In the Mariana Islands

Garapan, Saipan, Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands 2/13/2006

Yesterday (and today I guess) was one of my long travel days. I didn't change
my watch crossing all the time zones until I got into the hotel Hyatt Regency,
Saipan) at about 2 a.m. That was about 26 hours after I woke up on the 11th.
I lost a day crossing the international date line so I left Hawaii on Saturday
around noon and arrived in Saipan on Monday in the wee hours. There was a brief
(1.5 hr) layover in Osaka at around 7 p.m. local time but it was dark there
and I really couldn't see anything of Japan.

I met the rest of the evaluation team thismorning at &:30 a.m. and we had

our first meeting with the Coastal Resource Management Office staff at 8:00
a.m. Dr. John Joyner is the Director of the CRMO and was very recently appointed.
Steve Tilley is the Deputy Director. I know I've seen Steve before at Program
Managers Meetings in D.C.

We had a full day of meetings, getting to tour the office and meet staff as

well as talk with a variety of partner agencies. There is a large number of
departments that make up a board that works on permitting, monitoring and enforcement.
This permitting focus took up most of the day.

Here and there I got a few glimpses of interesting birds. I'm not getting any

real opportunities to do serois birding, but instead spotting things over lunch
or when we are driving. So far the highlights are Fairy Terns, Micronesian honeyeaters,
and Collared Kingfishers. The Honeyeaters are hanging out in the trees below
my hotel room balcony. It is 2 in the morning at home as I write this. My biological
clock is so screwed up after yesterday that I don't know what time it feels
like to me. I'm going to go off to meet with some of the rest of the team for
dinner here in a bit. I guess I'll just try to act as though I'm on this time
zone and maybe my body will believe it.