For the last six weeks our team has been very busy counting Laysan and Black-footed albatross on Midway Atoll in the Northwest Hawaiian Islands. We are nearly finished with the count, though official numbers will be released by the USFWS when the numbers have been verified. As you can see from the following photos, there are a lot of birds.
This is a view of the albatross colony on Eastern Island, looking at Sand Island in the background (Greg Joder 2025).
On our days off we go birding, swimming, or walking on the beaches that are open to humans. Most of the beaches on the islands in the atoll are closed to people in order to protect sensitive species like the Hawaiian monk seal and sea turtles.
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