Spit Island

Today we took Forest and Kim Starr over to Spit Island to look at the plants there. They couldnt believe how much the naupaka and heliotrope have taken over the island. They also were happy to see the popolo (solanum nelsonii) and sea purslane were doing so well. Greg and I pulled the verbesina that has sprouted since the last time (about 2 months ago).
Tomorrow is our big day so I'm going to quit writing and get to bed.

Forest and Kim are checking out one of the popolo plants.

A red-footed booby chick seeing what's going on from its nest in a heliotrope tree.

There were 9 seals on Spit Island today. Here are 5 of the seals. There are 2 mothers with pups and another seal resting nearby. You can see a dark speck on the beach on Eastern Island near the top of the picture that is another mom and pup pair.