Hey everyone! It’s Kayla here to share this week’s blog 🙂
It is officially starting to feel like we are in the homestretch here on Hōlanikū. Although our winter 2025 season does not officially end until the summer crew swap in June, the arrival of the NOAA Hawaiian monk seal team in May is fastly approaching, which unfortunately means Jordan will be leaving us in a month. It will be very sad to see one of my island brothers depart, but it will be a nice change of pace to have new faces on the island! With that being said, we have begun some of our end-of-season tasks so that we do not have to worry about them during the excitement of the seal team.
We have divided and conquered this week with each person focusing on different inventories on the island. Delia did the duck shack inventory, as well as updating and organizing all the medical supplies that hadn’t been touched since Jordan and I did it wayyy back in May when we first arrived. I have been busy in the supply room, tracking all the remaining food we have left so the next team can begin their planning for what food needs to be brought out. Safe to say we still have plenty of beans! Nick has maybe the hardest inventory, consisting of all the miscellaneous items and supplies we have around the island, hopping around from the Shed to the Main House to account for all the gadgets. He has had some cool finds, including a binocular harness and a GoPro! Jordan inventoried all the teas and has been picking up random tasks as needed—he’s been #1 in making sure the ducks always have clean water in their poultry feeders. Other tasks this week, apart from our regular transecting, include data as always and write-ups on ʻAkihikeʻehiʻale / Tristram’s Storm-Petrel and ʻAoʻū / Christmas Shearwater.
On Friday, we conducted our joint Shorebird Survey, Hawaiian Monk Seal Survey, and Booby Monitoring. Notable observations include:
– Three Hawaiian monk seal mom-and-pup pairs are present on the island.
– Black-bellied Plover continued to be present on the island.
– ʻAkekeke / Ruddy Turnstone seen in large groups, preparing for migration.
– Kōlea / Pacific Golden-Plover seen in full black “tuxedo” plumage for the breeding season.
– Consistent increase in the number of ʻĀ / Brown Booby nests, up to 42 nests total.
– ʻĀ / Brown Booby nest observed incubating three eggs!
– Steady number of ʻĀ / Masked Booby nests, with only one added in the last four weeks, bringing the total to 46 nests. Many Masked Booby now have chicks.
After rewarding days of work, we have ended each day with a movie… it’s so nice to just sit down and do nothing lol. The sun has been setting later, giving us plenty of time in the evenings to unwind. Weekends have been busy with lots of housekeeping and cooking/baking to keep everyone occupied. With nicer days, we have also been working out more and slowly bringing back our post-work dips in the lagoon. Next week we will be finishing another scheduler, taking on the remaining “hard plots,” so the lovely weekend weather has been greatly appreciated.
Highlights: Nick’s upside-down fruit cakes, Delia’s pretzels, we found more BBQ sauce!
Bird Highlights: visiting Northern Pintail, lots of Koaʻe ʻula / Red-tailed Tropicbird chicks, continued increase of ʻEwaʻewa / Sooty Tern, Pākalakala / Gray-backed Tern eggs
