern Island. 

Tristram's are actually quite large for storm petrels, which are usually the smallest of all the seabirds.  Birdlife International lists Tristram's as 'near threatened'; because we really don't have a reliable population estimate by any stretch of the imagination, their conservation status is really unknown, but they certainly are not widespread nor numerous.  They're active at night, and nest in burrows or artificial nest boxes.  Over this last year, Sarah Youngren and Dan Rapp found that Tristram's chicks are among the hardest hit by plastic ingestion (along with the more well known Laysan albatross).  Tern Island is the only place in the United States, and perhaps the world (we're not sure what's going on in the Bonin Islands right now), where Tristram's are actively monitored -- so its important that we do a good job with this species.

Bonin petrel video

Bonin petrels also live only on only a few islands in the Pacific, with a largest portion in the northwestern Hawaiian Islands.  They feed both when sitting on the water and by dipping for prey. Bonin petrels used to breed in the main Hawaiian Islands, but rats killed them off there. They were almost eradicated from both Midway and the Bonin Islands, but since rats have been elimiated there, the Bonins are coming back.

Like many of these seabirds, Bonin petrels can live to be pretty old: Last year, Dan Rapp and Sarah Youngren found the oldest recorded Bonin Petrel in the world living right here on Tern Island! That bird was banded 30 years ago on Whale-Skate Island -- an island about 3 miles southeast of Tern that no longer exists. Imagine a bird that is older than most of the people reading this blog..... Over 50% of the world's Bonin population still live in the U.S. Pacific islands, so knowing about this bird's status is very important to us.

Sarah Youngren setting up acoustics array.  There's a microphone, cell phone (for relaying the signal to the computer & satellite dish), and other innards attached to the solar array, which powers the equipment.  After calibrating this equipment, we may be able to use it in remote locations and sensitive locations such as Nihoa or Gardner Pinnacles, where people can't stick around to monitor seabirds.  The acoustics allows us to obtain a relative number of seabirds active in an area -- and hence to follow trends in breeding populations.

Sarah Youngren has recorded the night sounds on tern Island, with support and equipment from Matthew McKown (UCSC) and Martin Lukac (Nexleaf Analystics).  Like the night-vision camera, the acoustics recorders can share some sounds that very few people will ever hear -- like this Tristram's storm petrel and albatross from Tern.

Tristram's storm petrel -- or inebriated elf?

Albatross Soundbite

Brown Noddy Soundbite

(I have to say, I can't stop laughing when I hear the Tristram's!)

Finally, some photos from this week...

Manu o Ku (white tern, love tern) on egg.  How do they DO that?!

Noio (black noddy) on egg. 

Ka'upu (black footed albatross) sky moo as part of their dance.  Tern Island.  Photo by Sarah Youngren.

Northern sky on Tern Island.  The land and birds were lit by moonlight.

Tern Island Gothic.

A new season

It's the start of a new season, biologically and personnel-wise. 

A rather angry looking manu o Kū (white tern) sitting on its egg.  These guys nest anywhere they can find a flat space -- a ledge, a faucet, a boat trailer, or in this case a cement block left by the building.  White terns nest year-round, so we can always count of a few eggs and chicks around the island.  Most of the seabirds start nesting in December or January, though, so we're just starting up the seabird monitoring for this reproductive season.

We saw the summer crew off on the Kahana this week -- They worked hard and accomplished a huge amount over the past six months. 

Team Tern December 2011:  The whole gang!  Bottom Row (L->R):  Morgan Gilmour (UCSC Researcher/Volunteer), Dakshina Marlier (Winter Volunteer), Erin Kawakami (Summer Volunteer), Sarah Youngren (Winter Volunteer Team Leader).  Second Row:  Kathy Kawakami (Native Plants Expert Volunteer), Barbara Mayer (Education and Outreach Volunteer).  Third row:  Dan Rapp (Returning Winter Volunteer), Meg Duhr Schultz (Summer Manager), Ralph Blancato (SeeMore Assistant).  Back Row:  Abram Fleishman (Winter Volunteer), Paula Hartzell (Winter Manager), Scott Sturdivant (Summer Volunteer), Konrad Schaad (SeeMore Satellite Technician).  This group has produced so much -- Thanks gang!!!

The winter crew, satellite technicians, special volunteers and the crew of the Kahana leaving Tern.

The remaining crew.... Dakshina Marlier, Morgan Gilmour, Dan Rapp, Sarah Youngren, and Abram Fleishman.  (Photo by Paula L. Hartzell)

The ka'upu (black-footed albatross) have all arrived for the most part, but the mōlī (Laysan albatross) are still trickling in.  Looks like a gang-buster year for the ka'upu this year!  We'll have better numbers for you on that soon, as we've started the next adult albatross sweep -- That's where we go through the colony and read every band on every adult albatross across the island.  We'll do this four times over the next month, as part of a mark-recapture study tracking the albatross' breeding populations across the northwestern Hawaiian islands.  The staff at Midway Atoll and Laysan Islands follow the same procedure, so we can compare the results, and get a number for most of this species' populations.

