Abandoned

It seems as though there is a party being thrown for me (and the other 3 volunteers) every single night between now and when I leave Midway in a week.  You all know what that means...SEVEN NIGHTS OF RAGE!  God that sounds awesome.  Raging is such a fun activity.  If you are reading this, I assume you participate in raging events regularly.  If you do not, may I recommend that you go sit down, look deep inside yourself, and think about your life.  Unless you have a pre-existing health condition which prohibits raging, I'm pretty sure you should be doing it as often as possible.  If you don't believe me, just ask any person who has attended graduate school at Duke University.  They will tell you the same thing, and they are the upper echelon of the future of our great nation.  That being said, I'll never forgive any of those same Dukies for leaving me all alone on a desert island with nobody left to really rage with (see photo below).  Mahalo.

Yep, this is how I feel.

Here's a trick I learned in photography class last night.  use water in your photos.  Water droplets turn photographs into art.  It's just the same as black & white.

Mind Bottling

We were invaded by 15 new volunteer bird counters in the night.  At breakfast, I waded through unfamiliar faces to find my bacon, eggs, and coffee.  After breakfast I searched the freshwater seeps on the island for signs of Botulism (dead ducks).  I found one, a Northern Pintail.  Life is Pain.  Most of the rest of the day was spent entering data and banding Laysan Albatross on Eastern Island.  It was fun.  We even walked by the adult male Golden Goony.  He is spectacular.  His head is made of solid gold.  Tonight, a bunch of VIPs are flying in.  I think it's the head of Fish &Wildlife or some such person.  Cray cray.  I guess there's gonna be a fat rager to welcome him on Island.  I better go get cleaned up for the meet and greet.

Frigatebird identification baffles me.  It's mindbottling.  You know, like when your mind feels like it's in a bottle?  I'm pretty sure this is just a Great Frigatebird (not the fabled Lesser that I search for in vain every day).  But I'm not really sure why...

The Short-tailed Albatross of Eastern Island hanging out with his fake friends.  Check out how much bigger and cooler he is than the surrounding Laysans.

I Wish Starbuck Rolled With My Crew

Apparently Kara Thrace (call sign Starbuck) is leading Humankind to utter destruction, even though everyone thinks she's leading them to fame and glory on Earth.  This is of course only the story from an old man in a bathtub last night on BSG, so who knows... Today was obviously another chill day.  I wasn't even Albatrossbitten, so life is good.  There is a plane tomorrow bringing about 15 people out to count ALL of the albatross on Island.  It seems like a big job, I know.  Last year they counted nearly a million.  Can you believe that?  Anyway, there will probably be a little shindig at Captain Brooks tonight, so it's looking like light breezes out of the NW, partly cloudy, with a slight chance of Rage.  Here's some stuff that happened today:

This is my crew, from left to right: Nik Aspy, Ann Humphrey, Karen Guglielmone.  Watch your back or they will frack you up.

This may be the rarest bird on Midway currently.  Mallard is another one of those birds that really surprised me by being out here.

Midway: Day 2

So I may go for a TPAD marathon today.  I'm considering switching to writing the blog in the evening at the end of every day.  We'll see. Yesterday was my first full day on island.  I went through an orientation Powerpoint and then I drove a golf cart all around everywhere, seeing some of our work sites and trying not to run over any Goonies.  After dinner, I was trying to TPAD but I just fell asleep and failed at my one true purpose in life: Blogging.  For now, I'm probably going to be putting up  all the photos of the Life Birds that I get.  This should carry us through the next couple of days.  Enjoy.

This is a White Tern.  Like most of  the birds out here, they are very friendly and curious.  One of the other volunteers thinks they look evil.  I say they pretty.

Brown Noddy on the runway.  Another Life Bird from yesterday.