Los Farallones

PRBO Conservation Science presents Los Farallones

2100-12-31T00:00:00.000-08:00

<- Click on the LIVE FARALLON WEB CAM link for live images from the island!

Over the Hills and Far Far Away

2011-12-29T21:38:00.000-08:00

Saturday December 3^rd, 2011

Alarm goes off. It is 5:00 a.m. Rushing around to get the last minute items loaded into the van before the PRBO Conservation Science Farallon Program Winter crew heads to Southeast Farallon Island (SEFI) for 3.5 months. Five thirty in the morning rolls around and a phone call comes through. Fall biologist, Jim Tietz delivers what is to the winter crew bad news. The sea is a bit angry this morning. Roaring 10 foot swells from the Northwest combined with 15 knot winds from the Northeast make for a nasty boat landing day. The seasonal switch is called off. Optimistically a bit more rest for the weary.

After a couple hours of extra sleep we all gathered in the kitchen and discussed what we wanted to do with our extra day on the mainland. The decision was unanimous and promptly made. If we can’t go to the Farallones today then we will get as close as we possibly can. We gathered our hiking gear and headed for Point Reyes National Seashore. The weather treated us well with plenty of sunshine and visibility of 30 plus miles. And sure enough as we climbed high onto a bluff, there they were, those rugged rocks looming 18 miles from where we stood. It seemed like such a nice day from our vantage point. But we have a keen understanding that what you see on the land can be drastically different from what you experience on the islands. So we continued our birding, hiking and sealing and thoroughly enjoyed one last day on the mainland.

Farallon Islands just at the horizon as seen from Point Reyes National Seashore

Sunday December 4^th, 2011

The Farallon Patrol run went quite smoothly. We arrived at the Marina in San Francisco at 7:00 a.m. and began to load our gear on to the boat “Sari Ann” with Skippers Warren Sankey and Allan Weaver. This 40 foot lobster boat from Maine is the perfect vessel for seasonal switches as there is ample deck space for the enormous amounts of gear that usually accompanies these trips. Warren and Allan are also very welcoming of all our belongings and we appreciate their time and effort in making these events go so well. Thank you kindly gentlemen.

Leaving San Francisco Bay on the "Sari Ann" with skippers Warren & Allan.

Two and half hours later and we are staring at East Landing. I believe the Fall crew wanted off just as badly as the Winter crew wanted on the island. As the seasons change so do the wildlife and biologists that study them. Off with the fall land bird lovers and on with the winter elephant seal enthusiasts. With the seas and weather cooperating the boat landing went according to plan and the seasonal switch was completed in three hours time.

Our approach to East Landing

Monday December 5^th – Monday December 28^th, 2011

Since the seasonal switch the Winter crew has been getting acquainted with the island and setting up the routine that will be life over the next 14 weeks. And with that said, proper introductions are of utmost importance.

I, Ryan Berger - PRBO Farallon Program Biologist, am returning for the second season as the lead during the winter. My background entails behavioral monitoring, rescue coordination, stranding response and necropsy of marine mammals on the East coast. I have a Masters degree from Georgia Southern University where I studied manatee distribution patterns in Crystal River, FL. While working as a marine mammal biologist for Florida Fish & Wildlife Conservation Commission (FWC) I obtained hands on experience with North Atlantic Right Whales, Florida Manatees, Atlantic Bottlenose Dolphins along with a few other cetacean species. My main focus is now geared towards the population dynamics and reproductive success of the Farallon’s Northern Elephant Seal breeding population.

Enjoying some hot chocolate while watching the sun sink and drown within the sea.

Jane Khudyakov has returned for a second winter with the elephant seals of the Farallones. She is eager to see which seals from last year will return this season and to put skills learned last year back into practice (like stealth crawling to Mirounga Beach). Jane has a background in developmental biology, genetics, and microbiology, but fell in love with seals while working with rescued pinnipeds at The Marine Mammal Center in Sausalito. She has also monitored wild seals at Point Reyes National Seashore and birds of prey with Golden Gate Raptor Observatory. Finally free of the laboratory, she is eagerly embarking on a new career in pinniped biology and is happily roaming Southeast Farallon Island in pursuit of as many pinniped species as she can find, baby seals of the elephantine kind, and birds - especially those that like to eat mice. She is practicing her photography skills and recording her own personal career-change experiences in her blog, smellephantisland. Great to have you back this season!

Jane doing a little cetacean watching from the Light House.

Jason A. Jones has come out for his first season as a winter intern on the Farallon Islands. Jason has been working as a field biologist for the last ten years, gaining experience with marine mammals, seabirds, and any other distractions along the way. He has researched tropical reef fauna including coral, sea turtles, and cone snails while pursuing university degrees. His marine mammal experience ranges from the Arctic to Australia, including working as a marine mammal observer on seismic vessels; population assessments of Hawaiian monk seals; monitoring Alaskan Steller sea lions; and anthropogenic effects on fur seals in Australia. In addition to becoming an avid birder while growing up in Corpus Christi, Texas, Jason's birding experience ranges greatly from offshore, wetland, and terrestrial surveys to animal rehabilitation; and living at remote field camps ... which are most often full of looney birds (camp mates). I think there might be a book out at some point that details the “Short stories and compilations from the life of Jason Jones”. He has had quite a few interesting experiences in his lifetime and the stories to go with them. Seriously Jason how many lives have you lived?

Cheers big ears. To another wonderful sunset.

Last but certainly not least Ms Kerry Froud comes to us from Dorset, England. Kerry graduated from the University of Chichester with a BA (honours) degree in adventure education. It was during her university work placement year in Tonga where she was involved in humpback whale research that she decided to pursue a career in conservation science. Since then she has been gaining as much field experience as possible. She has volunteered for the Manx Wildlife Trusts’ basking shark, grey seal and cetacean projects on the Isle of Man, been an intern for the UK’s national cetacean sightings charity Sea Watch Foundation and has volunteered for various PhD students in New Zealand and Australia studying New Zealand fur seals, sperm whales and humpback whales. As an added bonus everything sounds so much fancier when it is spoken with a posh English accent and I am glad that she has a good sense of humor in regards to our bad attempts to speak like her. Bog standard, keen, Bob’s your uncle, Fannie’s your aunt, Cheers big ears are just a few new vocabulary phrases we have learned from Kerry.

Kerry trying to get an accurate measurement on a squirmy sally.

It has certainly been fun getting to know one another over the past three weeks and I have a feeling this is going to be a fun season. Now that we have introductions sorted let’s move on to the science side of life. This post will simply touch the surface of all the different projects we have going on that fill up our minutes, hours, days and weeks out here on the island.

Every morning we are up at dawn to count the territorial and roosting gulls on the islands. One person heads up the hill to the Light House while the other starts at North Landing and all the gulls on the island are counted in groups of 10. Currently we are seeing over 10,000 gulls (mostly Western but also Glaucous-winged, Herring and California) which makes for quite the alarm clock at 0630 hrs. As we meander about the island we keep track of land birds that have come to greet us. Currently we are seeing Black Phoebes, Say’s Phoebe, Common Ravens, American Kestrel, Peregrin Falcons, sparrows, hummingbirds, shore birds, thrushes, warblers and the list goes on. With the fantastic weather we have been experiencing there is always the potential for new arrivals which makes each day exciting and eventful. So far some of our standouts this season include a juvenile Bald Eagle (first one since 1998 and 8^th overall record for the islands) and a White-tailed Kite (seen one other time this year).

Jason captured this Common Raven chasing off the juvenile Bald Eagle with his fancy camera.

Kerry snapped this photo of the White-tailed Kite through the branches of the pine.

We also check the known roosts of 4-5 Burrowing Owls (BUOW) that are on the island. On warm sunny days these guys can be seen at the entrance to their burrow soaking up some of the sun’s rays. A comprehensive BUOW survey is conducted once a week where past roost are checked and pellet collections are made. Collecting owl pellets allows us to examine them in detail in order to follow prey items they consume throughout the year. Enough with the birds … on to the marine mammals!

Jason caught this BUOW sitting at its roost on Corm Blind Hill.

If weather permits we conduct a cetacean (dolphin & whale) watch from the light house for three hours a day. At the moment we are consistently seeing 2-4 Gray whales. More recently we have seen a yearling diving and feeding in Mirounga Bay and a total of 25 whales on the 27^th! Each day we also visit all of our elephant seal breeding sites in order to resight tags placed in hind flippers. These tags allow us to track individuals over time and in general assess the health of the population. While we are doing tag resights we also record daily counts of adult females (cows), pups and breeding males (SA1-4 and bulls). This allows us to calculate reproductive success and pup survival each season.

Gray whale as seen from the light house on a clear day.

A group of immature elephant seals swimming during a high tide at the gulch.

We have some of our usual suspects back from last season. Our much adored alpha male of Sand Flat, Rusty, is back once again this season. If he successfully “holds down the fort” this will be his 4^th season in a row as alpha male of the most productive harem on the island. In areas that experience larger harems and more elephant seals an alpha male usually only acquires alpha status for one season. It is physically taxing to the males when they defend and mate with up to 100 cows in larger harems. Each season in a busy harem there are plenty of bigger, stronger and faster bulls waiting to challenge the alpha from the year before which means higher turnover for alpha status. Rusty may be able to continue his alpha male status because he expends less energy each season defending less than 50 cows. Because he seems to be a well tempered bull we wish Rusty continued success in displaying his dominance. On the other hand, last season’s alpha bull of Mirounga Beach Mc Hammer is back again. He seems to be an ill tempered animal as he killed a few of the weaned pups in his harem last season. This year Mc Hammer comes back to us with a blind left eye. Perhaps an indication of his aggressive interactions with other seals. Other returnees include Herzog, Guthrie, Tyler Xavier, Rumpelstiltskin and Bob.

Big bad MC Hammer with a bum left eye.

We have also positively identified five cows this season. They include Gertrude, Gruedy, Kyra, Prima and Alizabeth. An untagged cow that we have seasonally named Taha (number one in Tongan) produced the first pup of the season on the 21^st of December! This is two days earlier than last year. We are happy to say that the pup has been seen nursing two days after birth and the outlook is good for the little male. Since then Alizabeth and Kyra have also produced male pups. With only six cows at the moment we realize the season is about to get very busy. Cows start showing up in droves from here on out. The difficulty we are experiencing this season centers around the presence of many California Sea Lions in areas that we have normally been able to census on foot in the elephant seal rookeries. However, because of the skittish nature of sea lions and the minimal impact we are trying to have on the wildlife at the Farallones we are conducting all of our elephant seal work from the blind. Which means mucho more patience is necessary!

Alizabeth with her male pup shortly after he was born on Sand Flat.

Some of our other data collection responsibilities include the once a week pinniped census, the by-weekly elephant seal census, the by-monthly salamander surveys, bait degradation studies, population monitoring of the invasive Russian house mouse and invasive plant removal (a.k.a. weeding). And as usual chunks of time are spent fixing different supplies, equipment and facilities as there is a “Farallon Factor” on this island which translates to things breaking down much more quickly than normal.

The winter interns getting their salamander fix in.

An adult Farallon arboreal salamander showing off its spots.

Finally, Merry Christmas to everyone!

We had a cozy and quaint Christmas here on the island, equipped with presents, a small Christmas tree, animal themed ornaments and Christmas lights! The day started with gull counts, a full English breakfast, an elephant seal census, cheese platter and hors d’oeurves , some tag resighting from the blind and a massive Christmas dinner. Menu included orange glazed ham, stuffing, Raab broccoli and scallions, roastie potatoes and parsnip, chocolate mousse and of course ample amounts of mulled wine. We rounded out the evening with the board game Balderdash and slept like champs.

Christmas presents!

Farallon Christmas tree with animal ornaments.

Hand made cards that Kerry made fro each of us.

Sitting down for Christmas dinner.

Preparing the cheese plate.

Spending time away from family and friends during the Holiday season demands a certain degree of self reflection. Why would we put ourselves in this situation? Sure there is a sense of feeling homesick while talking to loved ones on the phone while they are all gathered in one place enjoying the occasion. Sure there is the absence of catching up face to face with those you haven’t seen in a while. There are loads of things to miss about not being with family during the Holidays. But if we focused on missing those aspects of life we would miss out on the unique opportunity that greets us each morning as we step outside the front door. There is a special, peaceful easiness felt while spending these moments out here on the Farallones. No busy Christmas shopping, no long lines, no traffic jams, no materialistic ideals masking the true meaning of why we come together. Life gets boiled down to the basics out here. We work hard, we eat well, and we laugh often. We form tight friendships. We prefer quality over quantity. We become the family that we miss. And that is an important part to the culture here on the islands. If you can’t be with the ones you love then love the ones you are with.

Who really knows?

This was all Kerry's idea & somehow didn't end up in the photo.

By slowing our pace we fine tune our skills at noticing the small details in life. Each day holds something new, something slightly different than the one before. We aim to be minimal. We aim to be simple. And with these attempts life is filled with everything we need.

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year from the Winter Farallon Family.

Jason didn't get the memo - don't look at the camera amigo!

A Farallon Thanksgiving

2011-11-25T13:19:00.001-08:00

A common misconception about living on an island is that you undoubtedly eat poorly. No grocery store? Military rations it is! Fortunately, that is not the case here on the Southeast Farallon Islands. Every two weeks we are resupplied with food by a group of volunteers who do a large shop for us, picking up an assortment of fresh produce, dairy, meats and other goods we might need. So, despite what may have been envisioned for a SEFI thanksgiving, it is always a feast comparable to any mainland meal!

Liz prepping the stuffing:

Mashed potatoes and blueberry-apple pie in the works:

The turkey and a pie, almost ready:

Jim serving himself some stuffing and sweet potato casserole:

The meal: stuffing, gravy, turkey, cranberry sauce, sweet potato casserole, mashed potatoes and sweet potato biscuits:

Blueberry-apple pie:

Chocolate pecan pie:

Spelunking for the Farallon Cave Cricket

2011-11-22T15:03:00.001-08:00

In the early 1900’s, Milton Ray, a poet and scientist whovisited the Farallones several times, described the Lost World Cave in thefollowing poem:

More strange the Lost WorldCave. Ah me!

How few have trod its rough darkfloor,

Where chambers weird in endlessmaze

Far downward lead, throughdarksome ways.

Rayphotographed the cave, but after his last visit, he stated that its entrancehad been collapsed by islanders to prevent children from entering and gettinglost. Although, the reputed photographof the Lost World Cave shows limestone features, which contradict the graniticcomposition of the island, contemporary islanders have always wondered aboutits existence and where it might be located.

