27 
Johnston . B. W_. 
1964 
I counted number of nests In 100 25 ft.^ quadrats — 50 on west and 50 on 
east side of road. The number of nests was greatly influenced by the 
r. «*• 
-• : ; 
covering vegetation — the creator the nests the greater the exposed 
area of coral sand. Or, the more the clumps of crqss and forbe, the 
fewer the number of nests. A cursory glance st these data indicate an 
average of about 6-7 nests/25 quadrat or 24-28 nests/100 ft^. Based 
upon these data and the possible area occupied by th*> birds, there may 
be as many as 300,0 0 birds in the one colony alone. mT e 8 great 
many birds, both today and last night, sitting or standing st the edge 
of the n esting area. In fact these standing birds appeared to be 
denser than the nesting area, birds, -w perhaps they were the mates of the 
birds currently ncubating eggs. 
Went over to Flipper Ft. colony about 10:20. Located 2 Or ay-backed 
Tern snests. each with single eg • end more ’under vegetation than many 
Sooty Tern neats. he gray-back egg measured 44.4 X 32.7 and 43.0 
X 33.2 mm. 
1855. ettus <? 245-133-26. Bead in road beside coral rubble and 
tree-heli otr oped . 
Went out after lunch; it started to rain. Alone N side of airstrip I 
"- t . - 
saw only 2 Golden Clovers "but - short time later a flock of 6 went over. 
Then* out on the lagoon raadflets there "&s a roving flock of about 
25 Golden Plovers . these beiny M nervous 41 , flying around ^ fro od bit, and 
calling more than usual. They eave evidence of beiny a migratory 
flock, for certainly they were not present yesterday. && I tried to 
stalk them it began to rri. n again an I mistakenly fired into a flock of 
