Birds On Midway Island

In the mid 1950s my husband got stationed on Midway Island. The family was thrilled to be able to live on such a very small but wonderful island way out in the Pacific Ocean. The main island is just 1/2 mile wide, 2 miles long. Unfortunately I was young, busy raising children and wasn't into photography at that time. These first few pictures I got off the internet. Sorry but these birds are just too good to pass up and I did observe them almost daily in real life.

#1. This is a white tern. It's a small bird who lives a long life. Some have been recorded to have lived as long as 40 years. They lay their eggs (no nest) in the fork of tree branches. They are very curious and often would hover over my head, checking me out, as I walked to the base exchange.

#2. These are frigates. I didn't see them as much as the other birds for they lived on the other island (there are two small islands in the Midway Atoll) and we didn't go there often. They are large, the wing span is over 7 ft. and they can soar for weeks just on wind currant. The male has a red pouch that he inflates during mating season. They are a cousin to cormorants of which we in the U. S. are more familiar with.

#3  The red-tailed tropicbird has feathers that extend twice their body length. Both the male and female incubate the single egg until it is hatched. I have a movie of my oldest daughter, Marie, poking the end of her baton at one of these birds nesting on the hill next to our yard. But, no picture!! You see, there was no photo shop on Midway. The only way we had to have camera film developed was to take it to one of the wives who had set up a small darkroom in her apartment. So, we didn't take many pictures.

#4. Now, we are to picture I did take!! This one shot I captured off of a movie I made of two albatross doing the mating dance in our front yard.

#5. My middle daughter in our front yard with a baby Albatross in the foreground. The entire island is a bird sanctuary so we had albatross nesting in our yard. Once my toddler son was bitten by one of the birds. A quick trip to the dispensary ...and he was good as new.

#6. Again in our yard. My 3 children (the 2 in front are Shirley and Michael, Marie from A Colorful World blog is holding Michael.  And, there is an adult albatross sitting on her nest.

Hope you don't mind the internet pictures. I just thought they would tell more of the story. You really should research Midway Island and the wonderful work being done there to preserve the wildlife that inhabit that part of our world. Links: https://www.facebook.com/PacificIslandsFWS/
https://www.fws.gov/refuge/midway_atoll/

Linking with Saturday Critters and Camera Critters