First Red-Footed Booby Egg!

The First Red-Footed Booby Egg

Hawaiian Green Sea Turtle taking a breath

Jimmy during Red-Tailed Tropic Bird Mark Recapture

Kristina during RTTR Mark Recapture 

"Thistle Teach'em" - What Jimmy says when pulling thistle, an extremely invasive plant found on the island. 

Male Hawaiian Green Sea Turtle basking in the warm sun

The red-footed boobies have finally started laying their eggs. They have been building up their nests for the past several weeks, fighting with frigate birds over the perfect sticks. Frigates are constantly flying overhead waiting for a booby to leave its nest so they can swoop down and steal parts from the nest. The seaturtles are becoming more active and we have recently seen a few large, male turtles up on the beach basking in the sun. It is unique to Hawaii that male Hawaiian green sea turtles come up onto the beach to bask. Usually the only sea turtles ever found on the beach are females during the nesting season. Yesterday was Mardi Gras and Jimmy and I made cinnamon brown sugar pecan king cake. It was delicious! The Kahana (the large boat bringing us supplies) leaves Honolulu the 16th and gets here the 18th. We are excited to have fresh food again- at least for a week or two. The Kahana also brings us 2 new volunteers and 2 boats. Our boats have been broken so we have not been able to check up on the other islands in the atoll. March is going to be a very busy month! Let us know if there is anything in particular anyone would like to know or see a picture of!