Aloha and happy Halloween to everyone!
Delia here, this is my first blog post for the winter 2025 season!!! This first work week was completed with a dose of horror movies and jack-o’-lanterns made from booeys (pun intended)
Overall, this felt like a productive week. This week I got introduced to transecting the plots. Don’t ask me which plots we did- I am still working on learning the plot names and locations. Personally, the most challenging aspect right now is identifying the target grass species. We also did a couple of other things this week, including cleaning/refilling the Laysan duck waters around the island, windproofing the camp for the weekend winds, logging our transecting data, and building a small bucket wall around the main house so the albatross don’t nest next to the facility. Nick and Jordan got rid of some hefty marine debris while Kayla and I worked on some Naupaka trail maintenance yesterday.
I saw my first Ka’upu / Black-footed Albatross this week, and more have been coming since then. They are very pretty birds. But according to Nick, Jordan, and Kayla, they are even cuter when they perform their courtship dance. Nick proceeded to demonstrate/mime how they do so.
On the menu this past week, we’ve had nachos by Kayla, cheese/spicy shrimp pasta by Nick, some pumpkin curry by Jordan, and some coconut tabouleh by me. Today, Jordan and I are in the midst of a bread competition.
In the spirit of Halloween we all dressed up: Jordan dressed as a Red-tailed Tropicbird, Kayla as a tourist, Nick as a blue wizard (and spent the night with a “wise man’s voice”), and I dressed as the sea. Obviously, mine was the best.
My favorite part of this week was the awesome Halloween costumes everyone came up with (shout out to Jordan for his epic bird entrance).
My least favorite part was my introduction to transecting in naupaka… It will get better, it shall get better, I mean … it has to right?? (I’ll keep you posted on that one).
Mahalo ~ Delia
Nick’s bird observations: Dunlin, Western Sandpiper, return of the Albatross: Black-footed Albatross increasing in number each day, and the first Laysan Albatross was seen on Friday evening