We anchored in about 50 feet of depth behind the larger of the two
islands and immediately launched the kayak and got ready to explore. As
we got ready, two small sharks began circling the boat. It was a little
strange. We have seen lots of sharks since being in the south pacific,
but mostly they just give you a pass and keep moving. These sharks were
definitely circling the boat. We concluded they were the resident black
tips and were bored in their small atoll, and that they had heard our
propellers so they came over to give us a look. As we got ready to get
into the kayak, we noticed that the number had gown from 2 to 4, and
then to 10 sharks. Hmmm! "Hey Manjula, there are 10 sharks circling our
boat!"

We climbed into the kayak, more careful than usual not to tip over, and
paddled for the island. Even from the pass we had seen the swarm of
birds circling the island. From the boat anchored 500 yards off, the
smell of guano was very strong. Now as we paddled over the shallow sandy
bottom dotted with coral heads we were struck by just how many birds
were flying over the small jungly island. We paddled to a little beach
and immediately saw boobies with there chicks nesting under the low
foliage. Up in the branches we saw Angel Terns sitting on there eggs.
There were Red Footed Boobies, and Frigatebirds nesting in the trees,
and flying overhead. As we began to walk around the island these were
joined by larger and larger numbers of Brown Noddys, and Sooty Terns, as
well as Red Tailed Tropicbirds. By the time we reached the end of the island with the most bird activity, we were inundated with hundreds of low flying
terns, boobies, frigates, and noddys. The shrieking and squawking was terrific.