PRELIMINARY REPORT 
Howland Island 
prepared by 
Dennis Stadel and Robert Tuxson 
Survey Period: April 17-20, 1967 
Personnel : Dennis Stadel (party leader), Robert Tuxson, Vincent Bass, 
Mike Scanlon 
Itinerary : 1400 17 April Stadel and Scanlon Arrive 
1800 18 April Tuxson and Bass Arrive 
0700 20 April Depart Island 
1 
General : 
Extreme care had to be taken when smoking not-to start a grass fire 
as the island was extremely dry. According to Tuxson, it was drier than 
he has ever seen it over the last year. Daylight hours were spent con¬ 
ducting population analyses or special studies. Although we had practi¬ 
cally a full moon, we were not hindered seriously. In two nights of 
banding Sooty Tern immatures we banded over 75 percent of the nonflying 
birds. The bright moon stopped us from working Blue-faced. Boobies except 
for bleeding. Obtaining blood samples was our greatest problem. 
Complete cooperation was obtained by all field personnel and the two 
support vessels. The support vessels even supplied us with steaks two 
night.s. 
Species Accounts 
Red-tailed Tropicbird 
Eight birds were handled in Tuxson’s RTTB study area. One was a new 
banding. Three birds were found on one egg. During the day I never 
counted more than three birds displaying over the island. One bird was 
banded and seven local returns recorded. See separate section on Red¬ 
tailed Tropicbird Nest Site Survey at end of this report. 
Blue-faced Booby 
-i < 
A nest survey was conducted giving the following results: 
1 Egg 
13 
2 Eggs 
17 
Naked Chick 
5 
Small Downy Chick 
3 
Medium Downy Chick 
10 
Large Downy Chick 
16 
No particular trend in breeding is evident from these data. Large number 
of rotten eggs were found in two major nesting areas. Tux gon counted 17 
rotten eggs. 
