43 
11-23-63 
Today I spent quite a bit of time simply wandering' around 
.looldng to see what research programs can be best implemented 
here during the three weeks I spend here before heading back to 
the states# Certainly there will not be the opportunity to do 
much of the sophisticated work here that can be accomplished at 
Kure because of the fact that there are too many people 
' here which will interfere with routines and destroy the 
naturalness of any investigations. Certainly banding and the 
collection of accidentals are the programs of emphasis, and on 
the South end of Eastern we should be able to establish areas 
of study nests, and a few vegetation plots. However, without the 
equipment available at Kure, much of this will of necessity be 
tenative work. 
In the All ivisited the commissary to see about a Bolex Rex: 
The project should have a good movie camera available, and since 
I plan to buy this model, I thought it best to see about this 
here~ In the afternoon after the soaking ritual of the thumb 
I got out and put on ICO gooney bands, finding only two banded 
birds: Again the question arises, where are the banded birds, 
and more importantly how many are band ! on this atoll. From 
my own snoopings about, probably less than one in 5 gooneys is 
tagged here. In the eveing the fire chief shanghaied us 
for dinner and pleasantries. 
11-24-63 
Slept in today, and then up to find that the flights arrang¬ 
ed by Bill for getting the building to Kure were off: We were 
both annoyed, and to avoid stewing and cussing too much we 
went to look for some reported red-headed gooneys ( Which we 
must have tagged at Kure and painted there. ), and down into 
the over-run pond to look at the ducks and shorebirds there. 
While there we noted a large number of dead Laysan albatross 
( apparently from aircraft collisions )• At least eight ducks 
were* in the ponds - 3 of the small dark 11 scaup-like duck " 
of which we now 7 have 2 specimens, 1 green-winged teal, 1 
pintail ( Juvenal ? ), two ducks with a faint speculum, small 
and generally dark, and one large duck which was probably a 
Gadwall with a prominent speculum in flight. Many Sanderling, 
s —\ Plovers, Turnstones, and at least 6 Sharp-tailed sandpipers 
_ and one other $rolla ( a curlew sandpiper ? ) were seen. 
Quite a number of tattlers were present also. Two Curlew were 
seen. We then retu rned to the BOQ to find that the flight to 
Kure had be reinstated and then left to SAR hanger for that. 
While there and waiting for the plane. Bill talked the Air Ops 
officer info flying another flight back to back, and after the 
