Schedule

A few of you were wondering what my schedule is like everyday and generally work and play revolve around when food is served.  Breakfast is 6:30-8am, lunch 11:30-1pm and dinner 5-6:30pm.  Generally they like you to be finished by closing time so really you have to get there a half hour before that.  Most of the time you aren't even hungry at the time you have to go eat but you still end up going because you know you'll be hungry in an hour if you don't eat.  Getting up at 6am is somewhat painful but I'm getting used to it.  It's odd having set times to eat especially on days off because then you work everything around that.  Generally all the volunteers eat together.

This is the Clipper House where we eat.

We usually sit outside so this is our view.

And at the end of the meal we just sit and stare at the birds or the ocean.  Here are the three other volunteers RJ, Nik and Peter.  Nik was the previous volunteer who stayed on longer to try to show us how to do things and will leave Thursday when our fourth volunteer will show up. 

Aside from meals, everyday is kinda different.  We're the field assistants for many projects from albatross and red tropic bird reproduction to marine debris to monitoring CO2.  And sometimes it's not so scientific and lofty. Today we went through and cleaned all the waterproof coats and pants and checked for holes.  Yesterday, we had to go to a duck seep (pond) and get in and clear it of algae because it had grown so thick that it created pockets where the mosquito fish couldn't get to eat the mosquito larvae.  A few days earlier Nik had noticed one of the chicks near that seep had pox which they get from mosquito bites.  It had it on its eye and beak. I didn't think a mosquito could bite a bird's beak but apparently since the beak is still developing it's soft enough for a mosquito to bite it.  The pond looked fairly gross but the algae felt almost more like hair so it was way less slimy than anticipated.  It was actually more fun than cleaning the mildew off the waterproof coats.

This is a picture of a different seep with way less of the algae but it gives you an idea of what we were mucking about in.  We pretty much just had to get in there with our hands and kind work it into a ball like making cotton candy and then throw it on the side of the pond.  One of the guys swore it was just some sort of hazing ritual to see if we would actually do it or not.  I guess that's why he never even got his shirt wet while I was chest deep in the mess. Ugh.

Survival of the fittest

We had been feeling sorry for this chick because he kept going over to his dead friend's nest and just sitting with it and we were feeling its pain and loss until we realized he was probably just sitting in the dead chick's nest to try to sneak an extra meal from the unsuspecting parents...

Albino

Just as creepy as almost every albino thing is. 

He's not fat, he's just big boned.

One of the volunteers nicknamed him Cartman.  He's so big he can't get his legs under him.  We all found it fairly comical until we showed our boss and he said that probably the bird had been fed plastic by its parents (which happens a lot) and a piece had probably ruptured his stomach and so he's completely distended from that.  Poor little thing.

Gremlins

This picture is for my friend Brian.  He's apparently terrified of birds so I thought he'd enjoy this one of a baby chick.  He warned to not let the cute fluffiness fool me since I've seen what happens when they get wet and the only other things that change that drastically when introduced to water are the Mogwai.  So true.

home sweet home

This is our lovely cinder block home.  It's really quite nice and is actually a duplex.  This is our half and the other half is the security guy's house.  I guess they figured that's the best way to ensure the volunteers don't get too out of hand.

Our living room with projector, VCR and DVD player.  The projector displays nicely on the white cinder block.  We also get a few satellite channels.  There are 7 Thai channels (most of the private contractors who maintain the island are Thai), FOX Sports, a business channel, BBC America, History Channel and IFC.  So random.  Sometimes we also get NatGeo.  The reception is really bad though so most of the time you don't know what you are watching through all the snow.  I watched Portlandia last night and my roommates didn't get it and really didn't think it was funny.  So instead they watched a VCR tape of "Honey I Shrunk the Kids."  Whatever.

My bedroom used to be the patio because it has sliding glass windows looking into the living room that they've just added curtains to cover.  But since it wasn't meant as a bedroom it's separate from the others and so kinda secluded which is nice.  I've never had a couch in my bedroom, so fancy, though the couch is a bit worn.  You can see the piece of wood stuck under the cushions to hold them up.

I probably should have straightened the bed a bit before taking the picture.

The view from my porch with more birds, of course.

This is what it looks like at night here.

If you forget your headlamp/flashlight you're pretty much screwed in trying to make it back home unless there's a full moon or something.  Even with a headlamp, when you are on your bike (which is how we all get around) then you have to have a good idea where you are going since you can only see that 30ft in front of you.

It's in the U.S. so of course there's a mall.

It's a small, kind of rundown, kinda moldy smelling mall but I guess it's still considered a mall.  The store is open for 1 hour every day and has an odd assortment of stuff.  I haven't been in the library yet but it's always unlocked (as is most everything) to borrow any book you want.  The All Hands Club has pool tables, ping pong, darts, shuffleboard and a pinball table and is also open to use whenever so if I ever can't sleep I can head over there to practice my bank shots or whatever.

Soggy

We got a lot of rain the past few days and the poor chicks got completely soaked.  They were kind of sad but hilarious looking.

But after popping them in the clothes dryer they were good as new.

Awwwww

This is an albatross chick. They're are all over the island and so stinkin' cute.  Once I found out that the island was covered in them I knew I had to come here.

Battle was won

Everywhere you look there are Laysan Albatrosses nesting and dancing and when you pass them they'll stand and look at you.  It's such an odd moment when they look at you just as curiously as you are looking at them.  I was never really a bird person (although don't tell anyone here that) but now I may be changing my mind.  There are around 388,00 nesting pairs of birds on the island and then they estimate an extra 1 juvenile for every pair so just a crazy amount of birds and that's just for the one species.  There's also two other kinds of albatrosses and lots of other kinds of birds.  The birds actually won the battle for Midway.  The whole island revolves around them which is kind of nice compared to the city where nature has almost been completely squeezed out.  Essentially my days and nights are filled with albatrosses and I love them.

Welcome to Midway.

This is not actually the sign we saw when entering.  We couldn't really see anything when we arrived.  I couldn't even see the runway lights until we landed which was a bit disconcerting since I'm used to landing in NYC which lights everything for miles.  We had to land at night because there are over a million birds here and when they used to land during the day there'd be a birdstrike almost every other flight. So even if there's an emergency or something they'll still probably wait till dark since it does no good to have a rescue flight come in and hit a bird and then need another rescue flight.  The birds do still fly around at night but much less so.