Sending aloha to everyone across the main Hawaiian Islands after the recent storms 
While Hōlanikū was fortunate to avoid serious impacts, we’re thinking of all those affected and the communities coming together in kōkua.
While Hōlanikū was fortunate to avoid serious impacts, we’re thinking of all those affected and the communities coming together in kōkua.Enjoy our latest field blog from Kayla:
Hey everyone! It’s Kayla here to share this week’s blog
We have had a very rainy week here on Hōlanikū, but we were productive as always, nonetheless. At the start of the week, we were cooped up inside, mostly busying ourselves with office work and facilities maintenance. The weather lightened, and we were able to get outside on Wednesday and Thursday to resume our regularly scheduled transecting. Although we haven’t seen as many Verbesina popping up compared to the past few months, the seed bank is definitely still active, as we found 90 sprouts this week!
We were blessed with a bright sunny day on Friday, as we wrapped up our week with a little more transecting, data entry, and our weekly Booby Monitoring. We were very surprised to see a female Cocos Booby on what we previously observed as a Brown Booby nest last week. We are excited to continue monitoring this nest to see what happens!
The sun continued to shine into Saturday, and let’s just say the whole team seized the day! Laundry lines were full, the kitchen was bustling, and the island was alive with energy. We also continued our Tristram’s Storm-Petrel monitoring and returned to Camp with a little extra suntan. Our solar shower bags have definitely been put to good use, but the constant wind does not make for a fun shower!
On Saturday evening, we wrapped up the day with a gorgeous Pier dinner to celebrate our team’s milestones. Delia has officially been here for 5 months, while Nick, Jordan, and I have been on Hōlanikū for 10 months!!! Time really does fly when you are having fun. I made BBQ chicken sandwiches on homemade baguettes for dinner, which Nick was, for once, at a loss for words because he could not even begin to describe how good it was.
Our team is super excited for the next ship arrival in May, which will be bringing us several new faces, including our beloved Field Camp Manager Naomi! We can’t wait to meet the new monk seal team and work on our socialization skills! It’s always a treat having more humans on the island!
Highlights: Kayla’s baguettes, Delia’s banana bread and peach crumble, Jordan’s bread, Nick’s enchiladas
Bird Highlights: return of Wedge-tailed Shearwaters, Bonin Petrel chicks, Red-tailed Tropicbird eggs and chicks, increase in Red-footed and Brown Booby eggs, increase in Masked Booby chicks, substantial number of Tristram’s Storm-Petrel nests
A hui hou!
