You may have already heard, or maybe not, but our Short-tailed albatross egg hatched and we have a new chick. This is the only known breeding pair outside of Japan. And if you remember, last years chick was washed away from its nesting area twice, once by storm surge and once by the tsunami. It survived and flew off. I hope this chick doesn't have to go through that too. It hatched last week, on Jan 12, so if all goes well, it should be out of here in July.
Here's a (long) link to the press release:
Here's a link to a couple of my photos on Flickr:
We've got a couple other groups here right now too. We have a group of USFWS people from the regional office and a few from the D.C. office. They are only here for a couple of days, but it's important that the people who make decisions for us out here, to have been here.
We also have a group from Duke University Nicholas School of the Environment. They come out here as part of a class to learn about marine conservation biology. This is the 5th year that they've been here, so as I've done in the past, I'll link to their blog: http://www.nicholas.duke.edu/hawaii/2012/
I highly suggest reading their entries. They take turns writing the blog and they write a lot more than I do.
This is the female Short-tailed albatross on the chick the day after it hatched.
The male came back a few days later to take his turn incubating the chick. The parents will continue to trade incubation stints for a few more weeks before they both leave and go out foraging.
This is a sailfin tang from my snorkel trip last week. There's also a spectacled parrotfish in the background.
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