"Banyan Chick" -- a Fairy Tern

I haven't yet done a FOAM post about one of the prettiest birds here on Midway Atoll National Wildlife Refuge.  Its official name is White Tern (Gygis alba rothschildi.)  Many people call it Fairy Tern, which I like better because I think it gives you an idea of how pretty it is.

The bird is also known as Manu o Ku, and is an important bird in Polynesian navigation.  In the morning, Manu o Ku is generally flying away from land for a day of fishing.  Toward the end of the day the bird is returning to land.  This information helps a navigator know which way land is.

When I first arrived on Midway the White Terns were pairing up, and some still are.  A male and female Tern, who are thinking about choosing each other as mates, fly together in the blue sky, sometimes really high.  It's amazing to see them!  They are flying very close together, almost wing tip to wing tip, and are making dips and circles, never crashing into each other.  I don't know how they do it!

White Terns mating in an ironwood tree.

banyan tree, with my bicycle for scale

Strange Cloud

Clouds over Midway are some of the most beautiful I've seen anywhere. Which blue do you like the best in the picture on the left?!

In the right-hand picture above, notice the blue on the underside of the cloud, right above the naupaka bushes.  Sometimes Hawaiian sailing-canoe navigators are far out at sea, and can't see any land.  But, if they see a cloud with blue on it, they know it's reflecting the color of shallow water.  That tells them there's an island underneath the cloud!

But, as pretty as those clouds are, I wouldn't say they're strange.  The strangest cloud I've seen while here on Midway is called a "sun dog." 

One day while I was working in the volunteer office, Greg came running inside and said, "Hurry up!  Come outside!  There's a sun dog up in the sky!"  WHAT?! 

Of course I dropped what I was doing and followed him outdoors.  There was no dog hanging in the air.  But looking a bit to the side of the Sun* we saw what is truly called a "sun dog."  There, in the sky above us, was a faint, circular rainbow around the Sun. It's caused by sunlight passing through ice crystals in cirrus clouds high in the atmosphere.

Now that's a strange cloud!

[*By the way, NEVER LOOK AT THE SUN!  You'll damage the lining of your eyes, which is where you see!!]