Eastern Island

This morning John, the boatman, took the 3 volunteers, Steve, Liz, and myself, to Eastern Island to perform one of the Laysan Duck surveys. My main job was to be quiet, stay low and out of sight and try to absorb a lot of information about the surveys without getting in the way. I learned a lot and stayed well away from the seeps where the ducks congregate until after the survey was complete. When Liz finished, the 3 of us sat quietly near one of the seeps, read color bands, and discussed how to age and sex these very rare birds. We managed to read and record more than 25 bands. We then had a minute to wander and experience the island. No one lives on Eastern and the WWII runways are slowly melting back into the environment. I only saw 1 small building. The wind was blowing hard and it was very dark with clouds blowing around. It all felt very wild. Pictured are: Gary on an Eastern Island beach and 2 Laysan Ducks.