living bird

Picked this up yesterday in a waiting room and found these photos of

wooly Laysan Albatrosses on Midway Atoll to be real inspiring!

Living Bird | Cornell Lab of Ornithology | Summer 2010

Photos by Cliff Beittel

Midway Atoll, one of the most isolated places on earth, is midway between Japan

and San Francisco. Midway was the site of one of the greatest naval battles in history

(June 4-7, 1942) and is one of the ten Northwestern Hawaiian Islands (or Leeward Islands)

stretching 1,300 miles west-northwest of the eight main Hawaiian Islands.

Midway is the largest of the Leewards, the only with permanent human residents,

and the only one open to the public. Like the others, it was once a volcano,

perhaps 3,000 feet in elevation. Now just three low, sandy islands-- Sand, Eastern,

and Spit-- remain, surrounded by a coral reef five miles in diameter growing on the

shoulders of the submerged peak.

Two young Laysan Albatrosses sit at their nests in front of a WWII

artillery piece on Eastern Island.

I like the idea of a wooly, matted texture, green grass color, and blue sky played against

hints of naval/military influence of years past. While keeping images/ideas of volcanic

activity/coral reefs and many miles of ocean in mind too.

A nesting colony on the interior of Sand Island.

The young birds sport brown, wooly-looking down.

This guy was on the back cover, I just love his pattern!

(kind of similar to wycelf's cap in the video below too heh)