One day we toured a palm-covered and coconut-crab infested motu – a real novelty since in most of the inhabited islands and atolls of the South Pacific the coconut crabs have been overharvested and are now rare.
Later the same day we visited a little rocky motu that was a breeding ground for frigates, boobies and terns. There must be a dozen or more of these little rookeries around the island but for conservation purposes we only visited one in the company of a ranger. There were dozens of frigates nesting in the low shrubbery on the ground: from tiny, naked hatchlings to fluffy chicks and awkward-looking adolescents, almost full-sized and starting to grow in their proper feathers. Boobies were nesting in the larger shrubs and small trees, while terns tucked themselves safely against the bases of the trees and shrubs. It was extremely important to stay on the edges of the island as eggs had been laid almost at random, usually in a patch of vegetaion but sometimes just in the sand, out in the open.