Hey everyone! It’s Kayla here to share this week’s blog 
The last few weeks have been an immense change of pace to our usual island activities. Apologies for slacking on the blogs but we have been busy!! We hope everyone enjoyed our latest videos, and just know there will be many more to come.
Thankfully, we have had better weather the past three weeks, allowing our team to lock in and accomplish an immense amount of work. Before our main event, the Albatross Nest Count, we gave it our all, finishing the last treatment Scheduler of 2025 (11 full-island treatments this year!). With the increased frequency of rain events, we are finally starting to see small keiki Verbesina popping up around the island. After what felt like forever, it brightens our day to at long last find the invasive plants we are here to eradicate. In several plots, we found Verbesina beginning to pop up again, reminding us of our main task while we are out here. Post-transecting, we started preparing for the long-awaited nest count.
Last week, we conducted the islandwide Albatross Nest Count, and our mighty team of four was able to count every albatross nest in 6 days!! After counting all the nests, several lunches in the field, and lots and lots of walking, we were truly on the top of the world with how hard we worked. This can best be summed up by our island lingo coined by Nick, quote: “our Sense of Accomplishment (SOA) was through the roof.”
For any new blog readers, allow me to explain the Albatross Nest Count. In short, we traverse the entire island counting each individual albatross nest! The island is broken up into several routes based on habitat in association with our restoration areas, or GRAs. Each day, we tackle these different routes, combing the entire area and counting each Black-footed and Laysan Albatross nest. Each habitat poses its own challenges. The naupaka heavy plots have minimal birds that can sometimes be hidden far back in the branches. The open areas may seem easy at first glance, but they have SO MANY BIRDS. The dunes were unique in their own way, sometimes having seals tucked up in the vegetation preventing us from getting too close. Speaking on Jordan and I’s behalf, our least favorite plot was CP10, made up of entirely dense naupaka, that had a humble 51 mōlī or Laysan Albatross out of the 38,153 total. All in all, the nest count was definitely something different for our team that we all thoroughly enjoyed.
After all our hard work, it was in true holiday spirit that we were able to relax and spend Christmas with our little Kure family. We all worked together to cook a delicious Christmas feast. We also made several batches of cookies which have been disappearing quickly. Shoutout to Nick, who very thoughtfully brought presents to put under our Christmas “tree” made from bottles that have washed up on the beaches!! I’m so thankful for the sunglasses, as I just lost mine in CP3 haha. Our Christmas break consisted of plenty of games and movies, our current favorite game being Pictionary.
Saturday, Nick shared with us a new Christmas tradition: the Christmas Bird Count. Similar to our Shorebird Surveys, we circumnavigated the island keeping count of all birds we saw on eBird checklists. It was great to get out onto the beaches and appreciate the birds all around us. We also found more marine debris that will be keeping us busy the next few weeks.
Once again, Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays to everyone! Thank you for all your support and reminder to check out the merchandise available on our Bonfire page!
Highlights: Kayla’s breakfast sandwiches on homemade bagels, a washed-up squid, 1000 pounds of marine debris removed, Delia’s olive bread, Nick’s Christmas Eve pizza
Bird Highlights: return of the Red-tailed Tropicbirds, Nick saw a Leach’s Storm-Petrel offshore, and an increasing number of Tristram’s Storm-Petrels
