A. Anderson 
1964 
5 November , (cont . ) 
WORKED. Birds were in all stages of nesting, involving some 200-300 pairs. 
Noddies (com) were roosting in large groups (several hundred to a thousand) 
in the dry lagoon basin and took off en masse upon approaching them. No nesting 
birds were found. 
6 November 
In the morning we finished off the allotted lesser frigate bands, reaching 
2000. At about 11 Paul and I went S while Fred and Dick went N around the rims 
for fairy terns. We worked them until they were too skittish late in the 
afternoon, totalling about 200 banded and several dozen returns. I found one egg, 
while untwisting my ankle, and several immatures. 
At the end of the afternoon Doug and I finished an odd 180 bands on the 
lesser frigate nestlings. 
At night we attacked wedgetails, banding 600. Paul had done 500 the night 
before; also, each did a hundred Christmas Island shearwaters, which were 
paired with chicks along the rock ridge of the E shore and the Sesuvium area 
of the E lagoon shore. The nestlings were mostly downy - few had lost all but 
a few down feathers. After that everyone did 500 Sooty Terns to round off the 
banding total for the island at over 16,000. 
7 November - Phoenix - Birnie Island 
Departed the island 0800 with few regrets and spent the morning rearranging 
and packing for the coming island which was only about 60 miles away. ,Got done 
just before the boats were to pull away and arrived at 1400. 
Pitched camp as usual on the leeward side (w) and used the remainder of 
the daylight to survey the island, counting booby nests: Blue-faced were scattered 
all over the island in all stages of nesting, and about a dozen browns were 
spread around the N end, also at all stages. A club began to form just N of 
the lagoon and later contained over five hundred blue-faced. Common noddies 
roosted aoout the lagoon. Sooty Terns flew over the island but were never ob- 
served to land, night or day. Several dozen blue-gray noddies flew about but 
did not seem to be nesting. Fairy terns were quite abundant, several hundred. 
Some lesser frigates flew over but never were seen to land. 
After a few hours sleep to let the moon go down we hit the boobies. I had 
forgotten the flashlight batteries and there was considerable comment upon this 
but we managed to collect enough lights so everyone could work. Three of us 
banded the club and nesters while the other two birdmen took blook samples of 
boobies, noddies, and Polynesian rats, which were very abundant, living under 
rock, and at the base of the predominant plant Portulaca . 
8 November 
Actually, what we were doing last night goes in this day because it was 
after midnight. Worked thru till daylight when we slept for a few hours. In 
