1957 
From: Office Memorandum to Dr. J 
r 1 
W m 
ildrich from biologist Midway 
Atoll: subject: Sea bird populations on Pearl 0 Hermes Ree 
The following, not 
C S 
are a sunmary of observations made on sea bird 
o 
populations on the islands of Pearl and Hermes Reef® Flights were made 
over Pearl and Hermes Reef on 9 December (1245-1325), 17 December (1000 
1100) 195S* and 7 January (1300-1315)* 24 January (1515-1545), 15 April 
(1550-1625 ) 9 and 14 Hay (1520-1610), 1957® 
On most of the foregoing flights, little attention could be paid to 
other species of sea birds, because albatrosses received our primary 
attention, and the abundance of the latter made it difficult to observe 
birds of other species® After the albatrosses departed, 1 took the 
opportunity to arrange a flight for the express purpose of censusing other 
species of sea birds® This flight was made on 14 October® We spent over 
an hour over all of the islands, giving me an opportunity to get estimates 
and counts of many species on all of the islands® * « 
s n a 
following annotated list includes only resident sea birds; 
populations are summarized in Table 1® The only transient shore birds 
observed were about 30 ruddy turnstones ( Arcnaria interpres ) on 14 October 
D1 ornedea ni gri oe s 
Black-footed Albatro 
The methods and results 
of the 1956-1957 albatross census were presented in the previous report® 
However, in that report the population for Pearl and Hermes Reef was not 
broken down by individual islands; this is done in the accompanying table 
Diomedea immutabi11s® Laysan Albatross® See above, under Black¬ 
footed Albatross® For breakdown by islands, see Table 1 
w? 
ula sul 
o 
Ci 0 
Red-footed Boobv® These shrub-nesting boobies are scarce 
at Pearl and Hermes, because of the lack of suitable habitat; however a 
few were observed in the sparse shrubbery on Southeast Island and North 
Island® See Table 1 for numbers® 
Sula leucogaster♦ Brown Booby* These boobies seem quite scarce, 
but because of their dark color, they are not easy to spot from the air, 
and they may be more common than the figures (Table 1) indicate* They 
are frequently observed perching on the wrecked freighter on the east 
side of the reef® 
Sula dactylatra » Masked Booby® These boobies are fairly common* 
On 14 May, about 15 nesting pairs were observed on the bare sandspits. 
The count on 14 October included a fair number of young-of-the-year* 
r re 
aata minor 
Uf jl 0 d 
t Frigate-bird© One of the surprises of the 
eo ■ ■* 
October flight was the large numbers of frigatebirds observed in the air 
and perching in the sparse shrubs on Grass, Southeast, and North Islands. 
Do they nest there, or are they visitants from elsewhere? 
