no chicks yet…I’m expecting them any day now. If I had to guess…I’d say we have 200-ish nesting terns in the main colony…14 pairs in the rock colony and only 2 in the hill colony. For whatever reason, the hill colony is just not taking this year. We had 4 nesting pairs at one time, but all the eggs were predated. I haven’t seen any signs of owls, minks or other predators…but we’re keeping our eyes open. This is the smallest colony I’ve ever worked in and I’m not…well, I wish I had been assigned to the larger colony. I had the choice between the two and I told my interviewer I didn’t care. There’s advantages and disadvantages to each island, but I wish I was a little more busy with the birds.

Things are going okay with the new girl. I had a talk with her and got some things out in the open. I don’t have too much of a problem with her work performance…but our personalities are vastly different. She still makes me pull my hair on occasion. She apologized for nagging and keeping “a tally.” She was all up in arms because alex (other intern) got to put a marker next to a nest and she didn’t. I told her she was being petty and to relax…her and alex will get an equal amount of time doing things during the season. I told her to quit keeping a tally and that things will all balance out in the end…she agreed to try. We had a problem however in dealing with a great black-back gull nest that contained two chicks. The chicks were out of the nest and I put a rock in the nest cup. She later removed it…I put it back again and told her not to touch it. She had a problem with that. I told her I have a problem with an over-populated species of gull that have been seen 3 times this season killing lambs and eating them…among other things. If you think about it…that’s a pretty damn big bird and bold…to kill a lamb…think about what they could do to a colony of little seabirds.

On a brighter note…the weather has been fantastic the last few days. We went for 12 days of rain before we got a break. Hopefully the weather will stay nice for a while. The high for those days was only 56 degrees…it’s nice to be basking in 70 degree weather. Another bright note is that we have a pair of roseate terns nesting in a production plot. Roseates are endangered…so to have a pair here is a big deal, let alone have one in a plot in which we do our studies. So, this season we get to include the roseates!!
I don’t regret at all taking this job…much more interesting here than staying at home back in Wisconsin…outside of hanging out with my friends. However, I’m looking forward to leaving the island and doing a little traveling…only 5 more weeks to go and then I’m off to niagra falls followed by Scotland and clare. It’s going to be a great time all around.