■•irtg . W' lllam 0 . 49 
1963—At Spa 
Augus t £ 
Heading HF on the fourth leg today. Strong wind blowing frog F, 
perhaps 20 knots, Sea from F with swells 10-15 feet. Partially cloudy 
with one brief shower. Warm. 
Fro ^ dawn till aboxit 1500 today we ran through many large groups 
of mostly sheerw'ters, the largest group thin afternoon of 2-300. 
. r r _ . •• , *. # 
The group'b were generally heading F or PH, though at times circling ‘s if 
feeding. Flocks were seen sitting on w* ter. They appeared to be mainly 
Christinas Island until we collected one with pink f pr£ end a wedgetail. Thus 
the dark phase of the wedgetail may be very dark and difficult to separate 
<• 
from Christmas Island at sea. However the former has dark win# tips 
(primaries) which are noticeable in the sun while the latter should "be 
uniformly dark* We also sew flocks of Sooty Terns and collected one of 
% 
/ *._ • . - * M ; 
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them, but noted no orange tags. Two more im- ature red-tai le- Tropicbirds 
were taken. This afternoon Mike r hot a ruddy turnstone, the second we have 
seen this trip. Late this afternoon we apparently ran out of the feeding 
groups, end we have only seen a few birds since 1600. 
0100 
L 13°3? * / > 173°02‘ 
05 0 
L 14 0 16* ~A 172°48* 
0545 
Bird 
reported by fanteil watch flying loi* over 
water and silhouetted against clouds 
0610 
Bird? 
white object moving in starboard light 
against direction of waves 
0615 
Bird”* 
silhouette passed across helo deck in moon light 
0645 
Frigate? 
Reported by fantail watch 
0650 
Bonin T* Petrel 
3 headed W off port 