Reproduced from "The Farallones, The Painted World, and Other Poems of California, vol. 2" by Milton Ray

On 11 and 12 November 2011, we explored all of the known, accessibleFarallon caves with the crew of Island Conservation to estimate the populationof the endemic Farallon Cave Cricket. The Farallon Islands are pockmarked withwave-carved sea caves. Most of these cavesare still at sea level, with waves rolling in and out, excavating minutequantities of material with each thundering slap. Most of these caves, though, are difficult toaccess and unlikely to harbor crickets anyhow, so we did not enter them. However, at some point in the island’sgeologic past, the island was either uplifted 50 feet, or the sea level was 50feet higher. This left four caves thatare deep enough for a cricket to evolve into a species found nowhere else onthe planet.

The Farallon Cricket (Farallonophiluscavernicolus) was first described by David C. Rentz in 1972. It is a member of the camel or cave cricketfamily (Rhaphidophoridae), which is quite diverse in California. Species in this group are wingless and have abrownish, humpbacked appearance with large hindlegs and long antennae. The Farallon Cave Cricket is noexception. However, several anatomicalfeatures are sufficiently distinct from other members of the camel cricketfamily to warrant it a unique genus. Behaviorally, the Farallon Cave Cricket frequently gathers together insmall to large groups that can number up to 100 individuals. When they feel threatened, as when a brightlight is held up to them, they may drop off the cave wall or ceiling to thefloor below. They require moist areasand darkness. Little is known about their natural diet, but they will eat oatsin captivity; it is thought that they may forage on organic material broughtinto the caves by nesting seabirds.

Farallon Cave Cricket. November 12, 2011.

The first cave we explored was the Rabbit Cave,which is the largest known cave on the island and is located on the southeastfacing slope of Lighthouse Hill. Thiscave received its name from the rabbits that were introduced to the island inthe 1800’s and used to plague islanders and wildlife alike. After many failed attempts by previousislanders, PRBO biologists succeeded in eradicating the rabbits in 1975. The entrance to this cave starts out as a 50foot crawl before opening up into a spacious cavern that is nearly 20 feethigh. This open cavern extends backanother 50 feet or so before petering out. Although this is the largest cave on the island, the crickets were small (~ half an inch) and not especially numerous, with 700-800 present. Perhaps this is due to the southeast orientation of the cave entrance that produces a relatively dry interior.

Spelunking crew exploring Rabbit Cave.

Dan Grout recording cricket data.

We then visited a small cave between E-seal Blind Hill and Pointy Cliff that has a 5 x 5 foot opening and extends back about 15 feet. One islander recently got the creeps here, so this cave now goes by the name Spooky Cave. This cave faces northwest so that the prevailing winds keep it moist and mossy. Despite the cave's shallowness, there were approximately 300-500 crickets, a quarter of which were relatively large (nearly an inch long).

The approach to Spooky Cave. Aren't you scared?

Spooky Cave's interior isn't too spooky

Corm Blind Cave was next on our spelunking tour. This cave is only about 4 feet high and extends back about 12 feet. It also faces northwest and is quite moist, but differs from the others in that it lacks a large, protective chamber behind a small opening that can shelter the crickets from the full force of the winds. In this cave, we found about 100 crickets and a Burrowing Owl!

Corm Blind Hill Cave

On the northwest side of Shubrick Point is a large cave that we have recently named Cricket Cave. The entranceis 6 x 9 feet, and the initial chamber is ~60 feet deep. This chamber tapers down in the back and appears to end. A narrow passage remains hidden until you walk right up to the end. When we first discovered this passage last year, we wondered if we might have stumbled upon Lost World Cave. The second chamber is impressive, and goes another 70 feet before tapering down again to a crawl space that apparently dead ends. This is a much wetter cave than the others, with stalactites andmany active formations. There were 300-600 crickets within 25m ofentrance, and even one in a spider web at the entrance itself. There were~500-700 crickets in the back chamber, at least 150 feet from entrance, and probably more than 1,000 crickets in total in this cave.

Dan Grout preparing to enter Cricket Cave

Cricket Cave's initial chamber narrowing down.

Interesting cave wall patterns

Cricket congregation showing different sizes

Nice stalactite formation

Mushroom stalactites growing off the walls

Although it seems the majority of Farallon Cave Crickets live in these large caves, they can also be found in smaller crevices. During the night of November 18, while watching Cassin's Auklets and Arboreal Salamanders wander about, we saw ~150 crickets in and around the small crevices near "The Gap," an area on the northwest side of the island. Perhaps these small crevices are used as refuges during dispersal events.

A small crevice that held several crickets

Although we didn't find the Lost World Cave, this spelunking expedition taught us a bit more than we knew before about the Farallon Cricket's behavior and demography.

First Island Records and other fun birds

2011-11-18T22:12:00.001-08:00

Southeast Farallon Island has one of the largest species lists for such a small area at this northerly latitude. With over 40 years of ornithological scrutiny and a list of 418 species, adding a new one to the list has gotten increasingly difficult. Many of the species that are rare to California have been seen here already. However there are numerous possibilities that have yet to make their debut in the state, and we ponder frequently which of these will show up here next. Several other species, such as Western Scrub-Jay and American Dipper, are common in the state, but because of their more sedentary nature are unlikely to ever cross 20 miles of inhospitable ocean. Although this latter group does not have the same exotic appeal as the former, long-time Faralisters are just as interested in this group.

One group that many Faralisters struggle with are ducks. Other than Surf Scoters, ducks seem to shun flying this far off shore. Three merganser species are commonly seen California, but only one, the Red-breasted Merganser, had been seen by Faralisters prior to today. Of the two remaining, Hooded and Common, Hooded seemed slightly more likely just because they are a longer distance migrant. On November 18th, though, Oscar Johnson spotted a Common Merganser in basic plumage just offshore. We all ran down to the East Landing to document this new species. Sam Roberts managed to get a few decent photos that clearly distinguish this merganser from the similar Red-breasted, but unfortunately it flew just before we could get even better photos. From Sam's photos, the clear white chin patch is cleanly demarcated from the dark throat, and the dark throat has a clean, straight demarcation below against the mostly white breast. Furthermore, the bill is thick-based and is bright orange along the culmen (or top edge). Red-breasted Merganser has a thin bill with a dark culmen and has a blurry throat with no clean-cut pattern. The Faralist now stands at 419!

In addition to this first island record and the previously mentioned Short-tailed Albatross, we have seen several other interesting birds. October 25th was a particularly nice day with light west winds and 5-10 miles of visibility. A Summer Tanager and female Black-throated Blue Warbler were briefly seen at the lighthouse, but of greater interest were the island high count of eleven White-throated Sparrows and the long-returning Say's Phoebe, who we now refer to as Simon. This phoebe was first banded in 2007 and has returned to spend its fifth winter on the island.

In addition to the above mentioned species, we also enjoyed two Swamp Sparrows and a rarely captured Rock Wren. A few of these wrens typically over-winter every year, but they rarely come near our nets since they are not attracted to the few trees where the nets are located.

On November 1st, we were graced with a second Yellow Palm Warbler in just two years. Western Palm Warblers are fairly common here during the fall, but the more easterly Yellow Palm is a very scarce migrant to California. As the common name implies, Yellow Palms have more yellow than Westerns, in particular on the throat and the supercilium (or eye brow). Prior to last year's Yellow Palm, this subspecies had not been adequately documented from the Farallones.

Here are two images of Western Palm Warblers for comparison:

November 3rd proved to be another good day for migrants with an Eastern Phoebe, a male Black-throated Blue Warbler, and a record late Pectoral Sandpiper; the previous late date was 23-Oct. A second Eastern Phoebe made an appearance the next day.

Also of interest were a few odd birds that had some of us scratching our heads such as this Herring Gull. American Herring Gulls (smithsonianus) typically have more solidly dark back feathers and wing coverts. The anchor patterns on the back feathers, checkered wing coverts, and tail pattern (not visible in this photo) are suggestive of the Asian Vega Gull, but the pale bill base, heavily barred undertail coverts, smudgy head streaking, and anchor patterns this early are not typical of Vega.

Another gull that caused some excitement was this bird, which looks to us like a Slaty-backed Gull, a largely Asian species which is as-yet unrecorded on the Farallones. Some aspects of the plumage gave us pause as to whether it was a pure Slaty-backed, including the limited streaking around the eye, the apparently rather pale mantle, and the limited "string-of-pearls" in the primaries (not shown in the photo below). Communication with birders in Japan, where this species is regular, furthered our belief that this bird is within the range of a pure Slaty-backed Gull. We will submit this record to the California Bird Records Committee to see if they endorse the identification.

A Yellow-rumped Warbler intergrade between Audubon's and Myrtle spiced up our day. This individual shows the eye arcs and lack of a supercilium typical of Audubon's, but the white throat wrapping up and around the back of the auriculars (or ear coverts) is more like Myrtle.

Two Horned Larks of different subspecies hobbled about on the gravelly area of the Marine Terrace. One was quite pale, while the other was more richly colored.

Brown Creepers rarely show up on the island, but when they do, they frequently are found hanging around the cypress trees.

On 8 November, a Xantus's Murrelet turned up in Fisherman's Bay. This species is in the same taxonomic family as the several species of alcid that breed on the Farallones (Pigeon Guillemot, Common Murre, Rhinoceros Auklet, etc.), only this one breeds on the Channel Islands off southern California. There are only about 25 records of this species for the Farallones, and they usually show up during warm water El Nino years. Why one would show up in these frigid waters during November will just have to remain a Farallon mystery.

Just as impressive was the return of a Golden-crowned Sparrow with the color-band combination silver on the left and orange over orange over yellow on the right. We abbreviate this combination as S/OOY, which has become this bird's name. We first banded this bird in 2005 and have seen it every year since! Look at that crown! Go S/OOY!

A lovely male American Kestrel also showed up on this calm day. It has remained on the island for the past week to help rid the island of the introduced House Mouse.

Lastly, a juvenile Indigo Bunting showed up the following day. Juveniles of this species can be distinguished from the more common Lazuli Bunting by the more uniformly dark rufous-brown upperparts, less contrasting wingbars, and more uniform buff wash below with blurry streaking.

First Short-tailed Albatross in 124 years!

2011-11-07T19:54:00.000-08:00

On 6 November, 2011, PRBObiologists documented the first Short-tailed Albatross from the Farallon Islands in 124 years. This species usedto be the most common albatross seen along California’s shoreline. Historical accountsmention that it was “numerous” in nearshore waters, including around the Farallon Islands. Short-tailed Albatrosses,however, did not breed on the Farallones or anywhere near the California Coast.In fact, its primary breeding grounds were located on islands scattered acrossthe western Pacific Ocean south of Japanand in the East China Sea.

Short-tailedAlbatrosses make an amazing 2,500 mile migration from their breeding groundsoff Japan to the CaliforniaCurrent and the Gulf of Alaska to takeadvantage of the nutrient-rich upwellings in these regions. They feed largely on squid and fish on thesurface of the ocean, and are often found feeding on the offal discharged byfishing boats. They are truly impressive birds, with a wingspan of seven and ahalf feet, making it the largest albatross regularly occurring in the northernhemisphere. Juvenile Short-tailed Albatrosses are solidly dark brown and takean estimated six years to attain the largely white plumage and golden head of abreeding adult.

Short-tailed Albatross mated pair, probably at Torishima Island.

Juvenile at Cordell Bank, Marin Co., 16 Sep 2009 (Photo by Tom Blackman)

There are two other species of albatrosses that occur in California waters tofind food, the smaller Black-footed and Laysan Albatrosses. Both of thesespecies, though, are relatively common in Californiawaters, and in fact, the Black-footed Albatross is seen regularly from Southeast Farallon Island.

During the second halfof the 19^th century, feather hunters killed an estimated 10 million Short-tailedAlbatrosses on the breeding islands. Due to this intense hunting pressure aswell as two volcanic eruptions at its primary breeding colony on Torishima, thespecies was thought to be extinct by 1949. Thankfully, a few dozen immaturebirds survived at sea away from the breeding islands, and with a hunting ban inplace, the species returned to Torishima and began breeding again in 1954.Coordinated conservation efforts by the Japanese, Canadian, and US governments haveallowed the species to undergo an amazing recovery, so that the populationestimate as of 2007 has increased to approximately 2,500 individuals.

Breeding colony of Short-tailed Albatross at Torishima Island

Themajority of these birds breed on the Torishima and Mukojima islands off Japan,but in the last ten years a few individuals have shown signs of breeding onKure and Midway Atolls in the Northwestern Hawaiian Islands, and just last yeara pair successfully fledged a chick on Midway. Despite these successes,Short-tailed Albatrosses are particularly susceptible to becoming by-catch inthe long-line fishing industry and consuming plastics that they mistake forfood, which can directly kill them or cause them to die from malnutrition. Bothof these threats are hampering efforts by conservationists to recover thisspecies.

As a result of thepopulation increase over the last 60 years, Short-tailed Albatross has slowlystarted to reappear in California waters, withthe first record since about 1900 being a bird seen 40 miles west of San Clemente Island on 28 August 1977. Since that datethere have been a total of 33 records in Californiawaters, 15 of which have occurred since 2007, and two of which were seen in San Francisco County waters. However, the last timethat a Short-tailed Albatross was seen at Southeast Farallon Island was when oneindividual was collected by an ornithologist on 20 March 1887.

So, you can imaginethe excitement when Oscar Johnson spotted a large, dark brown albatross with ahuge, pink bill flying behind a fishing boat that was offloading offal abouttwo miles west of the island. After a few moments of disbelief, he yelled intothe radio to notify the rest of the island’s residents (Jim, Liz, Sam, andMegan), who ran up to the lighthouse to witness a species that barely escapedthe maw of extinction. With high-fivesall around, we watched an immature Short-tailed Albatross fly to within a mileof the island before turning around and heading back west to the deep water zonewhere albatrosses are normally found.

Immediatelyafter seeing the bird, Oscar sat down and sketched it in his notebook and wrotedown some details on how it was identified. Here is a scan of that drawing.

Farallonathon - The Final Score

2011-10-18T09:35:00.000-07:00

The score:

Yesterday's Total: 139
Migrant bird: 5 points
Shark sightings: 2 points
Cetaceans: 1 point

2011 Farallon Grand Total points: 147

The final day of Farallonathon was a busy one. It was media day on the Farallones as we were visited by a group of reporters from a variety of local and national media outlets. Between the boat landings and all the media commotion, we didn't have a lot of time to look for migrants, but we still managed to come up with a few. The highlight was a pair of black-throated warblers, one gray and one blue, which dropped in on the island for a brief rest. In addition, a small group of Northern Pintail was observed flying past the island in the morning and two species of migrant gull (Herring Gull and Black-legged Kittiwake) were also seen flying by.
There were no shark attacks observed today, guess they weren't hungry. But there were two sharks seen at the surface to give us two points. Finally, one Blue Whale was spotted cruising past the island in the morning. The massive spout of this majestic species is unmistakable and brought us our final point for this year's Farallonathon.

