13 
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10 - 6-63 
Finished skinning the immature booby, and s Dent the 
balance of the day hunting the.several oddity birds which 
we have seen. Three times today I saw a dark sparrow from 
too great a distance to shoot. Also the dowitcher. This 
is probably a Long-billed Dowitcher as it stands consider¬ 
ably higher than the other one collected, seems to have 
a longer bill, and is more chunky in overall appearance. 
This bird 11 sticks out 11 in , a flock of Plovers, but the 
Short-billed did not. I keeptrying to definitely see and 
collect a Black Turnstone. Collected two very dark Buddy 
Turnstones, and did not see any others of note. In all 
( including the two collected ) I looked at 137 ^Ruddy 
Turnstones: No Blacks. Later in the day helped 0 1 , 11 , puu 
out his traps in the Rat study area. In the azternoon he 
saw another duck in immature or eclipse plumage, and whilur 
outting out his traps we saw at close range a Short-eared 
Owl. The black patch at the Metacarpals was very prominent 
and we had a two or three minute look at him. While hunting 
today I took special note of the numbers and placement 
of the Br. thighed Curlews here. I saw three and apparently 
the flock of eight seen about ten days ago was just passing 
through this way and has now gone on. For a week I have 
seen no more than three. The Wandering Tattlers remain 
fairly abundant. I saw one flock oi seven today, ana. size 
individuals on the East beach. I have not seen the 
Yellowlegs in several days. There are at least 250 Golaen 
Plovers here, and probably 500 Ruddy Turnstones at the 
moment. There are Common Noddies everywhere and I have 
found one chick by the runway whose primary learner snaxus 
are just beginning to erupt: Other than this, ai_ young 
noddies are flying. There are a few Frigates, and Red—footed 
Boobys that are not yet fledged, but for the most part 
they too are through with nesting. I believe that there 
are between 14 and 20 Fairy Terns present here, and I have 
seen none that I could positivly identify as Birds-of-the- 
Year by brownish scapulars: This species because of tne 
high populations of Red-footed Boobys and in particular 
Frigates may not be fareing well here. The two ground 
nesting boobys are still hatching young, and one Masked 
Booby with a new egg of four days ago has been recorded. 
There are Masked and Brown Booby young oi all sized - x^ost 
seem to be well advanced in age, bu^thegwea, Jew of 
every age class. I have also notea' 
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