Critters

Someone asked me what other kinds of animals are here besides birds and I'm sure there are some but mainly all you see are birds.  Here are a few of the other animals I have managed to see behind all the birds-mostly they are sea creatures.  There are mice here too but they aren't as photogenic.  There used to be rats  and they drastically brought down the bird numbers and so a big eradication program was started and I think it took something like four years to kill all the rats.  My boss has a desiccated rat in a zip-lock bag marked as the last rat on the island hanging on his wall. Fun trophy.

 Monk seals are endangered and so we can only get within 150ft or 300ft if they are with pup since they need to rest and you don't want to scare them back into the water where the sharks can get them.

The turtles are also endangered but they like to swim under one of the piers so we can see them fairly often.  They also like to hang out at the aptly named Turtle Beach.

 This was dead but still pretty 

Manta Rays!

Doing somersaults.

 Portuguese Man of War

 Dead crab and sea urchin hanging out in their afterlife.

Fellow volunteers.