Kridler Comments 
(to RBC) 
Qo£l'*^CK >Wk 
p.10 
v »!^-"i 
Now on the last page here on your observations, your tables - all ( 3 f) 
comments about Bureau and' the Pacific Project observations hold as on all 
these other species accounts. Add one more - 1968 - 24-25 March''- population 
estimate 200-250 - most abundant on Miller Plateau. Nests there contain 
sges to almost fledged young. Many immatures flying. USBSFW. 
Rea-tailed Tropicbird - here again nest on ground and shelf of rock 
or vegetation. If you’re going to take that up in your breeding habitat 
I think it’s redundant including it here also. Second sentence beginning 
■with "probably at least one or two birds present in all months” strike out 
"probably at least one or two birds"and substitute "low numbers( 10 s) present 
in all months but much more common from March through September." This 
statement under populations after the last sentence ’in any case the March 1965 
survey was the only recent survey on which active nests were found." I’m trying 
'to scratch my head what we found there in September of 1967 then say what - V 
ftij do you mean by an active nest? Row, if you've got a young bird there which 
vm hasn't fledged yet, that's still an active nest. And in September 1967 we 
saw some large chicks, however, in August 21+-25 1968, we found nests containing 
\ eggs being incubated to those containing almost fully fledged young, and found 
x over 50 nests during the course of other activities, and here we didn't make 
any special search for nests. If we had, we probably would have found quite 
a few more. So therefore, in view of this information, I would completely 
strike out the sentence there under populations in any case the March 1965 
survey was the only recent survey on which active nests were found. This 
certainly is false- So, in light of this last trip of ours, Roger, we’re 
going to have to revise several other statements here. The section - annual 
cycle - the second paragraph - first sentence that starts "the earliest that 
eggs were recorded" you might have to substitute "and the latest they were 
recorded were 24-25 August instead of 7-15 August" and I've no doubt that 
therejxiay be some egg laying taking place after that time. / ihe next page 
ecology - breeding habitat - second sentence "one observer Heiden believed 
that they were' most abundant in the vicinity of the cliff face, etc..." 
I don't believe that. They're pretty well distributed. That West Palm 
Valley, especially the rim rock areas, there's quite a few small caves in 
there and they're quite common there too, and I ! m almost inclined to believe 
that they're more abundant there than the vicinity of the cliff i.ace Detween 
Miller's and Tanager's Peaks. So I take issue with that sentence here in 
the light of what I have found over there in the western part of the islands. 
Here again, Richie didn't get over there at all. Pretty rough going there 
and most of the time we lined up going down that slope. I would insert a 
sentence "Common in rocky crevices at the base of rimrock outcroppings 
over west end of island and West Palm Canyon". Ihe last sentence "many 
also nest beneath dense vegetation" strike out many and insert the word 
"some". Generally when they're under the dense vegetation Roger, they're 
in a little puka in the rocks. We might instead say "most nests are found 
in rocky cavities"and let's put it this way "most nests are in rocky cavities 
are found all over the island. Rocky canyons and outcroppings are favored. 
■ -v~> H 
