Below is an email I just received:
Hi Jeff,
I was not here the first time you posed the question. On reading it this week, I did the requisite quick search on Google to see exactly where we were talking about…this led me to the video (quite well done, I thought) of the person doing the flyover of the island, giving some history, and then some speculations about the subject which you are addressing below. And I realize that NatGeo has recently explored the topic as well.
We don’t have much historical information for birds there.
The bird populations in the Phoenix Islands were and are quite healthy due to absence/eradication of ground predators. I don’t believe Nikumaroro itself harbored or harbors vast colonies, owing to the types of habitat available, but there certainly would have birds in the area at the time who might have been able “steal” things. The stealing of golf balls in particular seems to be related to their similarity to eggs—It is hard to imagine that the birds would steal all traces of a human castaway—but then there couldn’t have been too much man-made that she (and her navigator?) would have possessed
The unending quest for the truth of reality is powerful driver… sorry I can’t offer more than a passing though on the subject
Best of Luck,
Marc
Marc Devokaitis
Public Information Specialist
Cornell Lab of Ornithology
159 Sapsucker Woods Rd
Ithaca, NY 14850