Gene Kridler to Roger Clapp 
Tape 
p.8 
Please note that I banded two on Nihoa in March 1969 and there were also others, 
however, I didn't take the time to band them and there's no doubt that the one seen 
there in 1965 certainly was a Sooty Storm Petrel and could not be confused with anything 
else. 
BlM**"*” 
iKM.WKSni*'” 
Red-tailed Tropicbird - no major changes, except on the last paragraph in the annual 
cycle - last line - where you until late March or April, I scratched out late March and 
inserted early April. We haven't found anything in March yet. Then the last paragraph 
I've inserted a sentence "Kridler states that shallow small caves on the ledges along 
the upper portions of Bull, Summit and Flagpole hills are favored as are crevices on the 
upper west slopes of Northwest Cape." Were I to look for a nesting bird, I'd drop down 
below the top of either Annexation or Bull hill, maybe about l/3rd of the way down and 
work along the ledges over there and would certainly find if there's any Weeding on the 
island there would be a few there. The 1969 data was inserted. Now here in '69 we did 
not have a chance to work too much along those ledges and so we didn't find any young. 
Blue-faced Booby - 1969 data has changed the maximum recent estimates from 250 to 
500. The third line - the sentence - nests on the ground on the higher slopes, I have 
added "and on ridge tops". Now you have a sentence here "thus we suspect that 
the Necker mid-summer populations do not exceed 300-400 birds’.' I say "thus we suspect 
that the Necker mid-summer populations do not exceed 500-600 birds." And where you 
say that this figure is considerably less than that reported for June 1923 by Wetmore 
suggests that fewer birds now nest on Necker, I’ve said this figure is less than that 
reported for June 1923 by Wetmore. And I’m wondering just how accurate Wetmore’s figures 
were. If accurate, how representative, since it was for only one year and just a very 
brief period for that year. And we know that populations will fluctuate, so how can we 
suggest that fewer birds now nest on Necker when we compare data from a number of springs 
here recently to one record going back there in June 1923? 
1 
And, on the next page - ecology and breeding habitat - on several subsequent visits 
June 1923, July 1964, March 1965, 1967, I've added "and 1969. 
Then on the next page table I've inserted 1969 data and here again we had an 
actual nest count of 230 nests and here again it's possible we might have missed 5-10 
