Shipman's field notes, Jan 1979

Any gull, any time in Hawaii, is unusual. When I heard about this bird from the Rare Bird Alert, I headed over right away. The mouth of Paiko Lagoon is shallow with a sandy bottom, so I took off my shoes and waded out carrying the camera. When I got too close, the bird moved further into the lagoon. As I followed it, the bottom changed gradually to about a foot of soft mud over coral. The soles of my feet were fairly well-lacerated by the time I gave up and started wading over toward a residential lawn, probably a house on Summer Street fronting on the lagoon. To add insult to injury, a smallish crab latched onto my left little toe until I pulled that foot out of the water, at which point it dropped off. When I crawled out of the water, the lady who lived in the house was very kind and let me use her hose to wash my feet off. It was all worth it to get these photos.