scpreiber 
Christmas island 
> 
May. 
Spent the day on the lagoon near isles lagoon, acre o 
ss carvery way and to the north west. Visited four 
islets, and hard time paddling between them and ba 
ck to shore. s pent three hours out in the sun whic 
h is almost too movuh today. 
RTTB: counted 28 in the air at one time, displayir 
g, the look very pink to me. 
X MAS ISLAND WARBLER: 
at the BAnana water area found no less than 9 bit 
ds, got to within only 8 feet of them but had two 
singing in bushes very near. Also at the old site 
near old camp heazrd and saw three birds. CAlls. 
a chrurrp low s kBMiaii sound, and then a higher 
chreep. Both these are quite loud. Then they 
have a rattly weeez-weez,weeez, that they seem to 
give in chorus, with one calling then another call 
ing from across the road or down the bushes a bit. 
All found in either messerschmidia or scaevola, 
both near the ground and up to a boat 15 feet with 
nost seen at aboutlO foot level. Also lave a chur~ 
' weep call with theweep hight and almost a squeek. 
Wish i had a recorder. All these heard in the 
evening aboutd the hour before sunset and up to 
dark. 
m - 
/ 
SCHRE1BER 
CHRISTMAS ISLAND 
PACIFIC OCEAN 
3’ 
May. Spent the day driving around the island with - 
Dudley cook. This guy is really interesting, was 
a history major at Cambridge, and holds an Ha, also 
Md alot of rowing. Very british but fun to talk : 
with. Likes the word fornicate... Joes hill is 
the highest poing on the islad and is 44 feet above 
mean sea level. It now has two crosses on it, at 
one time had three and is sometimes called C lvery.. 
Suriana is called salt bush, it is the firs 
( or one of the first) plants to come up after a 
lagoon dires up, and alsways grows in areas of 
high salt concentration. NearKKKsite there is 
a Pssionia grandis grove covering approx 1/4 acre. 
This is called BUKA by the people here. This grove 
is the only native tree on the island and this is 
one of two places where it graow, the other is on 
Moto TAbu. took pictures. Near Paris, deserted 
long ago, just before the war, there is the reamins 
of a sea plane ramp and hotel operated by the trans 
oaeific airline company. Stopped hare on the way tx 
v T a hiti, during the bomb testing they were bought 
out. 
found the lesser frigate colony: up a little tx 
path just to the west of the oasis. Estimate not 
more than 300 birds here, many immatures, and also 
it looks like there are birds on nests as well as 
courting birds... difficult to get to but not 
impossible. • 
rw - u pp’i i'i y+rmm.n i Wy ;wv r 