Even though the Farallonathon is officially done, you can still donate to help support the Farallones. To support our research, you can donate a flat amount or you can make a pledge based on the Farallonathon point system. To donate a flat amount online, simply go to the Farallonathon team webpage, and click on the DONATE button. Now that you know the total number of points achieved you can easily calculate your per point donate and submit that amount online Or, if you prefer not to use the online method, please email Jim Tietz (jtietz@prbo.org) for details on how to submit your pledge.
(All photos copyright Dan Maxwell)

Biologist Pete Warzybok being interviewed by the crew from KGO-TV channel 7 while Mark dilligently searches for migrants. See the story here.

Black-throated Blue Warbler in it's native habitat - granite outcrops on remote islands.

Cedar Waxwing flying over the house in the early morning.

Farallonathon - Bonus Days!

The Farallonathon runs for seven straight days and we rack up as many points as we can during this time period to help raise funds for Farallon research. So, day 7 was the last official day and we got a grand total of 147 points. This is the fourth lowest total ever for a Farallonathon. Weather conditions just didn't cooperate to bring in the birds this season and two days in particular were very poor weather days with dense fog, rain and no birds.This is the luck of the draw and the difference between a couple of nice days and a couple of poor days can be quite dramatic for Farallonathon. For example if we had dropped the two rainy, foggy days from the Farallonathon where we weren't able to see the ocean and where migrant birds were unable to find the island and replaced them with the next couple of days at the end (Days 8 and 9) we would have had a total of 174 points this year.

Here are a few of the highlights from those bonus days:

Day 8: 24 points! Three shark attacks, 1 new butterfly (Common Buckeye), 1 new dragonfly (Black Saddlebags) and 7 new migrant birds (Red-shafted Flicker, Red-breasted Nuthatch, European Starling, Tennessee Warbler, Nashville Warbler, Pine Siskin and Dickcissel).

Dickcissel spotted on Lighthouse Hill

Nashville, Tennessee - a tribute to the Volunteer State

Day 9: 10 points. One shark attack, 1 butterfly (Orange Sulfur), 4 migrant birds (American Wigeon, Northern Shoveler, Vaux's Swift and Lapland Longspur).

Unfortunately we don't have any good photos of these species since the ducks and swifts were just flying by and the Longspur was in and out of the grasses being generally photo resistant.

However, this just goes to show you how much luck and weather factor into the Farallonathon. Tune in again next fall to see how we do. Maybe we will get good weather for all 7 days next year and break the record! And please, donate if you are able. You may donate a flat amount or a per point amount for either the official total (147) or the bonus total (174) or any amount you choose. Every dollar raised helps to support research and conservation on the Farallon Islands.

Farallonathon Day 6

2011-10-14T11:56:00.000-07:00

The score:

Yesterday's Total: 126
Dragonfly: 10 points
Fish: 2 points
Migrant bird: 1 point

Total points: 139

The weather just keeps improving, and our dispositions with it. Day six of the Farallonathon was a reflection on this slight upturn, the addition of some new arrivals added much needed points on the penultimate day. Our only migrant bird addition was a Flicker Intergrade (Red-shafted x Yellow-shafted), a common occurance where the two races overlap, but an uncommon bird for the Farallones. The big winner for the day was our first island record of a single Twelve-spotted Skimmer, confirmed from atop Lighthouse Hill, which added a whopping 10 points! The sun brought forth a Mola mola from the cold ocean depths, and was observed soaking in the much appreciated rays in Fisherman's Bay. Our final point for the day required a little extra work, combing the exposed tidal pools around East Landing in order to find a Calico Sculpin. Hopefully this warming trend will continue into tomorrow, to give us a final pulse of points for the 2011 Farallonathon.

(All photos copyright Dan Maxwell)

The Flicker Intergrade perched upon a rather foreign substrate for a woodpecker.

A Calico Sculpin, in its temporary holding container for identification purposes. It was returned to its pool unharmed.

The Mola mola, or Sunfish, surfaces to take in some rays.

Farallonathon Day 5

2011-10-13T14:56:00.000-07:00

The Score:

Yesterday's total: 124
Salamander: 1 point
Fish: 1 point

Total Points: 126 Points

Well, the weather got better but only slightly. The fog stuck around but the rain went away. Try as we might we were not able to get a single bird Farallonathon point. As dedicated Farallonathoners we did not give up and instead turned our attention to other taxa. The rains yesterday actually helped us out, making Arboreal Salamander easy to find. Fish species also count for the Farallonathon, but usually are pretty difficult for us to locate and identify. Lucky for us there was a nice low tide this evening which allowed us to get down to Jewel Cave and do some tide pooling. We were able to find Red Irish Lord Sculpin for our second and last point for the day. We are still optomistic that the fog will break tomorrow and bring some more birds and points.

Arboreal Salamander, the only native terrestrial animal on the island.

Juvenile Red Irish Lord Sculpin found in Jewel Cave.

Farallonathon Day 4

2011-10-12T10:40:00.000-07:00

The Score:

Yesterday's total: 118
Migrant Birds: 1
Shark Attacks: 1 (5 points)

Total Points: 124 Points

Day four of Farallonathon was enveloped in heavy, soupy fog with periods of rain. Needless to say, it was a challenge to find any Farallonathon points today. Our first and only migrant bird point of the day was a Northern Saw-whet Owl found in the Coast Guard tree. It was looking quite wet and unhappy, though we were relieved to get at least one point for the day. Later in the morning we were extremely lucky to see a shark attack off East Landing, as the fog prevented the Lighthouse shark watch. Hoping for better weather and more points tomorrow!

This Northern Saw-whet Owl found in the Coast Guard tree was new for the Farallonathon, but could be a bird that was banded earlier this fall. We were unable to see its legs to check for a band.

PHOTO NOT AVAILABLE

Shark attack off of East Landing, giving us a much needed 5 Farallonathon points.

Farallonathon Day 3

2011-10-10T18:11:00.000-07:00

The Score:

Yesterday's total: 102
Migrant Birds: 10
Dragonfly: 1
Shark Attacks: 1 (5 points)

Total Points: 118 Points

The third day of Farallonathon was marked by a surprise Nano-Wave. We had a whopping ten new migrant bird species including a Magnolia Warbler, that arrived late in the afternoon. The Nano-Wave also produced the first of the Fall American Goldfinch, Bonaparte's Gull, and Band-tailed pigeon.

The Island was shrouded in fog for most of the late morning and early afternoon which halted Shark watch and reduced our chances of observing a Shark attack. We were, however, still able to observe a Shark attack off Sea Pigeon Point late in the afternoon once the fog receded.

This advanced plumage HY White-crowned Sparrow didn't count as a Farallonaton point yesterday. It was counted on Day 1, but it was one of the 18 birds that we banded.

One of the two Clay-colored Sparrows on the island, this HY was also one of the birds banded yesterday.

Another Farallonathon point, courtesy of this Band-tailed Pigeon.

A Variegated Meadowhawk munching on a fly counted as a Farallonathon point.

This AHY Male Magnolia Warbler was an exciting addition to our growing Farallonathon list.

Farallonathon: Day 2

2011-10-09T22:12:00.000-07:00

The Score:

Yesterday's total: 85
Migrant Birds: 5
Breeding Birds: 2
Shark Attacks: 2 (10 points)

Total Points: 102 Points

The second day of Farallonathon coincided with a major boat day. Jim Tietz, the Fall Season Biologist went on a two week break, while Seabird Season Biologist Pete Warzybok joined the SEFI crew. Kristie Nelson also departed the Island, but Mark Dettling and Megan Elrod came on; this is Megan's first stint on the Island, while Mark has been here for several previous Fall Seasons.

There were fewer birds around the Island yesterday, as clear skies and Northwest winds overnight allowed birds to continue their southward journeys. However, we did have a few new migrant birds arrive, including an American Kestrel, a Red-necked Phalarope (on the later side of their migration), and the first House Finch of the year.

In addition, two breeding species that were missed yesterday were observed: one Rhinoceros Auklet and several Cassin's Auklets. Though both species are resident in the California Current, adults leave the vicinity of the Island after the end of the breeding season; the birds we saw were likely young birds.

The bulk of our points for the day were due to two close, particularly spectacular Shark attacks. One off Sea Pigeon Point and Saddle Rock in the morning was quick, but the other, off Blow Hole Peninsula in the evening, lasted for more than half an hour. At times, the sharks were within 100 meters of the Island, allowing for some great photo opportunities.

We also saw several US Navy ships steam past the Island, on their way to Fleet Week in San Francisco.

All photos are copyright Dan Maxwell, and were taken on October 8th.

This adult male Lesser Goldfinch was one of two on the Island; not worth a point (we saw three the day before), but still a nice addition to the Island's avifauna.

An immature Northern Elephant Seal killed by a Great White Shark floats belly-up off Blow Hole Peninsula.

Shark attacks are almost always spectacular and Adrenaline-inducing, but they're not often as close to the Island as this one was.

This Shark was about 14 feet long - that's a big fish!

Although all Farallon Biologists love Seals, predator-pray interactions like this are an integral aspect of life on and around the Island.

The USS Carl Vincent, on her way to San Francisco for Fleet Week.

Farallonathon: Day 1

2011-10-08T17:25:00.000-07:00

The Score

Breeding Birds: 8 points

Migrant Birds: 53 points

Pinnipeds: 5 points

Cetaceans: 3 points

Butterflies: 3 points

Dragonflies: 3 points

Shark Attacks: 2 (10 points)

Total: 85 points

Opening day of Farallonathon was a strong beginning to what will hopefully become a record setting year. We had decent numbers of the more common fall migrants. There were good butterfly/dragonfly totals, three species of Cetaceans (Northern Right-whale Dolphin, Pacific White-sided Dolphin, and California Gray Whale), and most importantly- two shark attacks!

Yesterday was the first time this fall that we saw good numbers of Golden-crowned and White-crowned Sparrows. The first White-throated Sparrows of the fall were also seen. Other notable birds included Pectoral Sandpiper, Merlin, Chimney Swift, and Palm Warbler.

Here are a few photos of things we saw yesterday.

This hatch-year male Anna's Hummingbird was one of two individuals seen buzzing around the island.

Here you can see the oil slick and swarming gulls that are a telltale sign of a shark attack in progress.

This Burrowing Owl on Lighthouse Hill was worth a Farallonathon point.

We have been seeing this guy out on the Marine Terrace for the last few days now.

One of our only warblers so far for Farallonathon. Hopefully there are many more to come.

Stay tuned for days 2 through 7 of Farallonathon 2011!

FARALLONATHON 2011

2011-10-07T23:35:00.000-07:00

It’s Bird-A-Thon season at PRBO – our biggest annual fundraiser. On the Farallon Islands, we do things a little differently (not surprising)! Instead of counting just species of birds on a single day, we count all of the animals we encounter including birds, fish, marine mammals, insects, and any other wildlife we find over an entire week. We even assign points for rare and interesting wildlife events such as shark attacks and birds never before seen on the Farallones. This highly anticipated annual event is fondly referred to as the Farallonathon!

Initiated in 1992, the Farallonathon was created to recognize the truly unique elements of the Farallones, while at the same time participating in PRBO’s Annual Bird-A-Thon. The Farallonathon consists of a one week bio-blitz where we identify as many species of wildlife as possible.

Money raised from this event goes directly to supporting Farallon research allowing us to purchase biological equipment, food and supplies for island personnel, and pay PRBO staff to analyze and publish the data we collect. The information gathered from our research helps us and others protect the wildlife that use these unique islands and the marine environment that surrounds them.

Please consider supporting our research by pledging either a per-point amount or a flat donation for the event. Today was our first day, so come back tomorrow to see how we fared.

What’s a typical ‘score’ for a Farallonathon? During the last 19 years, scores have ranged from a low of 129 points to a high of 240 (a good year for shark attacks)! The very first Farallonathon began auspiciously with a mega-rare Asian vagrant, the Northern Wheatear, but ended with only a modest 152 points due to very few shark attacks.

To support our research, you can donate a flat amount or you can make your pledge based on the Farallonathon point system. To donate a flat amount online, simply go to the Farallonathon team webpage: www.firstgiving.com/farallonathon and click on the “DONATE” button. If you prefer to make a donation based on our point system or do not want to use the online method, please email Jim Tietz (jtietz@prbo.org), Pete Warzybok (pwarzybok@prbo.org), or Russ Bradley (rbradley@prbo.org). All Farallonathon supporters will receive a detailed summary of our experience at the end of the event. You can follow our progress right here on this blog as we post our daily highlights, photos, and totals. Your participation allows us to continue studying this unique and vital ecosystem on the California Coast.

I hope you will join us!

Thank you,
Jim Tietz
PRBO Farallon Biologist

POINT VALUES PER SPECIES SIGHTED
1 POINT: pinnipeds, bats, breeding birds, butterflies, cetaceans, dragonflies, fish, migrant birds, salamanders, shark sighting, turtles
5 POINTS: shark attacks, CA Bird Records Committee birds
10 POINTS: any new island record

**For most of the above, only a new species recorded during the week gets awarded a point. The exceptions are shark sightings, shark attacks, and CBRC birds in which each individual sighting is awarded points. For example, three shark attacks in one day gets 15 points, and two Connecticut Warblers receive 10 points.

Fog - too much or too little of a good thing

2011-10-07T12:47:00.000-07:00

The coastal marine layer off California (AKA, advection fog) is formed when moist air blows horizontally over the cold water of the California Current. The cold air above the water forces the moisture to condense into visible water droplets suspended in the air which obscure visibility when the cloud ceiling approaches ground or sea level. The height of the cloud ceiling is determined by the interaction of temperature and relative humidity, so that the edge of the cloud ceiling forms where the temperature becomes cold enough (or the relative humidity increases) to condense the water vapor. At the Farallon Islands, we live in one of the foggiest places in the world, with greater than 200 days of fog recorded on an annual basis. In a normal fall, though, the powerful northwest winds that drive the moist air over the California Current relax, which allows the ceiling to lift or dissipate all together.

Many songbirds migrate at night at considerable altitude using stars, the magnetic field, and landmarks to navigate. When clouds obscure the coastline, birds frequently get off course and end up over the ocean – this is especially true on calm nights. At dawn, these birds descend through the clouds in search of food, but instead find themselves over a sea of inhospitable water. If the cloud ceiling is low, it obscures their visibility and they cannot find land and may perish from exhaustion. If the cloud ceiling is very high, or the sky is clear, they are likely to fly all the way back to the mainland where food and shelter are more abundant. But if visibility is less than 20 miles, birds west of the island will see the island, but not the mainland. On days like this, the island can be covered with birds. So, there needs to be fog for the birds to get over the ocean, but the ceiling needs to be high enough for the birds to find the island, just not so high that they can see the mainland. The coincidence of all these events seems unlikely, but it usually happens several times during the fall, with some prolonged periods of this type of weather.

