McFa±lane, R. W. Wake Island ii 
I9S3 
cleared end of the island, and allowing only one bird per 100 ft 2 over it, 
a figure of 30,000 is derived. This is an extremely conservative guess. At last 
light the birds literally covered the entire island. While they were no 
2 
uniformly dense a figure of one per 10 ft would be much more reasonable, 
yielding a count of 300,000. When one oonsiders that this is the small colony 
* 
of the two, the total number of birds becomes staggering. 
I. searched a large part of Wilkes Island after dark for petrels or 
shearwaters. None seen. The ground is definitely not suitable for burrowing, 
being har, coarse coral. The messerschmidia would seem suitable cover for the 
ground nesting species but they apparently do not use mt. 
I have seen 6 cats so far. 3 on Wilkes and 3 on the west end of 
Waive. Two ol those on Wilkes were obviously headed for the sooty terns. I 
have managed to catch one of the skinks and preserve it. One red-footed 
booby hit me in the head while taking off and regurgitated 2 small (7-8 n ) 
squid. 
June 10 
This morning Harry Sperling brought a ntte from Mr. T. Escobar, 
Chief, SMSP 205, Wake (FAA) expressing their concern about the new sooty 
tern colony adjacent to the channel as it is entering the flight pattern. 
I had a conference with Escobar, Sperling, and others. I have sent a message 
to Chan Robbins asking advice on methods of removing these birds from the area. 
Further talks with Escobar and Sperling revealed the following: 
This is the first time the terns have attempted to nest on this end 
of Wilkes Island. 
They used to nest only on Peale Island. 
They started nesting on Wilkes when the V0RTAC was installed. The 
