I know it's late...

(Practicing banding on an albatross bone)

...but I took a nap this evening, so this blog got pushed back a bit.

This week was, of course, eventful -- mostly because I'm still learning my way around this place.

I'm still counting my albatrosses. This week I counted 73 total Laysan chicks and 111 Black-foot chicks in the plots I have to watch. The chicks are getting mighty big, but still staying pretty cute. They look like Weebles -- you know, those fat people-like toys, with small faces and useless legs. But these Weebles bite.

(A Laysan albatross chick)

I've gotten bit a couple of times, but it's still not too bad -- like a paper cut. Now that the chicks are getting a little older, the parents are leaving them alone for longer. They also don't feed them as often. When albatrosses get nervous or scared, they tend to throw up their meal. The chicks especially will do this, and when they do, they lose all of their nutrition for a couple of weeks. You don't want to make a chick throw up or it'll probably die of starvation. I've seen a couple of chicks in this predicament and it's not fun to watch. It's the way of nature though -- we can't do too much about it.

Pete added another bird to my repertoire -- the red-tailed tropicbird.

(A red-tailed tropicbird)

All of last week (and for the rest of my stint on Tern), I'm to go out every 2 - 4 days in certain areas on the island and catch as many tropicbirds as I can, read their bands (if they have one), put on new bands (if they don't have one), and mark their little heads with red fingernail polish so I don't recapture them on my next round. This is called the "mark-recapture method" and it represents the total population of tropicbirds in a given area by sampling a smaller area (I hope that made some sense!). I've been crawling under buildings and bushes to find these little guys. They squawk and bite a tad bit harder than the albatross chicks! It's easier to catch them if you throw a t-shirt over their heads -- they get disoriented and calm down (most of the time). Once they calm down, they're actually nice to hold, like a hamster or something small and soft like that.

(Trying not to let this guy go!)

(Under a building -- with a tropicbird!)

I don't want to brag, but I saved a green sea turtle this week. Tern Island is kept from washing away by a sea wall that the Navy/ Coast Guard built in the 40s. Now that the military isn't here to keep up the wall, it has gotten rusty and hole-y, and when the tides rise and waves crash, sea turtles and birds can get pushed through the holes and get stuck on the dry side of the wall -- not usually the side you want to be on, especially if you're a marine animal. So we all take turns getting up early to walk around the sea wall, making sure there are no trapped animals that need saving.

(The sea wall where I saved my turtle)

My first walk was Monday, Feb. 23. I was walking around the wall, drinking my coffee, minding my own business, when I see this turtle swimming around in a little pool. My heart was pumping, let me tell you. I put down my coffee, took a couple of pics, and then prepared to catch and release this "little" guy. Catching a sea turtle is harder than it looks -- these guys are super fast under water, and even though my guy had a few inches to swim in, he was scooting right along. I finally got him in a corner, so he had no way out but up on land. As he wallowed in the sand, I grabbed him up by the shell and hauled him up and over the wall. He jetted off toward the open ocean. Boy, that was a satisfying feeling watching that sea turtle go free -- yes, I'm officially Mary Gibson, turtle saver.

(My sea turtle -- I know, he looks like all the rest)

I've just finished "Cannery Row" by John Steinbeck. Great book. Great descriptions about people, about nature, about life. A theme I noticed in the book is that although something may seem beautiful, there's a rougher side to it, and vice versa. This harsh, almost deadly, reality makes the beauty that much more potent and life-giving. Take my albatross chicks for example. They're so fluffy and cute, but they can starve and die so quickly. The ones that make it though are absolutely worth the pruning. And that's enough philosophy for tonight.