Unfortunately for us, we are experiencing one of the foggiest falls on record. In fact, since August 20^th, when we first arrived, we have had 26 days with fog that obscured visibility to less than a mile. On the brighter side, that means 16 days when birds could find the island. Only a few of those days, though, had the right mix of visibility, cloud cover, and light winds to create small waves of arrivals.

In spite of the weather, we conduct two area searches daily (one in the morning and one in the afternoon) to find as many landbirds as we can. The observers cover the same five areas during each search: 1) the cypresses and tree mallow shrubs around the houses, 2) Heligoland [a recumbent pine and small hill], the old, decrepit water tanks, Shubrick Hill, and Twitville [an area with more tree mallow], 3) the Marine Terrace [an area of mostly dead, compressed annuals], 4) Corm Blind Hill, North Landing, and Little Lighthouse Hill, and 5) Lighthouse Hill. Standardizing the areas searched decreases the amount of variance in our data and ensures that we don’t miss much. During late August and September, warblers, orioles, vireos, and flycatchers are the groups that we primarily see.

We also conduct a shorebird survey during high tide, when many of the shorebirds gather together in flocks. Black Turnstones, Whimbrel, and Wandering Tattlers are the most numerous species we see because they like the rocky, intertidal habitat that composes our shoreline. But we also see a few other species such as Pectoral and Western Sandpiper and Red and Red-necked Phalarope.

A farewell tribute to the seabirds

2011-10-04T23:02:00.000-07:00

When the fall crew arrives in late August, we just get a glimmer of the seabird colony that dominates life on the island during spring and summer. Most birds are wrapping up their nesting priorities and preparing to head out to sea for several months to molt their feathers and find more abundant food to survive the cold, turbulent winter.

Everyone is excited to see the puffins, so we all take photos before they disappear in mid-September. Here is one still in full breeding plumage. While some still attend nests in late summer, many congregate in small groups to possibly prospect for mates or new nest sites.

Here's an individual that was foraging just off shore.

Pigeon Guillemots are later nesters, so we get to see them carrying food to their nests for the first couple weeks before all the chicks fledge. Here you can see an adult taking off from the water with a fish.

Squid was a big part of the diet this year. Here's a different individual sitting outside its nest ready to feed its young a tasty little squid. Yum!!!

A successfully fledged Pigeon Guillemot chick floating around the island.

Rhinoceros Auklets typically finish up right before we arrive and then they quicly leave the area, so we just get to see a few. Here's an adult foraginng for a late nest.

Lately, the cormorants have been very late nesters, with many still feeding chicks at nests into late September. Here's a nest with Brandt's Cormorant chicks that still have a long ways to go before fledging. They won't be ready to fledge until they molt out all those downy feathers and replace them with sleek, oily feathers that can repel the frigid Farallon waters.

This Pelagic Cormorant chick, waiting to be fed from its parent, appears to be a little closer to fledging.

Western Gulls are usually still finishing up nesting when we arrive, with lots of chicks to defend and feed. This year was their worst reproductive year ever documented by PRBO, so there were very few around when we arrived. Here's one adult that found a Rhinoceros Auklet chick that was attempting to walk to the ocean to find food and safety. Unfortunately, many seabird chicks that leave their nests during the day need to walk a guantlet of hungry gulls that won't think twice about making a meal of these hapless birds.

The Western Gulls also need to defend their chicks from marauding neighbors, or perhaps just get out pent up aggression about the poor season.

Transitions - A Fall Island Fashion Preview

2011-09-10T13:29:00.000-07:00

Initially, I was excited and somewhat terrified at thenotion of living for 6 weeks on the tip of what looks like a drowning mountain. The Farallones are defined by granite that has been morphed bywind and waves into steep arches, caves, peeks, and slippery flats. Thespeckled cliff faces are coarse and fractured, and sprinkled with looseboulders or softball-sized rocks that are so dense and heavy that walking onthem gives you the false impression of good footing! A closer look reveals the result of 10,000generations of nesting seabirds who have unknowingly turned sharp cracks intotiny, smooth (almost polished), guano-rimmed caves. Here you are struck by the wonder and absurdityof habitat at its essence.

Arriving in early August and interning through mid-September on SEFI means witnessing fantastic changes. On the ground, work involves wrapping up the seabird breeding season projects, and initiating fall migratory passerine monitoring. The density of breeding seabird, sea lion, and theserendipitous waves of arriving songbirds (sometimes from as far as Asia) are astounding and give one a strong, uncanny sense ofwonder. But the story of the transitionsdoesn’t stop with the fantastic Farallon wildlife. Indeed there is a cultural shift most poignantly in island fashion (who knew!) that is defined by the concepts of functionality, pattern, color, and style.

Seabirders work both day and night on their knees banding or monitoring nests and burrows on rocky cliff faces. Protection from the diving gulls and the corrosive power of wind, rain, mud, and seabird guano is essential.

In the fall however, biologists switch gears, searching constantly for elusive and fleeting land-bird arrivals, and attire becomes defined by freedom of movement and spontaneity. Here are the fall findings. Functionality: Slim and trim.

Surveying 100m above the sea every day can be exhilarating, but if you shouldtrip, you are almost guaranteed to suffer a bloody mark reminiscent of achildhood playground black top scrape. Forsure footing, flexibility, and light weight on cliffs, rubber boots are a must. Here is Jim tying the fashion knot while crossing the Jordan Channel on his way to West End Island in a green wind breaker, cotton duck pants, and light weight rubber boots! CLASSIC

Color: Brown over bright
SEFI is austere to the extreme – a set of featureless moundssimilar in color to a south Bronx new deal housing project; but within and atopeach mound are hundreds of thousands of chirping, glossy eyed, feather balls,which fiercely radiate in all directions day and night, exploring and building,loving and eating.

The walkways on the terrace are strewn with purple, green, and red pebblesswallowed and smoothed by the guts of prehistoric cormorants. And the Lighthouse Hill Trail is littered with fragmentsof mainland pork and chicken bones lovingly regurgitated by Western Gullparents. Inspiration abounds! Here I am, looking die hard with a rifle-stock spotting scope dressed in cozy faux fur outer wear, and a bright green t-shirt (showcasing the color not on the island currently)

Patterns : Bold, Structural Lines
Large dark patterns with wooly and cottony blends are big right now on island!

To avoid flushing wildlife, blending in is a lifestyle and is as important indoors as out. Here is (steely) Dan ready for action with a tastefully structured plaid on plaid ensemble with tall coffee.

Style: The Tufted Look

A big factor when scouting for the rarest of rare birds (jungle nightjar -cross your fingers!!) is to constantly be open to the impossible and the absurd. For knowing where and when rare birds are arriving Matt (island fashion flare/bird-sticker guru) is on the cutting edge with his lightly quaffed mohawk and handy accessories. This look really says "Hey guys relax, the bird is in the bag."

Accessorize!!!! : Neck Metal

Mr P with a fashion forward neck piece

Facial hair: Whiskers

A must for fur seals and biologists (male) alike.

Knowing how to dress on island is important whatever the season. But whatever the dress, its about being outside, working hard and having fun. I remember Biologist Pete Warzybok's comment as we stretched our way through a dark cave littered with dead fish,smeary guano, and fluffy rhino auklet chicks, ‘this is where I am most remindedof why I love science!’

Written by,
Adam Fox

The Wonderful WEGU

2011-08-03T17:44:00.000-07:00

Springand Summer on the Farallon Islands is abundant with breeding seabirds (13species, to be exact), but Western Gulls are one of my favorites toobserve. One of my tasks on the islandrequires me to monitor a small plot of breeding Western Gulls. There are four gull plots on the island, eachof which is packed with birds whose age we know from their unique bandcombinations – as they were banded as chicks. Each year has a new cohort combination(usually a color band on one leg and a numbered metal band on the other), so wecan easily identify the year in which a particular bird was born. Gulls are very territorial, and banding themallows us to follow their breeding attempts throughout their entire lives (upto 34 years!) as part of PRBO’s long term seabird research.

This bird has a metal band on the left leg and a white band on the right leg, indicating is was banded in 2008.

In the beginning of the season, I was given a map of my gullplot and a list of birds that were known breeders in that plot. Western Gulls usually return to the same nestsite every year to breed. Each site ismarked with a stake that is painted with the year the bird was banded and thecohort number.

The bird thatbelongs to this stake was born in 2002 and was the second bird from that yearto return to the study plot to breed.

Oneof the main tasks early in the season was resighting banded birds in each gull plot. Resighting requires us not only torecord the band combination of each bird, but to also read the numbers engravedon the metal bands.

An engravedmetal gull band.

Itsounds easy enough, but it gets tricky, as gulls can be pretty clever. They are very aware of your watching them andevery time you move to get a better look at the band numbers, the bird will alsomove so you only see numbers you’ve already seen. Sometimes you have to get sneaky- pretend you’relooking at something else until you’re in a position to read the entire metalband and turn around quickly, before the bird has time to react.

Farallonbiologist resighting Western Gulls.

In May, the gulls started laying eggs. We number them so weknow the order they were laid in, and later, the order in which theyhatch. This helps us keep track of theproductivity of each known-age gull.


Numbered Western Gull eggs.

After the chicks hatch, they are given temporary color bandswith the nest and chick number. As theygrow older and start to move around, the color bands help us differentiatebetween chicks from different nests sites.


Western Gull chick with a temporary band.

When the chicks get old enough, they get permanentbands. This year, the cohort combinationis metal on the left leg and red on the right. This part of gull monitoring is probably the most fun since we were ableto go into each followed plot and band all the chicks we could find. We do this because the chicks that survivewill come back to these sites in three years when it’s their turn to breed, andwe can follow their reproductive success.

Gull chick banded this year.

At this point in the season, chicks are beginning tofledge. A chick is considered fledgedwhen it is seen flying. Walking around theisland, we often run into gull chicks that are trying to fly. They hop up and down and flap their wings,trying to catch the wind.

This Western Gull study allows us not only to monitor thereproductive phenology and success of known-age birds, but also provides uswith information on the health and function of the marine ecosystem. Unfortunately this year, gull reproductivesuccess was very low – while many eggs were laid and hatched, most chicks didn’tsurvive to fledge. With over 40 years of baseline data on Farallon seabirds, weknow that this year’s breeding failure is the worst recorded for Western Gulls inPRBO’s history on the Farallones. This highlights the value of these long termstudies to show that we are observing changes in the ocean that are having strongeffects on Farallon wildlife.

Text by Jen Aragon
Photos by Jen Aragon, Annie Schmidt, and Amy Blake

Photo a Day Returns

2011-07-17T10:49:00.000-07:00

Only a few weeks left for the seabird season. Keep up to date with your daily photo!
http://farallonphoto.blogspot.com/

Sefi has shorebirds too!

2011-07-09T19:54:00.000-07:00

On Southeast Farallon Island there are 12 different breeding species of seabirds, many of which have been profiled on this blog. However, there is one species that has not been showcased yet, the Black Oystercatcher. Oystercatchers are the only breeding shorebird on the Farallones, nesting primarily along the rocky margin of the island just above the reach of the surf. One of my projects is to observe the birds in order to determine the number of active breeding sites and the total number of chicks produced on the island. A site is considered active based on different behaviors, including nest building, defending a territory, carrying prey items to the nest sites, or seeing a chick. However, finding the birds and their nest sites can be quite challenging and an exercise in patience. Oystercatchers are cryptic, build inconspicuous nests and are often hidden behind rocks or logs. I spend many hours scanning the shoreline for signs of activity and attempting to locate territories, nests and chicks. There are roughly 26 active sites on the island this season. Here are some observations from one in particular but first let’s have a quiz!
Here is a photo of the site, can you find the Black Oystercatcher?

We are not able to visit most of the areas where the Oystercatchers breed because it causes disturbance to other species, so most of my observations are done with a spotting scope from the top of Lighthouse Hill. This view is typically what I see through a telescope. To locate the bird I look for clues such as body shape, size, color (the orange bill and flesh toned legs) and movement. Sometimes I can observe a site for ten minutes before one magically appears!
In the first two weeks of observations, I noted two birds were flying as a pair in the territory. Occasionally I witnessed the pair defending the area, flying aggressively towards any Western Gull that happened by. In the third week I found one preening but also alert for approaching threats. At one point the bird wandered in the area and a second oystercatcher stood up. Quickly, the first bird sat down in the same spot. Was this the nest site? I continued to observe the area hoping to see a nest or eggs. The bird sat still the entire time and I never saw the nest or eggs that day!

Since they build a nest that is not always visible, I made a few notes in my notebook on how I could relocate the site. Black Oystercatchers do not build a typical nest. Instead they create a scrape. A scrape is formed when a bird presses their body against rocks or dirt. They may also use their feet to excavate extra dirt. They generally build their nest near the intertidal zone. This area is a great place to find food! On the Farallones oystercatchers enjoy eating limpets, chitons, California mussel, crabs, sea urchins, barnacles and various types of worms.

I never saw any eggs at this site during my observations but that is normal for many sites. The eggs are difficult to see because they blend in with the environment. They tend to be cream colored with brownish black markings. The color and markings help hide the eggs from predators and from the research assistant. A clutch size can range from one to four eggs.

A few checks later I wondered if I would finally see any chicks. It had been about twenty-five days since I first saw the mate switch. The incubation period is about 26 to 32 days. I focused the scope and began my search. I found one Black Oystercatcher sitting, so I waited and waited ……..and then…. an adult bird flew into the site! I noticed that the bill seemed longer and I realized it held a prey item. Out of nowhere a small downy black chick appeared and quickly ate the food! Just as quickly the chick disappeared behind a rock! I continued watching the sight and saw a total of three chicks.

I only have a few weeks left on the island and I look forward to watching the chicks grow. The adults will continue to bring food to the chicks until they are able to forage for themselves. Around day two they are able to walk and by day forty they can fly. However the chicks will remain within the territory until the fall.

Now back to the quiz. Could you find the oystercatcher? There are actually two birds in this photograph! One bird is standing guard and is looking for Western Gulls and Brandt’s Cormorants to scare off. The second bird is incubating the eggs.

