PRELIMINARY REPORT 
McKEAN ISLAND 
ITINERARY 
30 April 1966 Landed on McKean Island 0830 
1 May 1966 Departed McKean Island 0930 
This report is based on the operations performed on McKean Island by 
P.O.B.S.P. personnel during the period 30 April- 1 May 1966. Survey party 
members were Richard Crossin (Biologist in Charge), Dayle Husted, Norman 
Heryford, Brian Harrington, Jeff Tordoff, Frank Smith, James Lewis, Ken. 
Balcomb, and Dave Hoff. 
Very little change was apparent since the survey made during 17-19 
April 1966. The vegetation remains lush and dense and will probably con¬ 
tinue so if present rain conditions persist; throughout the early morning 
of 1 May, intense rain squalls passed over the island. 
A nearly full moon with no cloud cover until nearly 0200 a.m. during the 
night of 30 April-1 ^ay defeated all attempts to band birds. Most of the crew 
was eventually put to capturing birds for blood sampling. Since the boobies 
and frigates had been sampled only 11 days earlier, all blood samples were 
taken from terns (see Table 2). A total of 26 Sooty Terns, 14 Common Noddies, 
and 9 Gray-backed Terns was collected for nasal mite studies. A total of 
13 Blue-gray Noddies was collected for study skins. All collected terns 
served a dual purpose in that blood samples were first taken. Heryford 
headed the ectoparasite collecting which included live tick and chigger 
collections plus Berlese samples (see Table 3). 
