Wirtz, William 0 . 
1964 
7 
June 16 —Steaming on course for French Frigate Shoals 
all day today. ETA 1400 tomarrow. Weather clear and 
varm. 
Sighted two small feeding flocks of sooties and 
vedgetails early this morning and pursued them with the 
ship, ’out were only able to get one sooty. Saw birdd 
with an orange streamer in the group. Sooties were 
fairly common ail day, and sightings were up. Also 
saw more wedgetails, perhaps less Fterodrcma . 
Collected three more sooties during the day. Saw one 
small flock off at a distance tonight which may have 
had tropicbirds also, hut didn't go after it . 
June 17 —Saw three fair-sized feeding flocks today, two 
in the morning and one in late afternoon. All were 
predominantly sooty terns with some fairy tern wedgetails, 
booties Bulwer’s petrel, and a few frigates above them. 
Passed La Perouse Pinnacle and southern most island 
—(disappearing?) also noddies in flocks in French Frigate 
_ about 1515 today. Largest feeding flock was about 6 
miles from the island. There were three brown boobies 
in this flock. We picked up a maximum of four black-footed 
albatross, starting about 1050, and saw one Laysan this 
afternoon east of French Frigate. 
We spent l/2 to an hour in each flock, and collected a 
of six birds. Birds were feeding on small fish which 
were- being driven about wear the surface by feeding 
schools of skipjack. Terns and shearwaters were landing 
in water to pick up fish. Frigates were catching their 
own and chasing other birds. Saw a pair of blue-faced 
boobies sitting on the water also. Birds collected 
were three sooties and a wedgetail by me, a tx-cpicbird 
and a frigate by Bob. 
Sooty terns were very numerous around French Frigate; 
for a while it was impossible to keep an accurate record 
as they were all around the ship at all distances. 