Incubating posture Standing guard

Text by Sarah Kebler

Photos by Annie Schmidt and Sarah Kebler

The Tufted Puffins of the Farallons

2011-05-29T17:08:00.000-07:00

Imagine yourself as young tufted puffin. You have been on the open ocean since you first left the cozy crevice where you were born on the Farallon Islands. You’ve fished for food, diving and swimming underwater; slept on the ocean; and ridden out winter storms. Now it’s springtime and you’re looking good, you’ve grown long blond tufts on your black head. The tufts sweep back from your crisp white eye patch. Your beak has enlarged and turned bright orange, and your body has turned a dapper black. This is your first year to return to the island, the first time you will stand on land after three years in the rough North Pacific Ocean. This year you will find a lifetime mate and a home for your own family on the steep cliffs of Farallon Island.

In the beginning of April each year, the tufted puffins return to the Farallons. They’ve been at sea all year or as in the case of our first time breeder 3 years.The older birds that have been here before return with their mates to their prior breeding sites to attempt to raise a chick. These sites are all natural crevices in the rock, usually quite narrow and longer than the reach of the human arm.The puffins pull dry grass from the slopes and bring it into the nest site deep inside the tunnel. The male and female spend time outside their site renewing their bond - standing hunched over, facing each other with their bills together, flipping their heads back and fourth.

After billing they fly out to sea, where they will copulate and begin making that egg. The female lays a single large egg, and for the next 45 days the pair will take turns incubating. Once the egg hatches, the parents bring fish to the chick for another 45 days. So 90 days after the egg is laid, the chick fledges and flutters off the cliffs to the ocean. This is a very long incubation and nestling period for a Farallon seabird, an adaptation perhaps to variable food supply during a breeding season.

Young puffins coming to the island for the first time since fledgling fly around in groups of 5-10 birds. They compete for mates on rocky outcroppings and then investigate possible crevices with their new partners. The first year on the island the pair spends time loafing, sleeping and preening at their chosen site. Next year when they return they will come with their mate to the site they have found this year and begin the breeding cycle.

The Farallons, are the southernmost breeding colony for Tufted Puffins. It is a small tenacious group of 70-150 breeding birds that have been monitored for over 20 years. The puffins face challenges of variable food supply and warming sea surface temperatures. They have responded with boom and bust cycles, not breeding during poor food years, as well as breeding later than in the past.

Nonetheless, the puffins are a lively and joyful sight each spring and summer when they soar over the island and perch on the cliffs. They continue to return and maintain their life rituals on the Farallons, a unique and wonderful seabird we are lucky to have our offshore waters.

Text by Else Jensen

Photos by Annie Schmidt

Get your daily photo fix

2011-05-23T09:23:00.000-07:00

After two weeks off, Farallon Photo a Day is back!

People Power

2011-05-06T17:58:00.000-07:00

Farallon Seabird Crew 2007

On June 7th, 1967, C.J. Ralph and John Smail became the first PRBO biologists to overnight on the Farallones. They spent 4 nights on the island, as guests of the Coast Guard who were still permanently stationed here. I'm sure these biologists could not imagine the idea that PRBO would have a continuous presence on the Farallones from April 3rd 1968 to the present day.

We often focus on the research and conservation efforts of PRBO's 40 years on the Farallones, but we can never forget that lots of hardworking people have made this happen - be they PRBO Farallon Biologists, volunteers, USFWS staff, outside researchers, or contractors etc. From 1967 to April 30th 2011, 1405 people have been fortunate enough to spend at least one night on the Farallones, working with PRBO or USFWS activities. Most time has been spent by PRBO biologists and volunteers, who now spend at least 6 weeks at a time on island stints. Back in the late 1960's and early 1970s, Some PRBO biologists spent well over 200 days a year on the island.

Steve Morrell crossing Jordan Channel 1977

Though much has changed in the Farallon ecosystem over 4 decades, what has not changed is the role the Farallones has played in shaping multiple generations of biologists. The first photo below is of Farallon Biologist Ron LeValley with a Cassin's Auklet chick in 1977. Below him is volunteer Matt Barbour, also with an auklet chick, but in 2007.

Within a field season, many volunteers spend multiple months on the island, often with an occasional 2 week break. This long term staffing helps to create better scientific data, as well as excellent experience for up and coming scientists to learn from. In addition, many Farallon biologists have spent many years working on the island, as we all feel very strongly connected to our work, this incredible place, and the amazing passionate and committed people one finds out here.

Brandt's Cormorant Banding 2006

So the next time you ponder the Farallones, remember all the people whose hard work and dedication has made our unique program a reality. Below are the 22 men and 3 women of the the Farallon "Top 25", in terms of numbers of nights spent on the island during PRBO's tenure, as of April 30, 2011. ID# shows where an individual fits in in the PRBO Farallon timeline, as the first person in 1967 was #1.

What is that MUSKY smell?

2011-04-22T22:04:00.000-07:00

SEFI is bustling with many smells…

the fragrance of blooming weeds,

the fetid whiff of marine mammals,

the ambrosial scents of a Sunday brunch,

the putrid smells of seabird guano, the tantalizing aroma of Jen’s fresh baked chocolate chip cookies, and many more. But, of all the myriad smells we experience daily on this island, my favorite is a dirty musk that fills my nose when I enter the Habitat Sculpture, crouch down near a small rock crevice, or sweep the northeast corner of the Carpentry Shop. I like it because it reminds me of an Ashy Storm-petrel…

Ashy Storm-petrel

These aromatic seabirds are the size of a swallow but have the ecology of an Albatross. They spend most of their lives at sea, are strong fliers and are long lived. Storm-petrels are members of the order Procellariiformes and easily identified by the tube on top of their bill, which gives rise to the more common moniker for this group, “the tubenoses”. This tube aids storm-petrels in both olfaction and the ability to excrete excess salts.

Western Gulls amongst the grassy hillside

Ashy’s are found only between S. Oregon and N. Mexico and are a species of special conservation concern in California due to a small global population. In fact, half the world’s population of this diminutive seabird lives on the Farallones, making the Farallones a critical colony for monitoring and conserving this species. Unfortunately, the Ashy population significantly declined since the 1970’s when PRBO began monitoring them on SEFI and the future status of this species remains uncertain. Like most seabirds, Ashy’s are vulnerable to the effects of a changing ocean climate which may affect the abundance and distribution of their primary food, mostly krill and other small zooplankton. Other major threats to Ashy’s on SEFI include predation by Burrowing Owls and Western Gulls and habitat change, specifically increases in non native grasses.

Ashy Storm-petrel at sea

Most of my work on SEFI is accomplished during the daylight hours, but, last week, for the first time this season, we also did night work. The crew worked until a grueling 2:00AM mist-netting for Ashy Storm-petrels. Because these birds are primarily nocturnal when they are at the colony, this is the only way that we can capture and band them. By banding Ashy Storm-petrels PRBO hopes to determine population size, status and survival of adult birds. To attract Storm-petrels to the mist net we played vocalization of adult birds, you can listen to an Ashy vocalization by clicking below:

Lying down on a bed of rocks beside the net we waited for the birds to fly in. Ashy’s can wriggle out of the net pretty quick so once in we rushed to extract them. My first Ashy extraction went smoothly. And while the Ashy’s bite did not leave a mark like the Cassin’s Auklet, the Ashy did regurgitate a highly concentrated oil that left my hands reeking of the remindful musky odor. This oil is an important nutrient rich food for their chicks. The night brought us a total of 28 Ashy Storm-petrels including one recapture.

Storm-petrel burrow

Later this season I will help study the breeding success of Ashy’s on SEFI. To do this I will suit up armed with a burrow camera, aka the SeeSnake, and traverse the island visiting known burrows. Ashy Storm-petrels nest in small cavities in rocks and crevice in some of the human created structures on the island. Each burrow is marked with a yellow stake and number. The holes are so tiny that we use the camera to peer in. We hope to find adult birds, eggs, or chicks.

Ashy Storm-petrels are amazing seabirds that travel over 300 kilometers each night garnering food to feed themselves and their chicks, but their population is declining. PRBO biologists on SEFI hope to learn more about this unique species to help conserve it. Even though the musk of an Ashy is not as sweet as the Egyptian Musk oil I sometimes wear when I am on the mainland, I will always flash a smile when I get a whiff, because it means an Ashy Storm Petrel is near.

Ashy Storm-petrel chick

Photo a Day project

2011-04-12T10:51:00.000-07:00

New Farallon photo project by Annie Schmidt. Check it out!

Farallon Photo a Day: 2011

The Birds Have Arrived!

2011-04-07T13:59:00.000-07:00

The seabird breeding season on the Farallons has begun! We’ve been watching Common Murres, Brandt’s Cormorants, Cassin’s Auklets, and Pigeon Guillemots arrive to the islands, as they do each spring/summer season.

Common Murres at nesting sites

The first birds to start nesting were the Cassin’s Auklets. These are cute little seabirds that hang out at night on the island (safety from the cover of darkness) and spend the day at sea or at their nest.

Their nests are burrows in the ground that usually consist of a long tunnel with a turn right before the actual nest. Cassin’s Auklets will also nest in crevices in rocky habitat. We want to be able to collect data on these birds that breed on the Farallons as a way to monitor the health of the population. Parameters such as reproductive success, timing of breeding, and chick growth and development can be used to accomplish this, and this data can easily be collected by simulating the nest environment using nest boxes. We make the nest boxes out of plywood and construct a tunnel using PVC pipe. The top of the box has a removable lid that allows us to see inside the nest and collect the data.

Cassin's Auklet Nest Box

We are able to look at both mates of a nest because Cassin’s Auklets take turns incubating the egg each day. In most cases, if you find a bird in a box one day, the next day you should find its mate. Checking a nest box is an interesting task. First you must completely block the entrance to the tunnel using your foot or knee so that the bird can’t escape. At the same time you must be able to bend over and peer under the box lid. It’s a bit like doing yoga. If a bird is present, you need to grab it in one swift movement to avoid hurting the egg or the bird. A biologist here described this as being not unlike an alien abduction. Imagine a bright light as the roof of your home opens up, you are snatched up, measurements are taken and you’re returned with a metal band on your ankle. I try to keep this perspective in mind when I’m holding a Cassin's and its beak is clamped down on my fingers or its claws have lodged themselves under my cuticle. I also know that the collection of this data will aid in monitoring these birds.

Nest box check

We can track specific individuals in a population by putting a metal band around their leg with a unique number for each bird. We know the ages of birds that we banded as chicks, and we always check band numbers to see if a bird we find is one of known age. We also band birds that are mates of known age birds.

Banding a Cassin's Auklet

New bands

When known age individuals are found, both they and their mates have condition data recorded. This includes measuring the bill depth (used to sex the individual), wing cord length, weight, and egg size.

Measuring the length of an egg

Measuring the wing cord of a Cassin's Auklet

Weighing the bird in a bag

Bird in a bag

We have over 400 boxes that get checked every 15 days as the breeding season progresses. Our first check yielded about 70 birds and our second yielded about 150 additional birds! We continue to check the boxes without birds in them through the summer to see if any new Cassin’s Auklets decide to move in. Each time I lift the lid of a nest box is like a surprise. Will there be a Cassin’s Auklet? Will there be another species of bird? Will there be an egg? Two eggs?? Fortunately, there are over 400 surprises out there waiting for us.

Spring, Seabirds, and Spray

2011-04-02T18:47:00.000-07:00

In mid March, after 3.5 months on the island, the winter crew departed in one of our seasonal crew switches. It is now seabird season, and the seasons of wildlife have changed with the weather. After a very wet March with storms from the south, clear skies, and strong northwest winds have returned, as you can see from this video today of Saddle Rock on the south side of the island.

Elephant Seal cows and bulls have departed, leaving their weaners here on the island. Most will enter the ocean soon for the first time and depart the Farallones. Cassin's Auklets, the small burrow nesting and krill eating seabirds that our one of our focal species, began nesting in early March. The discovery of the first egg in a nest box on March 2nd was the earliest we have ever recorded. Common Murres, Western Gulls, Pelagic Cormorants, and now even some Brandt's Cormorants, are attending the island in preparation for their breeding seasons.

Spring is characterized by strong northwest winds, which help drive productive upwelling which feeds the Farallon food web. Today's 35 knot winds are typical for this time for year on the Farallones. The video below shows what it's like walking to the north side of the island during these conditions. I'm trying to hold the camera as steady as I can!

These conditions can whip the ocean up into foam, check out "Farallon snow" at North Landing!

Stay tuned for regular posts from the Farallon seabird season...

January Showers Bring February Flowers and a Weaner Pod with Superpowers

2011-03-01T21:04:00.000-08:00

We’re starting to notice veritable signs of spring here on Southeast Farallon Island (SEFI). The endemic Farallon Weed covering the island has morphed into a carpet of golden flowers. Some of the seabirds, such as the Pelagic and Brandt’s cormorants, are starting to display their breeding plumage. The Pelagic cormorants exhibit a white patch on the flank behind each wing which is very obvious in flight, as well as a red patch on the face and tufted feathers on the head. We have also seen several Brandt’s cormorants with white whiskery plumes on their heads. And the elephant seal breeding season is heading towards its end. The last new pup of the season was born on February 7, and all but 4 of the pups on the island have been weaned. Currently, there are 55 weaned and 4 nursing pups on SEFI. We’ve also found 12 total weaners and 4 nursing pups on West End.

Miner's lettuce and Farallon Weed in bloom

Pelagic cormorant sporting breeding plumage

Weaner pod

Since they are often chased around by the last of the protective mothers and belligerent males, the weaners have started clustering in one half of Sand Flat, often in small groups called ‘weaner pods.’ Although they spend most of their time sleeping, some of the weaners are beginning to interact with each other, with the males clumsily play-fighting. They will remain at their natal colony for up to two and a half months before they leave for their first long foraging trip out to sea. During the time that they are here, the weaners will fast while learning to swim in shallow water. So far, the thick blubber layer that they have accumulated during a month of nursing has impeded their mobility, and they clumsily roll and bounce about the rocky terrain. They are unable to move very quickly, and a few of the weaners have been gravely injured by falling in the way of charging breeding bulls. MC Hammer has singlehandedly killed four weaners within his territory at Mirounga Beach with deep gashes to the head. Most of the attacks happened on the days that those pups were weaned, and we are not sure why he has targeted these relatively helpless animals, many of which are probably his own offspring. They may have gotten in his way when he was mating with the cows, or it may simply be displaced aggression. We have not witnessed any other subadult or adult males injuring weaned pups in the same way, especially not our Sand Flat 'lovebug' Rusty.

