Jvily 17, 1965 
AIRMAIL 
Mr. Robert W. McFarlane 
Pan American Guest House 
- 5 - 
Wake Island 
Pacific Ocean 
Dear Bob; 
The pro^ct like the piroverbial mushroom cloud since 
you folks left. We now'have 17 field peopflie on the staffs iiwluding 
three PhD's. Win Banko from USFW8 vill be on a leave of ab^ace 
from there to run this project starting in a month or so. Richeu:^ 
Warner (Laysan teal) vill start in January or so after he finishes his 
docterate. Dr. Ely (ornithologist frcaa Kansas) starts in August. Two 
new Research Curators are Bob &indBll and Pat Gtmid, both 
bird men. Bob will be working on Laysan and Pat at sea- I'll explain 
later. Staff is rounded out by 8 Technical Assistants. 
A major addition to the project ceiBB last week. We are to conduct 
monthly surveys on a lAG (zemember the ones alongside us at 
Pearl in Feb.) in a 200 by 250 iRile area somewhere southwest of 
Johnston. "^’Our team will Include two omithologiats (Gotild has 
had some experience off the Pacific coast) and a pro^ssional 
marine biologist. Bushman is now an associate pio^ct offi<»r 
and he will be going <m some of the tni>s. The trips will tate abou t 
20 days each month, and our staff members will move to Honolulu for 
the duration, thou^ the surveys may end in February or March. Tl» 
surveys will be to accurately deterMne the bird utilization of the 
study area, species, time of day (inclxjdlng radar scanning at 
ni^xtO, plankton sampling, water ■ten^erature, current, weather, etc. 
The team will collect Birds frcan a skiff lowered over the side for 
stomach contents and reparoductive tractsj also for positive identification. 
We're going to hove to put a real concentrated effort on Sand 
Island this fail and I think much of this will be up to you and an assistant 
Blnion, Ken Wilz, Ken Aiaermeai and Pat Elliott will be there through 
August banding like mad so that, we hope, many of the birds fouiri. on 
the YAG surveys will be maiked. In deference to your affinity tor solid 
land Phil thought this would be the best spot for you. I riiould 
mentl(»i Just between you and me, that there were evidently some repercussions 
from your behavior on the ship the first trip and this has 
definitely affected Phil's thinking about you. Also a few comments 
about summer help added to the fire. I have had several arguments 
with him about you, but his is chiefly a bone of contention between you and him 
