A Anderson 
1964 
ATF, At Sea 
9 October 1964 
Passage of Sooty Shearwaters continued with ova 500 birds see in 
flocks up to 150. All were bearing from SSE to SSW, consistent with 
September At Sea observations. 
h Golden Plovers were seen, 2 circling the ship until dark. One 
landed and was caught. Molt to winter plumage had been completed and the 
bird had practically no fat. The other was in the process of molting and 
had two broken primaries. 
One probable Phoenix Island Petrel was observed. 
Four unidentified Shear - Pets were observed, having whitish rump and 
throat, translucent gray trailing edges of the wings (? l/2 the wing area), 
brown on side of head, grey breast, dark grey or brown above. Flight and 
silhouette were both similar to Sooty Shearwater, and the observations may 
have been the result of peculiar lighting conditions (bright overcase light 
all day) or a color variation of the Sooty. The bird was lighter over-all. 
Another unidentified bird resembled a Wedgetail on top and in flight, 
but had solid dark underwings to go with the light breast. 
6 October 1964 
Poor observing weather all day, with heavy clouds and frequent showers. 
Searched all day, as on 5 October, for unverified reef at depth of 3 fathom, 
somewhere near 173°25 T W 8°17 T N, with several alerts but no luck. 
Sooty Shearwaters continued, but dire to our reduced speed of 10 kn. 
(cut to 5 kn temporarily when the fathometer malfunctioned) and poor visibility 
we did not approach our total of nearly 900 yesterday. A flock of 60 was 
the largest. 
Another Golden Plover in winter plumage circled the ship for an hour 
this morning. As of 2000, the one caught last night is in good health. 
Dark phase wedgetails are now more prevalent than light phase; in one 
flock the ratio was 9:1- Yesterday and the day before almost as wedgetails 
of any kind were seen - before that, light phase prevailed. From here S the 
darks should almost excluseively prevail. 
During a flat calm period in the afternoon before a storm, we observed 
several doz. floating invertebrates that resemble Physahi , the Portuguese 
Man-0 1 -War. They are less than 2 n in length and oblong in shape. A sail™ 
like projection is mounted on the main mass of the animal at an angle of 
about 30 to the axis of the body. They are translucent and colorless . (Velella? ) 
Wo. of look type petrels observed was considerably lower than yesterday. 
7 October 1964 
Continued searching for sunken reef until lk-00 when we resumed speed 
SSW for Howland Is. 
Numbers of birds observed fell off considerably, mainly due to decline 