Weaner pod staying out of harm's way up on Omega Terrace

Play-fighting

Rusty with cow and pup

We’ve seen a few success stories too. Several of the Sand Flat weaners have been washed out from the area during high swells, and a couple have fallen into Breaker Cove at the edge of the territory. We considered them as good as gone, but surprisingly, we’ve been finding the ‘lost’ weaners all around the island. One ended up on West End, a couple on Weather Service Peninsula between West End and Sand Flat, and some in gulches on the East and North sides of SEFI. Some have disappeared from Sand Flat and reappeared at other places on the island, returning to their natal beach several days later. While they may not be strong or experienced enough yet to undertake their first long trip to sea, they apparently have the capacity to remain afloat and even to swim back home after getting washed up on other beaches. We keep wondering how they get to where they end up, and imagine them setting 'sail' around the island.

'Missing' weaner with subadult male on Weather Service Peninsula

We have been tagging each of the pups as soon they wean, as well as measuring their length and girth to gain an estimate of nursing and weaning success. The measurements have been fairly consistent between the animals, ranging from 140 cm to 160 cm for length and 127 cm and 147 cm for girth. Similarly to previous years, we’ve found that the weaners born on Marine Terrace are larger than those born on the crowded sand flat. With the weaners being almost as large around as they are long, they will have to lose some of their ‘baby fat’ before they can navigate the water. Some weaners, however, are not always ready to start losing weight once they lose their mother. One of the weaners in Mirounga Beach had found a surrogate mother and suckled for an additional 19 days from its second mom. It became what we call a ‘superweaner, or ‘double mother suckler.'

Superweaner

We have had some extraordinarily warm and sunny weather this winter, brought on by a La Nina ENSO event which causes dry and mild winter weather along the Pacific coast. One of the highs so far has been 19.5 degrees Celsius (67 degrees F). Although the humans have enjoyed the weather, the blubbery Northern elephant seals found it hard to bear. To prevent overheating on sunny days, elephant seals will often throw flipperfuls of damp sand on their backs to cool down. You will often see this on sandy rookeries such as those at Point Reyes or Ano Nuevo. With little sand or loose dirt available on Sand Flat (the sands which originally covered the area were washed away over several decades by rough storms), the elephant seals at SEFI have not been able to cool down in the same way. Instead, they were trampling each other in the mad dash for the last remaining droplets of the rain and swell puddles at the edges of Sand Flat, or for the tiny bit of shade in a narrow alley between two rock terraces.

Seals vying for the last remains of a cooling rain puddle

Cooling off in the puddle

Several of the males that are subordinate to the alphas Rusty and MC Hammer spent the warm days waiting in the alley for cows to come seeking shade. There, they were able to mate with the females without being chased off by a dominant bull. As more cows became sexually receptive, the competition between males for access to them had intensified. At the height of the season, Rusty was unable to hold down the entirety of the Sand Flat territory, and many other subordinate males were able to sneak into the periphery and copulate with females leaving the colony to return to sea. After mating with the alpha male, the cows were often ambushed by at least one other male on the way back to the water. Several of the younger subadult males, often emboldened by the older guys’ pursuits, unsuccessfully tried to sneak into the colony. We often found them later in the day resting on the terrace overlooking Sand Flat with large gashes and puncture wounds on the backs, being unable to do anything other than watch and long for the rocky, cow-filled pastures below. They’ll have to wait a few more years before they can square off with the major game players. For (a lot) more photos of the elephant seals and a personal account of an intern’s experience on the Farallons, you can check out smellephantisland.

Subadult male on Marine Terrace

The winter season is almost at an end, with the elephant seal crew getting ready to leave the island in a week and a half. Like the elephant seals, the winter biologist and interns must return to their true homes. Everyone is quite wistful about leaving, but are enjoying their last days with the seals and each other. It has been a great experience for everyone new to the island, and most of us hope to return here again soon.

Island Life for Salamanders

2011-02-19T19:28:00.000-08:00

Farallon Arboreal Salamander Aneidis lugubris farallonensis

Sharing its origins with the core of the Sierra Nevada Mountains, the Farallon Islands were violently shaken free from the mainland some 10,000 years ago. In the ensuing years the Farallones have drifted northwest as a result of movements from the Pacific Plate and currently reside 27 miles west of the Golden Gate and 20 miles southwest of Point Reyes. As such, an unlikely inhabitant has hitched a ride on this slow but steady drift.

The arboreal salamander, Aneidis lugubris, is a California near-endemic, occurring in coastal and interior oak forests from Humboldt County, CA to northern Baja California, Mexico. The arboreal salamander is also found on the Farallones and is in fact the only native terrestrial vertebrate inhabiting the islands. The distinctive spot pattern of the salamanders on the islands led Van Denburgh (1905) to consider the population as a sub-species A. lugubris farallonensis. Currently, the Farallon population of arboreal salamanders has become a subject of study on the islands.

Returning a salamander to its coverboard

PRBO biologists have been checking for the presence of salamanders bimonthly since 2007 under cover boards, which are used both to provide burrowing habitat and to permanently mark study plots. Arboreal salamanders exhibit high site fidelity, and we often find the same animals under particular cover boards. Individuals are measured, weighed, and sexed by looking for eggs in a female's translucent belly or the male’s distinctive mental gland under the chin, involved in pheromone production.

Weighing each salamander

Juvenile salamander being weighed

Salamander in a tube for measuring

These salamanders possess unique spot patterns much like finger prints on humans which allow biologists to track them over time. A photo database of captured salamanders has been created for long-term mark-recapture monitoring. Some individuals are quite easily distinguishable by anomalies such as missing limbs or extra digits. The project is ongoing and we hope to learn much more about the life history of this interesting creature.

Mirror duplication of the left hind limb toes

Missing left fore limb

According to research conducted on the analogous mainland population, the arboreal salamander is relatively long-lived and slow to mature. This group of salamanders has no aquatic larval stage - eggs are laid in terrestrial nests and hatchlings resemble miniature adults. They are primarily nocturnal, foraging for small prey such as spiders, beetles, grubs, ants, and centipedes on the ground or on the trunks of trees. During the day they remain under rocks, decaying logs, and in stone walls and crevices. Arboreal salamanders are unusual in that they have enlarged toe tips and a prehensile tail adapted for climbing, which serves them well in their habitat on the mainland. However, this adaptation may not fare so well on the Farallones, seeing how trees are few and far between.

Salamander getting some use for its prehensile tail

So why is it important to study these wet, slimy amphibians that spend much of their time underground? Many salamander populations around the world currently are experiencing threats from chemicals, infectious diseases, global warming and increasing climatic variability. In particular arboreal salamanders are lungless and offer unique attributes that make them good indicators of ecosystem health. Respiration and osmoregulation through moist, well-vascularized skin make them vulnerable to changes in water or air quality. Baseline demographic data are helpful in documenting effects of existing and future threats to salamander populations. By obtaining data now and continuing to monitor into the future, we hope to be able to use salamanders as indicator species and possibly make predictions about bigger picture items.

Juvenile salamander

The Farallones Elephant Seal Factory

2011-01-19T22:36:00.000-08:00

First thing is first. A new introduction is of primary importance. The winter researcher colony gained another member just before the holidays. Jaime Neill has joined the crew as our third winter intern. She hails from North Carolina and has recently been working with nesting sea turtles in Florida. She has experience with a variety of both terrestrial and aquatic species, but is really enjoying her transition into fieldwork with pinnipeds - which has really started to pick up since our last update.

Jaime preparing to stamp some seals

The elephant seal pupping season is well underway and is keeping the winter crew quite busy here on the Farallones. The Northern Elephant seal breeds on rocky islands and coastlines such as the Farallon Islands throughout the winter and early spring. The males arrive first, generally in early December, with older sub-adults and full-grown bulls staking out their territories and battling each other for prime real estate. Pregnant cows begin to haul out shortly after the males and within a week of arriving they give birth to a single pup weighing 60-80 lbs. They nurse their pup continuously while fasting for about 27 days during which the pup gains an average of 10 lbs a day. During the breeding season, cows generally huddle in large groups, or harems, protected by a dominant bull from the pestering of younger males. Bulls fight violently for possession of a territory and access to all the cows in one harem - up to 100 females - with whom they will mate. Sub-adult males may gain access to a few cows at the periphery of an alpha’s territory, but are often chased off. After mating, cows wean their pups and head back into open waters in search of food, returning to land only one other time during the year to molt.

Mirounga Beach harem

Sand Flat harem

We are now within the height of the breeding season on the South East Farallon Island (SEFI) and familiar patterns are beginning to emerge. Rusty, a bull that held alpha status on Sand Flat during the entirety of the breeding season last year, has claimed the same territory and is currently king of a 47 cow harem (which grows larger by the day). He is seen daily completely surrounded by rows of cows with pups on their sides. Bedlam Boy, one of the largest males that we’ve seen on SEFI, was holding down Mirounga Beach with 11 cows until he was usurped by MC Hammer a few days ago. MC Hammer was alpha of Mirounga Beach last year, so it was only a matter of time before he fought to get his territory back. Two other potential players are B-boy and Herzog, who have been hanging around the periphery of Sand Flat and may end up facing off with the alphas later in the season once cows become sexually receptive. Herzog was not tagged prior to arriving on SEFI this year and may be a bull that has not previously bred here at the island. Despite their enormous size, the bulls have been moving around the island quite a bit in their attempts to claim territories. We have not witnessed a major territorial battle just yet, but the larger males have been chasing younger animals that try to sneak into the periphery and occasionally displaying dominance by mounting females in their area. Some younger males have been seen as far away as the cart path near East Landing, undoubtedly having been forced out by more dominant animals.

Rusty at Sand Flat

Rusty guarding his cows

Rusty performing a dominance display

Bedlam Boy at Mirounga Beach

Subadult male near old telephone pole by East Landing

The birth of the first pup on SEFI was witnessed on Sand Flat on December 23. We presume that the cow that gave birth was a young and inexperienced mother because we never observed her nursing. Cows start giving birth at 3 or 4 years of age but their pup mortality is high until they become more experienced at around 7 or 8 years. Unfortunately, this already doomed pup was unwittingly crushed by MC Hammer during a dominance display, a common fate in crowded elephant seal colonies, and did not survive. Pregnant cows started showing up in larger numbers at the beginning of the year, with at least two new cows and an average of two pups born daily starting on the 2^nd of January. Currently, we have an estimated 24 live pups on SEFI and 5 on West End. We have been stamping new cows and new pups with numbers coated in hair dye in order to more easily keep track of both, a task that is becoming increasingly difficult as the colonies increase in density. Today, we counted 47 cows on Sand Flat with more cows (and pups) arriving daily. Tagging pregnant cows has proven to be a challenge because placing tags in the hindflippers of large animals is only successful if the animal is fully asleep, which cows never seem to be. Even prior to giving birth, a cow is constantly vigilant. We’ve witnessed a number of violent displays between protective mothers, some of which involved errant pups being bitten in the head by other cows.

Stamped pup

Tagged and stamped cow

New tag!

We have been making every attempt to mark new pups with numbers matching their mothers’ stamps as pup switching can happen in crowded elephant seal colonies. One incident in particular has captured our attention. A stillborn pup was found on Sand Flat one morning with no mother in sight. Later the same day, we witnessed a very young-looking cow showing particular interest in a pup as it was being born to Gypsy, another resident Sand Flat cow. As soon as the pup emerged and started to vocalize, the young cow began vocalizing in return to the pup and seems to have imprinted on him/her. Although we have not witnessed her nursing, she seems to respond to Gypsy’s pup vocally and remains near the pup as much as possible. Occasionally, we’ve seen her touring the periphery of the harem and eyeing other pups, usually resulting in being chased off by their mothers. Although she reacted violently to her initial attempts to claim the pup, Gypsy now allows the abductor cow, whom we’ve informally named Abby Ductor (or Baby Stealer), to remain near the pup. We hypothesize that Baby Stealer is another young and inexperienced cow that gave birth to the stillborn pup and is confused about her role as a mother. We have marked the three animals and are keeping an eye on them to see where the pup ends up. Some pups become superweaners - after being weaned from their own mother, they continue sucking from other cows that may have lost or switched their pup later in the season. It is possible that Gypsy’s pup may end up as one of these “double mother sucklers.” Indeed, we've already witnessed some greedy pups nursing from moms which are not their own.

Abductor cow (top) on the prowl for pups

Three pups trying to nurse from one cow

We will continue to monitor the elephant seal population here on the Farallones throughout the winter while attending to some of our other responsibilities – one of which includes surveying the endemic Farallon Island Arboreal Salamander. More detail will be given to the salamanders in our next blog entry.

Burrowing Owls on the Farallones??!

2010-12-31T10:26:00.000-08:00

Yes, it’s true! There are burrowing owls on Southeast Farallon Island (aka, SEFI), and no, they are not an introduced species. Many people will be surprised to learn that these petite (10 inches tall and 1/3 pound) owls are here, because they are terrestrial owls, typically associated with expanses of flat grassland, open fields or lots, and medium-sized fossorial (burrowing) mammals such as ground squirrels or prairie dogs. SEFI is mostly rocky, devoid of burrowing mammals other than the introduced Siberian house mouse, is surrounded by ocean and nearly 30 miles from any expanse of land - hardly typical habitat for the burrowing owl. And yet they are here! The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and PRBO Conservation Science biologists have been monitoring the burrowing owls on the island for the last few years, and this year, they have brought on a graduate student to continue the owl monitoring and conduct a more in-depth look into the ecology of the owl. This student is Sara Lee Chandler, who is currently pursuing her Master of Science degree at San Jose State University.

The burrowing owl that occurs on SEFI is the western burrowing owl (Athene cunicularia hypugaea), a subspecies that ranges from Canada, through the Midwestern States of the U.S. and into Mexico. In California, the burrowing owl is a Species of Special Concern, and it is an endangered species in Canada. The burrowing owl population has long been in decline throughout its range - including within California - and many burrowing owl advocates within California are pressing for a more comprehensive conservation strategy and effort to protect the species from further decline.

A small number of burrowing owls make a seasonal appearance, arriving on SEFI from somewhere on the mainland in late September and sometimes overwintering as late as May. The burrowing owl does not breed on the island, but returns to the mainland to breed. One of the goals of monitoring the owls is to keep track of how long they stay on the island and where they are roosting. Sara conducts daily roost surveys of the accessible portions of the island (the seal crew conducts some of these surveys when she’s on break), scanning the nooks and crannies of the granite cliffs and slopes for an owl perched at its roost entrance, and keeping a keen eye on the ground to find pellets that have been deposited in the night. Many of the owls have been previously banded at SEFI and wear leg bands that uniquely identify them, which helps to keep track of which owl is at a particular roost.

