Tiger Shark vs Sea Turtle

Meet Bob. He is missing both his front flippers and is covered in algae. He tends to hang out in the shallows where he feels safe. Bob is pretty friendly and will sometimes swim up to say hello while you are swimming off the corner beach by the barracks.

Yesterday around 8am Lindsey heard thrashing outside of her bedroom window and looked out to see several Tiger sharks attacking a turtle. We thought it was poor Bob.

Here one of the Tiger sharks is thrashing around what is left of the turtle. It almost looks like he is wearing a turtle hat. We were all very sad that Bob was probably eaten but, later that day, while walking near the shore we saw a familiar green turtle, it was Bob! We still feel bad for the other turtle but tiger sharks need breakfast too. 

White Terns watching all of the shark-turtle commotion.

White Terns enjoy hovering near your head. 

Chub morph with a yellow face

Jimmy found this red-tailed tropic bird chick far out of its nest. We tried to return him to his parents but  he was pushed back out. 

The sooty terns have almost completely taken over the island. We hear that even more are still on the way. Jimmy is quite popular with the Sooty Terns, they enjoy playing with his hair and landing on his head. They never land on my head. 

Sooty Tern enjoying the view from Jimmy's hat

Masked Booby sitting on the seawall 

Black Noddy chick

The albatross chicks are growing rapidly and are the same size as their parents now.  

Parent and chick

My red-tailed tropic bird chicks are also growing up fast! Jimmy and I just finished banding this chick in one of my plots. 

Turtle Love (for Ryan)

Masked Booby chick on East Island

We saw these Ulua swimming near La Perouse Pinnacle

White tipped reef shark near La Perouse Pinnacle

Jimmy blowing a bubble ring

When the military was out on Tern Island many years ago they called the White Terns fairy birds. 

White Tern with La Perouse in the background

Ruddy Ternstones are small shorebirds on the island. They eat and cleanup all of the abandoned eggs on the island.

Partially feathered Laysan Albatross chick enjoying a beautiful day

Great Frigate bird chick

Flamingo walk?

Laysan Albatross chick testing the water for the first time

Albatross family time

Southeast end of the island

These past couple weeks we have been busy banding albatross chicks and working on our other seabird plots. The albatross chicks are growing very fast and are the size of the adults now- but much heavier. They have recently begun to throw up bolises. A bolis is a big blob of indigestible material from the chicks diet, usually squid beaks and a ton of plastic from marine debris.  The sea turtles have begun mating and laying their nests along the beach. There are two hawaiian monk seal pups so far, one on Trig island and one on Gin island. Today we rescued a mamma turtle who wandered onto the runway and couldn't find her way back to the water. The sooty terns have officially taken over the island and are extremely loud and enjoy dive bombing your head and pecking your feet. We only have about a month left until our boat gets here to bring us back to Honolulu. Let us know if you have any questions or picture requests!