^pr^rcAJi 
Kridler Comments 
(RBC) 
p. it 
Blue-gray Noddy (lets get back to that a minute) (garbled) 
Gray-backed. Terns. The question I had here Roger was on your Sheet 
2 under Breeding Habitat, the sentence starting with "Colonies were found 
nesting on North Cliff face,March' 64 '.it is very possible that Amerson and 
Wislocki saw something on the Cliff face but generally it is rare ^ that 
Wc seen . . the Gray-backed ferns, on the Cliff face itself, such as we 
see the noddies. The gray-backs nest just about at the bottom of the is¬ 
land up to the top although they are, as you mention here, the maximum 
densities are •• . are in the canyons and gulches; however, in March 
of 1965 I went all the way down from the top of Miller’s Peak clear to the 
southwest point of the island along the extreme west side and saw many Gray- 
backed Tern nests all the way down from the top to the bottom on the ridge. 
They prefer more open areas on the cliif faces tnan che sooties. 1 oanded 
91 on March l 4 , 1965, and we haven’t had any returns or recoveries on 
them at all. In 1968, August 24 and 25 , the numbers were in the low 
thousands; however, they swelled at night. Here again it would just be an 
extremely rough estimate, I think there probably were uess than 3 ?000 oirds 
or so. Their numbers increased at night but I have no idea justwhat the 
number might have been. We found a few young a_imosC completely feathered, 
still not able to fly, but an awful lot of young which were capable of 
flight. These birds really defend their nests when they have eggs in them 
and I remember teasing one with the palm of my hand by holding it above the 
bird about 5-6 inches while it remained on the egg and it actually jumped 
up and speared me in the palm of the hand with the tip of its bill. Of 
course, it didn't amount to much but it drew a little blood. Give credit 
wo the little things for being spunky. 
I'd like to get back here to the frigatebirds, Roger. This is 
our 
££i 
v 
'larch 1968 trip that you were on ana. I don t know whether you got ^n^-S da on 
or not but we kept track of the frigatebird nests and actually totalled 
, about 2009 nests and I suppose we might have underestimated about 100 or 
so nests but I think it is pretty close. The nest location is as follows: 
Now this will be for both the frigates and Red-footed Boobies. On the west 
slope of Miller Canyon, starting at our camp site up to the top of Miller 
Peak frigatebird nests 300 ,red-footed 105 . Now on the east slope of 
Miller Canyon from the the camp site to the pinnacle, frigate 250 , red¬ 
footed 50 . Now on the saddle between Miller and Tanager Peaks, you know 
where we generally walk right on the top of the cliff face, irigate nests 
40 and no red-footed observed, but halfway up the ridge between 
Miller and Central Valleys I didn't observe anything. Just below Miller 
peak on the same ridge approximately 130 frigate nests. ■ the eas^ slope^ 
of the Devil’s Slide up Miller Peak 25 frigate nests and l 60 red-footednests. 
Just below the peak on the south facing slope of the island frigatebird 
nests 50 , no red-footed. Miller's Plateau just don't seem right, let me 
check this again. Yes, this is Nihoa all rightand March about 50 frigate 
nests and 250 red-footed. Kenyon took the lower east side of the island 
and counted 147 frigate nests and 131 red-footed nests. Ernie Kasaka, as 