The majority of the owls seem to prefer to roost in the innumerable rock crevices and fissures worn into the face of the island. Many of these crevices are used by breeding seabirds - such as Pigeon guillemot and Cassin’s auklet - in the summer. Sometimes burrows dug by Cassin’s auklets provide suitable habitat for the burrowing owl on the marine terrace. Sara collects the owl pellets at the roosts, which are regurgitated leftovers from an owl’s meal, and will analyze their contents to compare the composition of the owls’ winter and spring season diets. In general, however, it is known that owls are an opportunistic eater, feasting on the introduced house mice, but also preying upon songbirds, small seabirds (such as the ashy storm-petrel), beetles, and other terrestrial invertebrates on the island.

The burrowing owls, while relatively few in number, are a unique part of the ecology on SEFI. It is our hope that ecological studies of the burrowing owl on SEFI will contribute toward the knowledgebase of this charismatic animal.

Welcome to the winter season

2010-12-15T22:05:00.000-08:00

It has been just over a week since the seasonal switchover and the winter team is settling in. We were brought to the island by a couple of wonderful Farallon patrol volunteers - Warren Sanky and Alan Weaver - who made our voyage safe and comfortable in a 40 foot power boat. During the past week the new crew has been training, becoming acquainted with the elephant seals, and getting used to an overabundant diet due to an overflowing pantry. The transition has been mediated by Russ Bradley, who is here for two weeks to show us the ropes and to entertain us in the meanwhile with many stories and the history of PRBO research on Southeast Farallon Island. He will unfortunately be leaving us on the next boat, which will be bringing the third intern to join the team, Jamie Neill.

A few introductions to the team currently on SEFI are in order:

- Ryan Berger, Winter Biologist
This is Ryan's first season as the Farallon Winter Biologist. He has a background in animal behavior with a focus on marine mammals. Before joining PRBO, he worked with manatees for the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission. He enjoys a healthy challenge, and attempts to tag and identify Rusty have not proven disappointing.

Ryan and Rusty

-Colleen Siudzinski, Winter Intern
Colleen has been working with wildlife in the Northwestern Hawaiian Islands for the past three years. She has extensive experience working with the endangered Hawaiian monk seal. She is quite comfortable with being marooned on a small remote island, but is looking forward to an adventure in a new environment.

Colleen and MC Hammer

-Jane Khudyakov, Winter Intern
Jane studied developmental biology as a graduate student and is currently a postdoc working with microbial communities. She has been working with pinnipeds at The Marine Mammal Center during the past year. She has finally broken out of the lab for a unique field experience and is enjoying this introduction to macro-ecology.

Jane in the elephant seal blind

-Sara Chandler, Owl Biologist
Sara is a graduate student at San Jose State University who is studying the winter ecology of burrowing owls. She has long been a fan of the burrowing owl, and other raptors and songbirds too. Sara has a background in wildlife biology, environmental consulting, and vegetation monitoring. She feels very lucky to be on the island
studying one of her favorite birds.

Sara searches the cliffs for owls

The elephant seal season is underway, and the bulls are starting to show up and stake out some territory. We have identified several bulls that were here last year, including the cantankerous favorite and one of last year's alphas, Rusty, as well as others such as Bedlam Boy and MC Hammer. These bulls will soon be battling for the prime territories to gain access to their harem of females. We've been working on identifying the bulls by reading their flipper tags as well as looking out for the arrival of pregnant cows, which should start happening in the next few weeks. Once the cows settle in, they will be giving birth to pups and nursing them continuously for about 3 weeks without leaving their pup, even to feed. After the pup gains a tremendous amount of weight and is weaned, the alpha males will mate with all of the females in their territory.

Rusty

So far, we've had only three potential pregnant cows, and no sign of elephant seal pups yet. In order to be able to easily identify the potential breeders of the season, we have been working on stamping numbers on the arriving cows and bulls using hair dye. This has been a new experience for everyone on the winter team. "Crusty" Rusty especially has been quite suspicious of our attempts to read his tags and give his coat
a brand new stamp. We've been having some problems getting the "Born Blonde" hair dye to show up well on the brunette seals that we have already stamped, so we are going to try out a different dye setup which will hopefully make the numbers stand out so that we can identify the main role-players quickly from a distance.

Bedlam Boy moves up the terrace toward the house

Hind flipper tag

In between the elephant seal monitoring, our week has been consumed by extensive training for all aspects of our work on the island this season. We've practiced the routine for both the East and North boat landings, learned how to record weather conditions throughout the day, studied the names for different locations on the
island, and have been slowly becoming acquainted with the abundant bird life of the Farallones. We’re getting up to speed in terms of entering the abundant demographic data into the PRBO databases. We've also cleaned out the house and organized all of our food, fuel, and other supplies – out with the old, in with the new, for a new season.

Once we are fully settled and trained, a regular day for the elephant seal crew would go like this: a Western gull count at dawn, followed by breakfast and elephant seal monitoring. Twice a week we count all of the elephant seals present at accessible locations on the island. Once a week all of the pinnipeds are counted from the lighthouse. Twice a month, the California arboreal salamander population on SEFI is thoroughly monitored. After lunch, we go up to the elephant seal blind which hovers on a rock above Sand Flat and read elephant seal tags and note the new cow and bull arrivals. The day wraps up with a dusk gull count, data entry, and a consistently delicious dinner. After dinner, we record our findings for the day in the Farallon journal, which will eventually be bound and retained for permanent record. The workday of the burrowing owl biologist is quite different from that of the elephant seal crew, and deserves a blog post all of its own.

Farallon Superstitions – Boat Days and the Sacrifice

2010-11-08T22:26:00.000-08:00

Ever since I first started coming out in 2000, I have heard about how the best birds are always found on Boat Days. Why should it matter that good birds are found on Boat Days you may wonder? The reason is that it takes time to properly document a rare bird, and we all want to enjoy the arrival of something new and unusual without having to focus all of our attention on pulling off a smooth boat landing. But the Boat Days provide us food and other necessities, and therefore, take priority over the birds. There is a precedent for this Boat Day superstition. Birds like the Red-faced Warbler, Alder Flycatcher, Red-flanked Bluetail, and last year’s Yellow-breasted Bunting were all found on Boat Days. But there were also many great birds that were not found on boat days such as the Lanceolated Warbler and Olive-backed Pipit. As is the case for most superstitions, positive circumstantial evidence is strongly remembered, while negative evidence is forgotten or ignored.

And then there is the Sacrifice – this occurs when somebody who has been on the island for a long time leaves, and then a really good bird shows up. This has happened to me several times when I leave for my break in mid-October. But I have also seen many good birds while still on the island. So again, this is another example of a Farallon superstition that we all love to distort into reality.

When I returned to the island from my two-week break on 23-Oct, my friends Matt Brady and Oscar Johnson were headed home after lengthy stays on the island. The superstitious ones of us were all expecting that a mega-rarity would be found soon afterwards. With a major storm raging outside, though, most birds were leaving, and we found very few arrivals. The strong northwest winds that followed the storm continued to keep migrants away until the wind slackened on the 27th and 28th, just before the arrival of the next big storm. With light east winds, we found several new West Coast songbird migrants such as Fox Sparrow and Northern Mockingbird. A flock of five Great and two Snowy Egrets flew by the island; without a marsh, the Farallones do not provide ideal foraging habitat for herons and egrets, so these birds made a big lap around the island and headed back to the mainland. Palm Warblers are continuing to come out to the Farallones in good numbers; so far we have recorded 37 arrivals, 30 of which were banded. We found a gray-headed Orange-crowned Warbler that is either from the intermountain race called orestera or the northern taiga form called celata. The strong yellow color on the chest, light yellow on the throat, and strong eye arcs are marks that are more in favor of orestera, but the bill length was 1 mm too short for orestera and fit better for celata.

Late on the 28th, Elizabeth Ames found a young male Summer Tanager hunkered down in a chute on the north side of Lighthouse Hill. Summer Tanagers have averaged one per year on the Farallones, but somehow I had managed to miss them over the last several years. This one was a molting juvenile male, with mostly yellow plumage and few, scattered red feathers. Two days later Elizabeth found a female Summer Tanager at Corm Blind Hill. It’s funny how a bird can elude you for years and then suddenly you see two in three days.

On 1-Nov, the Giants won the World Series, and we had our high count of the year for Brown Pelicans at 95. This has been one of the worst years ever for Brown Pelicans. Usually, pelican numbers peak at around 2000. One theory for their decline is that their prey species has declined in the area and the birds are foraging elsewhere. This seems likely for the adults, but the ratio of adults to young is about 60 to 1. So what happened to the last breeding season? The lopsided ratio seems to suggest that there was nearly complete reproductive failure.

The following day, the fog rolled in shortly after dawn. Before the island vanished, though, a few birds were able to find it such as American Pipit, Lark Sparrow, and Eastern Phoebe. All these birds showed up at the lighthouse for brief appearances and then disappeared before anybody else could find them. Fortunately, another (or the same) Eastern Phoebe showed up two days later.

After a few days of dense fog, we experienced excellent weather for attracting migrants – light east wind, overcast skies, and visibility of just 7 miles. On 5-Nov, we found a Tennessee Warbler at the lighthouse whose diet consisted of at least one spider as shown in the photo below. Later in the day, Dan Maxwell found an Indigo Bunting in the Rixford Tree, a Monterey Cypress planted in honor of the first Farallon Patrol skipper.

On 6-Nov, Dan Maxwell’s final day was upon us. Dan arrived on 11-Sep and was on the island for eight weeks. Noah Strycker predicted that Dan would see either zero or two new island birds on his last day. While the rest of us were cleaning the house and getting ready for the landing and Dan’s departure, Noah called down on his radio that he had found a Scarlet Tanager on Lighthouse Hill. This is a very rare bird on the Farallones and anywhere else in California. The rest of us all climbed the hill and got great looks at it. This was Dan’s first new island bird. Shortly after seeing the bird, the sailboat arrived and the landing began. While watching the boat pull up to the East Landing ball, a pair of adult Ancient Murrelets swam between us and the boat. Noah was right, this was Dan’s second new island bird, and just moments before he would get on the sailboat. Since the entire boat crew wanted to tour the island, I put Dan on the boat with Elizabeth, while Erika Taketa and I ran the landing.

At one point, Erika pointed out a bird flying overhead. I got a quick glimpse of it and heard it give a distinctive rattle call. I told her that it was a longspur, probably Lapland, and that she should go look for it on the Marine Terrace, a flat area with dead, matted-down vegetation. She took a quick look, but could not relocate it. After the sailboat left, I saw Noah and suggested that he should look for the longspur because it could be a Smith’s Longspur. This is a very rare species in California, and I didn’t really believe that it was one, but instead I was trying to encourage Noah to look for it and consider the possibility. A half-hour later, Noah came back into the house and showed me some photos that he had taken of the longspur. We tried to convince each other that it was just a drab Lapland Longspur, “the bill seems too big for Smith’s” and “the spacing of the primaries isn’t right.” But the drab greater coverts and buff-colored belly were not right for Lapland Longspur either. Eventually I decided that I needed to see this bird to be on the safe side. I brought my camera along, and Noah and I got many really good photos of it that show it to be a Smith’s. This was the first time this species had been seen on the island, and just the 8th time it had been seen in California! Ironically, I had included Smith’s Longspur just two weeks previously on my top 10 list of new species for the Farallones. This bird has now been here for three days! So, do good birds show up on Boat Days? Was Dan the Sacrificial Lamb? Or, are these just silly superstitions?

Written by Jim Tietz

PRBO Farallon Fall Biologist

Birds And Sharks (And More Birds)

2010-10-24T19:13:00.000-07:00

As fall rolls toward winter, we’re socked in fog and sideways rain. Bleak weather on this isolated rock! Check out the Cal Academy webcam (link at upper left) – maybe later; right now it just shows a wall of gray.

We can’t complain, since the last week brought good vagrant weather and a nice wave of birds. While fall biologist Jim Tietz took a couple weeks off-island (replaced temporarily by Pete Warzybok, the spring/summer biologist), our crew worked hard to keep up with a steady flow of transient landbirds. October 18th was a particularly awesome day: 107 new arrivals were banded between breakfast and dinner. (A matter of expression; we didn’t even have time to eat.)

And we’ve seen some bloody spectacular shark attacks. The local Great Whites are now collectively chomping almost a seal a day. During the fall season, we take rotating 2-hour shifts at the lighthouse with a spotting scope to record and observe shark attacks, and those shark watches are getting interesting. Last week we were able to position and focus the webcam on a full-scale attack in progress off Sugarloaf. Matt Brady, fresh off the island after spending a couple months here, somehow picked that moment to check the website from the mainland, and watched the action from afar (!). A sighting of seven Orcas yesterday, however, has the shark enthusiasts worried: in past years, all the Great Whites have cleared out after close encounters with killer whales. In at least one well-publicized instance, Orcas caught and ate a large shark here. So we’ll see what happens.

Some bird highlights since the last update (*=banded): Clark’s Grebe, Black-legged Kittiwake, Least Flycatcher*, Mountain Bluebird, Townsend’s Solitaire*, Gray Catbird*, Sage Thrasher*, Magnolia Warbler*, 4 Black-throated Blue Warblers*, Hermit X Townsend’s Warbler, Blackpoll Warbler*, 10+ Palm Warblers*, Brewer’s Sparrow*, Clay-colored Sparrow*, Grasshopper Sparrow*, Slate-colored Junco, Chestnut-collared and Lapland Longspurs, Tricolored Blackbird*, and Hooded Oriole*.

It's too hard to choose, so we'll just throw down a whole bunch of recent photos (click to view full size). Enjoy!

FARALLONATHON – DAY 7 – THE FINAL DAY

2010-10-17T21:22:00.000-07:00

The final day of our Farallonathon dawned with a light northwest wind, mostly clear skies, and 30 miles of visibility. These conditions are not great, but not terrible either. Unfortunately, there were not many landbirds around. The tailwind for easier flying and clear skies for navigating allowed most birds present over the last few days to depart the previous night. With no new landbirds, we would have to rely on the ocean to provide us with the remainder of our points. The first and only bird point would come during the AM seawatch when Noah spotted 180 Sabine’s Gulls in just 5 minutes! We had been hearing reports of large numbers of Sabine’s Gulls from pelagic birding trips, but until today, we had only seen a few from the island.

The lighthouse, though, was where we would add most of our points today. During a one-hour period at mid-morning, at least 3 different sharks were spotted from the lighthouse. The first was a shark seen surfacing behind the New El Dorado III, a shark tourism boat that puts customers into a dive cage where they can see sharks materialize out of the murky waters. A few minutes later a different shark attacked an Elephant Seal off of Indian Head. This attack lasted nearly one hour, with the first shark surfacing numerous times to tear off chunks of the carcass. White shark researchers working for Stanford’s Hopkin’s Marine Lab identified this first individual as Tip Fin, a shark they have seen around the island during previous years. Once the first shark had had its fill, a second shark came up and fed on the carcass. The two shark sightings and the attack netted us 7 points within an hour.

