Husted, Dayle N. 
196b ' 32 
August lk--I got to the Gilbert very easy this morning. The crew of the 
Gilbert seems like a bunch of characters. Most of today was spent 
heading north of the Kena area. We were in the Kawaihae Bay area. I 
thought that as close to land as we were the birds were fairly scarce, 
but the crew said there is not too many birds in this area. I was 
talking to the capt. and he said Shearwaters (he might mean Wedgetails 
only) were poor fish school followers because they meandered all 
around the first school. He also said the Terns were good to follow, 
beacuse they stayed at the head of the fish. school. I spotted a flock 
at 1625, lat 20° 00W 156° 02' W. We were in the flock at 1638. I 
estimated about 30 Wedgetails, but there were 4l or 42* The 
birds acted in about two or three ways. The most (the fish school was 
composed of skipjack and small fling fish) common was for the birds to 
fly low over the water and then suddely drop down and stick their head 
under the water and feed on the small flying fish. All the time, their 
wings would be flapping. They could lift off the water very quicly 
and run along on top or fly a short distance and repeat the procedure. 
The birds that did this were very maneauverable . Other birds 
would land on the water, flold their wings and just dabble around. I 
also saw several birds dissappear under water all except for their 
tails. I also saw 2 birds completely disappear under water, but they 
didn f t stay long. They might have just caught a wave wrong. I hope the 
films that the chief scientist took show the birds completely disappearing 
under water. Some of the Wedgetails arced up high like Dark-rumped 
Petrel. s In the flock there were four dark phase Wedgetails, but they 
vfiv'C 1 i^Ufey than the southern dark phase ones. On the outskirts of 