Konrad Schaad helps with an albatross count on Trig Island. The ka'upu (blackfooted albatross) have arrived en force; the mōlī (Laysan albatross) are still arriving. Photo by Paula L. Hartzell.

We have a new double-egged ka'upu nest this week!  Albatross usually have only one egg, but this bird is a super overachiever. 

Sarah Youngren, Dan Rapp, and Abram Fleishman continue work on getting the bird acoustic monitoring system set up.  They've been troubleshooting the electronics, have built frames to mount the solar battery charging panels and microphone, as well as to keep birds from pooping on these.  The tricky part is to get everything to work without messing up the other electronic monitoring devices, like George Balazs's turtle cam -- but persistence pays off, and they're moving forward.  Later on, we'll compare the results from the acoustic monitoring of Tristram's storm petrels with Sarah's burrow monitoring results, to calibrate the methods to estimate number of breeding adults. 

Dan Rapp working on setting up acoustics equipment.  Photo by Sarah Youngren.

Okay, these people are seriously just too excited about bird monitoring.

Weeding, weeding, weeding!  The invasive goosefoot and cheeseweed has begun to sprout up all over the island, but has not yet seeded, so we are starting to spend a significant amount of time pulling these buggers before they go to seed.  Both goosefoot and cheeseweed grow into tall, dense monocultures, creating a barrier to wind and movement, and pose a serious threat to albatross chicks later in the winter and spring, when chicks bake in the heat inside these stands. 

'Ilio o ke kai (Hawaiian monk seals) enjoy the warmth and security of the black pipe placed at the back of South Beach by the summer crew.  This pipe will keep most Hawaiian Green Sea Turtle (honu) hatchlings from crawling into the colony by accident and dying; it should also minimize the amount of wasted energy by adult honu lost in the colony.  As an added bonus, it minimizes our disturbance seals on the beach by delineating the area better, and providing a visual and sound barrier for the seals.  We counted 25 seals in this week's count, one more than the highest count last winter.  Really great job, Summer Crew!

Juvenile noio (black noddy).  Photo by Meg Duhr Schultz.

East Beach at Tern Island.  The sand has shifted way to the north.  The beach shifts with seasons and storms, but also provides the best winds for gliding seabirds.  (Photo by Paula L. Hartzell)

Volunteers on Tern

From Keith Burnett, Volunteer on Tern since June 2010:

Having the opportunity to volunteer here on Tern Island and be a guest of the seabirds in their own home - away from most human influence - has been a real blessing.  Every morning before work I have the opportunity to walk down the runway to the East end of the island, enjoy the sunrise and see all the birds during the time they are most active.  It never ceases to put a smile on my face to be able to share the same space with thousands of birds who are more concerned with themselves than me as a human, and every day I see a new behavior, or perhaps even the same behavior that makes me laugh and view these birds as individuals and part of their own society.  Each bush, even, has its own story to tell with the chicks that have grown up and the adults that return to the same places each year.  This photograph is a nice diverse representation of most of the birds on the island and how they interact with their surroundings including Masked Boobys, Red-Footed Boobys, Brown and Black Noddys, Black-Footed Albatross, and Great Frigatebirds.  The only other seabird species not represented here that are regulars at Tern are the Sooty Terns and Laysan Albatross (who have left the island to feed and will return to breed) and the White Tern.



View of Tern Island Wildlife, Photo by Keith Burnett (FWS Volunteer)



The following is from Kristina Dickson, who will be heading out to Tern in December:

Hi, my name is Kristina Dickson and I am from Covington, LA.  I look forward to being one of the interns at Tern Island for the next 7 months. I am a 2009 graduate of Louisiana State University with a degree in Biology. I spent a year studying marine biology at the University of Hawaii at Manoa, which sparked my interest in marine mammal and seabird research.  Since graduating I have volunteered at the New Orleans Aquarium of the Americas as a naturalist guide, interpreting animal behaviors and working to provide educational information about the exhibits to visitors. I have always loved the water and enjoyed swimming.  I swam competitively for 10 years and now enjoy applying my swimming ability to other water sports such as scuba diving, surfing, body boarding, and water polo. My overall goal while volunteering at Tern Island is to get more hands on experience in the marine science field and to make a contribution to the work being conducted out there. I look forward to learning more about marine mammals and seabirds, and I am excited to be able to see these animals living in an unspoiled habitat.  Living on a remote island is not something many people have the opportunity to experience and I hope to make the most of my time out on Tern Island. I am looking forward to joining the volunteer team on Tern Island and I hope that I can make a positive contribution to the program out there.

Kristina Dickson, Volunteering on Tern Dec 2010-June 2011.