Stuff We Did

Just to dispel any thoughts that we were lazing about on tropical beaches sipping cocktails, I wanted to share some of the work we did during our 3 month stay.

Planted a garden full of native species outside the Clipper House so that people can see the plants that used to be here in greater numbers.

Outplanted several hundred pots of native bunchgrass to this barren sandlot to encourage wildlife use.

Tried to reduce or remove bird hazards such as these sheets of heavy black plastic that were trapping birds.

This is the site of the old fuel farm and the plastic was intended to contain any spills. Because it is no longer used, we were able to remove a good portion of the plastic. More importantly we removed all the sheets that had fallen down and bunched up that were trapping and killing birds.

Monitored and cleaned up the marine debris every month that is washing up on the beaches.

Here we are with a group of UH-Hilo students with our load of rubbish collected from North Beach.

Helped with a NOAA study that is monitoring the composition of the atmosphere. Midway's location helps assure that the air collected is free of pollutants.

Banded many albatross chicks and tropicbird adults to help with monitoring the survivorship of individual seabirds within study plots.

We wore raincoats for the instances when there was chick poo or vomit. Yum!

For the most part we were always dirty. Here I am trying to clean my feet. Most likely it was a fruitless effort.

Overall I am very proud of the things that we accomplished. Of course the work is always ongoing, but I feel like we helped with a good sized chunk.

In addition to helping out with the restoration work I also gained some excellent field experience and got to observe some amazing birds and bird behavior. Plus I had the chance to meet some of the loveliest people on the planet. I think there must be a magnet underneath the island that attracts really good people. Someone should do a study on that.