In addition to the sharks, the observers at the lighthouse were also preoccupied with the diversity of cetaceans around the island. In addition to the 2 Gray, 5 Blue, and 35 Humpback Whales, the observers also spotted a Fin Whale, a pelagic species that is rarely spotted from the island. Fin Whales are nearly as large as Blue Whales, but they differ in being blackish above and having a taller dorsal fin. They are also unique amongst whales in having the lower jaw white on the right and black on the left. Both species can swim quite fast, and this allowed them to escape early attempts at hunting while other species became depleted. Historically, Fin Whales in the North Pacific numbered at ~45,000 individuals. After the steam engine was invented and used to power ships in the late 1800’s, whalers turned to hunting the more abundant Blue and Fin Whales. The global populations of both were decimated until the International Whaling Commission banned hunting in the mid to late 1900s. Today, it is estimated that the populations of both species off of California number only around 2000.

As fog settled over the island at noon, our chances of spotting more shark attacks, cetaceans, or seabirds came to an end. Hence, our final point for the Farallonathon was found in a tide pool. To obtain this final point, islanders ventured into Jewel Cave where they encountered two Fluffy Sculpins, three Bald Scuplins (also seen on day 5), a sea lemon, and a starfish! Unfortunately, the only invertebrates we count on Farallonathon are butterflies and dragonflies.

With 1 bird point, 1 whale point, 1 fish point, and 7 shark points, our overall total was brought up to 160 points. So how does this year compare to the previous 18 years of Farallonathons? Including this year, the average score for a Farallonathon has been 177 points, with the high set in 2001 at 240 points, and the low set in 2008 at 129 points. This year’s effort was the 13th best, or 7th worst depending on how you want to look at it. Maybe next year, we’ll time our Farallonathon with a bird wave a little better.

Anyway, the main reason to have our Farallonathons is to have fun and raise money for our research. So, if you have not already contributed and you appreciate what we are doing out here, this will be the last reminder you’ll hear from us until next year’s Fararallonathon. If you can, please consider supporting our research by pledging either a per-point amount or a flat donation for the event. To make a donation, please go to our Farallonathon website at: www.firstgiving.com/farallonathon. And lastly, thank you very much for making our research possible.

FARALLONATHON – DAY 6

2010-10-13T15:31:00.000-07:00

Wow, three straight days of light east wind – there’s got to be a fallout here someday! The cloud cover this morning was about 50% cirrus, which isn’t great, but better than no clouds. The visibility, though, was 30 miles, which means the mainland was clearly visible. I suppose that would be where all the birds headed when, or if, they discovered themselves over the ocean in the morning.

Shark watch starts at 8AM, and from the lighthouse, I could see a fog bank slowly approaching from the west. To the east, the visibility was improving so that I could see Mt. Diablo, but this would be short-lived. Within an hour, the fog was lapping at the island, obscuring West End, and officially cancelling Shark Watch. How would we see shark attacks? Although fog really reduces our ability to see stuff on the ocean and reduces the number of birds that can find the island, it was actually pretty neat watching the fog engulf the island. As West End and Indian Head slowly became veiled in gray, Maintop (slightly east and higher than the other two) remained free of the fog and looked especially crisp in the full, bright sunlight. I was really wishing I had brought my camera. Then streamers of fog began forming off the tops of Maintop and Sugarloaf as the fog drew steadily closer. Although shark watch was officially cancelled as soon as I could not see beyond West End, I stayed at the lighthouse scanning the ocean and hoping to get another shark attack. At 10, I surrendered and headed down the hill. Luckily, the Superfish, a shark tourism boat, notified us of an attack off Indian Head, which we were not able to see well from our vantage point. But, Zach Coffman, an employee of the Fish and Wildlife Service and an islander, just happened to be going over to the Superfish and got great views of the shark as it came up to investigate the small boat he was driving. We got to see it then too and added 5 points!

With the visibility reduced to less than a mile, we figured our day was over for finding new Farallonathon birds. But we were wrong, as we still hadn’t found all the birds on the island that arrived before the fog settled on us. Around noon, Noah pulled an Empidonax flycatcher out of the Twitville net. He noted that it was all yellow below, put it in a bag, and handed it to Oscar. He told him that it was a Western, and asked him to band it because he had to start the shorebird survey. When Oscar pulled it out of the bag in the banding lab, he noticed it had a bright green back, round eyering, and black wings with contrasting white wingbars. He suspected that it was a Yellow-bellied Flycatcher, a species that is very similar in appearance to Western Flycatchers. Oscar then notified the rest of us, and we all assembled in the banding lab to check it out. With only 22 previously accepted records in California and just a 55% acceptance record by the California Bird Records Committee (CBRC) due to the difficult in identifying them, Oscar carefully measured the difference in flight feather lengths. The “wing formula” is one of safest ways to identify an Empidonax flycatcher that is not singing. About half of Oscar’s measurements were in the zone of overlap between Western and Yellow-bellied, but the other half were clearly within the range of Yellow-bellied and outside the range of Western. With the measurements and appearance of a Yellow-bellied Flycatcher, we would now need photographic evidence. For the next 10 minutes, this bird endured a barrage of shutters clicking at it. We may have taken over 200 photos of it! Why not? We’re not shooting with film anymore!

Late in the afternoon, Sara showed Oscar a photo of a gray bird with a contrasting black cap she had seen in a cave in Sea Pigeon Gulch while she was looking for Burrowing Owls at noon. Oscar recognized this as a Gray Catbird and showed me the photo. We all jumped up and headed down to Sea Pigeon Gulch. The bird was still in its cave. Although this bird is no longer reviewed by the CBRC, it was reviewed in 1992 when the first Farallonathon occurred, so to keep scoring fair between the years, we count this as a CBRC bird. Besides this is only the 17th record for the island!

With the addition of two more migrant birds, a calling Red Phalarope that flew across the Marine Terrace and a Western Palm Warbler that was banded, we added 17 more points to our total. This brought our overall total up to 150 points. With just one more day of Farallonathon, we really needed some new birds and more shark attacks. Stay tuned for the grand finale tomorrow!

Please remember that your support makes this research and conservation possible, so if you can, please pledge either a per-point amount or a flat donation for our Farallonathon by going to our donation page at: http://www.firstgiving.com/farallonathon.

FARALLONATHON – DAY 5

2010-10-12T18:21:00.000-07:00

Another day dawned with light east winds and cloudy skies. Supposedly light winds and overcast skies bring lots of birds, so when we woke up and found that there was just a single knot of wind out of the east and 90% altostratus cloud cover, we thought for sure that there would be a good fallout. But where were they? Yet again, something unknown was not right. When we stepped outside there were no flight calls: just the calls of newly arriving Black Phoebes scolding each other in order to claim their winter territories. Oh well, we would try our hardest to find what was out there. Up at the lighthouse there were far fewer birds today than the day before. Many of the sparrows had departed. Of the 50 Savannah Sparrows yesterday, only 6 remained; and of the dozen Lincoln’s Sparrows, only 1 remained. There were a few new birds though. A juvenile Northern Harrier flew past the lighthouse and a Bobolink was found on the Marine Terrace before it quickly disappeared into Sea Pigeon Gulch. During the morning, the clouds headed east, and the visibility improved so that the entire coastline was visible. Any other birds looking for a place to land probably flew back to the mainland instead of landing on our desolate rock. With the nets open all day, we managed to capture just 11 birds, including a Western Flycatcher and the one Lincoln’s Sparrow.

What we lacked in birds, though, we made up with cetaceans (whales, dolphins, and porpoises). This may have been one of the most amazing cetacean days ever at the Farallones. In addition to our daily shark watch, we also conduct a whale watch from the lighthouse. At the top of every hour, we conduct a 360-degree scan with our binoculars for cetaceans. Today we found our 2-3 resident Gray Whales (sometimes we can only find two), but we also found an incredible 15 Blue Whales and 93 Humpback Whales! Even more amazing were the 265 Risso’s Dolphins, 20 Pacific White-sided Dolphins, 12 Northern Right Whale Dolphins, and 5 Dall’s Porpoises – only the last three were new for Farallonathon. All these marine mammals are attracted to the Gulf of the Farallones to feed on its bountiful food supply.

The last two points for the day would also come from the ocean in the form of fish. One point was for a very large fish, AKA, a White Shark, while the other was for a very small fish, the Bald Sculpin.

The crew dug deep today to find new Farallonathon points, but there weren’t many there. The seven new points (2 migrant birds, 3 cetaceans, 1 shark, and 1 fish) brought up our total to 133. With calm winds still in the forecast, there was still hope for that long sought fallout.

Please consider contributing to our Farallonathon by pledging your support with either a flat donation or a point-per-species amount by going to our donation at: http://www.firstgiving.com/farallonathon. Your support makes research and conservation on the Farallones possible. Thank you!

FARALLONATHON – DAY 4

2010-10-11T16:29:00.000-07:00

The dawn weather seemed pretty good for the bird fallout we’d been waiting for. The skies were mostly cloudy, the winds were only 2 knots out of the east, and the visibility was barely 20 miles. These conditions usually bring lots of birds. Today did bring birds, but not as many as anticipated. Walking around outside at dawn was fairly quiet. On a good wave day, there should have been “zeets” and “seets” of bird giving flight calls everywhere. Instead, there was just the barking of California Sea Lions. As the day progressed, though, more migrants trickled to the island, and we ended up having a pretty good day for western migrants. The sparrows were the most numerous with 50 Savannah Sparrows and 16 White-crowned Sparrows. But we also had a good showing of a few other species such as a dozen Audubon’s Warblers, 14 American Goldfinches (new for Farallonathon), and 7 Ruby-crowned Kinglets. Two early season migrants were new for Farallonathon: Western Tanager and Lazuli Bunting. We were also able to pick up a few of the less common western migrants to the Farallones such as Surf Scoter, Sharp-shinned Hawk, Semipalmated Plover, Pacific Wren, and Varied Thrush. Overall, 43 birds were banded, which isn’t too bad, but we really needed a big fallout with lots of diversity to increase our overall point total. What was especially bothersome was that there were no vagrants.

In addition to birds, we added 5 points for a shark attack that was out past Indian Head and two more points for a Black Saddlebags and the 5 Variegated Meadowhawks (dragonflies). Though not a point for the day, Painted Ladies were especially numerous with 12 being counted around the island. Earlier in the fall, West Coast Ladies were seen almost daily, but we were only able to find about one Painted Lady a week. This seasonality of West Coast Ladies preceding Painted Ladies seems to be normal on the Farallones. It was also a decent day for whales with our 2 resident Gray Whales, and 8 Blue Whales and 39 Humpback Whales to the south. These Gray Whales swim as close as 100 meters to the island most of day and provide great opportunities for photos.

Today’s points (8 migrant birds, 2 dragonflies, and 5 for one shark attack) brought up our Farallonathon total to just 126. We were really going to need a big wave or more shark action to bring up our total.

FARALLONATHON - DAY 3

2010-10-08T19:25:00.000-07:00

The day started out with clear skies and a 10 knot breeze out of the northwest. The weather forecast had made it sound as though the day would be even windier, and so we were all quite excited to see that we might get more birds than anticipated. Within an hour of dawn, the wind dropped down to just 5 knots, and a small fallout of birds ensued. A dozen White-crowned Sparrows were flocking in the Lavaterra near the house trees with a few Fox Sparrows (both points). The first House Finch of the fall was in the Rixford Tree, the first White-throated Sparrow was at the water tank, and the first Spotted Towhee of the fall showed up at the Lighthouse. We also found our first Say’s Phoebe of the Farallonathon at the lighthouse.

We banded several birds this day too such as these two Clay-colored Sparrows and this Western Meadowlark.

During an area search, Matt Brady encountered four flickers flocking together around Heligoland Hill. Two were Red-shafted, but Matt noticed that one had orangy-yellow wings with a red malar stripe and a red nape patch. Since male Yellow-shafted Flickers have red nape patches and black malars and male Red-shafted Flickers have red malars without a nape patch, this bird was clearly a hybrid, or intergrade as occurs between these two subspecies of the Northern Flicker. Another flicker appeared similar to a female Red-shafted Flicker, but because it had a red nape patch, it was also an intergrade – Red-shafted Flickers never have red nape patches.

Butterflies also put on a good show with 2 Monarchs, 1 Red Admiral, 4 Painted Ladies, and 5 West Coast Ladies. All of these were new Farallonathon points. It’s hard to understand how these butterflies can cross 20 miles of open ocean when a 5-10 knot wind is blowing them back to the mainland.

We also found several points on the ocean today. Scanning from the lighthouse during our whale watch survey, we were able to pick up two more cetacean species: 2 Blue Whales and 100 Risso’s Dolphins. The Risso’s Dolphins have been quite abundant around the island this fall. Risso’s are squid specialists, so there must be a lot of squid around. We also spotted a dozen Humpback Whales and our 2 resident Gray Whales. Matt also had a good seawatch in the afternoon when he picked up our first Northern Fulmar and Short-tailed Shearwater of the Farallonathon. For a day that was supposed to be a blowout, it turned out pretty well. All these points brought up our total to 111. With the wind slackening already and a forecast predicting light winds for the next few days, we were really anticipating a good fallout.

FARALLONATHON – Day 2

2010-10-05T23:24:00.000-07:00

Although the forecast for the end of Farallonathon looked good, we knew day 2 would be a blow out. Gale force northwest winds are not good for much on the Farallones during the fall, as it gives all the birds on the island a tail wind to fly away, and it prevents new birds from reaching the island. It also makes the ocean rough, which makes it very difficult to spot whale spouts and shark attacks on the ocean. The wind howled all day, so we worked on finding our breeding birds, pinnipeds, and salamander. Around the island, we were able to still locate a few Ashy Storm-Petrels nesting in their crevices; numerous Brandt’s and Pelagic Cormorants still finishing up breeding after one of the later nesting years ever; at least 40 Black Oystercatchers foraging and roosting in the intertidal; a few thousand California and Western Gulls roosting on the island at night; many basic-plumaged Common Murre and Pigeon Guillemots in the bays around the island; and several Cassin’s and Rhinoceros Auklets flying past the island. The Cassin’s Auklets had an incredibly productive year, and a few are still finishing up their second broods. We also get to hear thousands of Cassin’s sing their eerie song every night after the moon sets and they return to the island to prospect for next year’s nest sites. And the newly nesting Common Raven and Peregrine Falcon are virtual residents on the island now. Twelve of the 15 species of breeding birds is a good start – we are likely to find a Double-crested Cormorant, but puffin can be tough, and Leach’s Storm-Petrel is nearly impossible.

Of the six species of pinniped that have been identified on the Farallones, five now have a year-round presence on the island. We conducted a weekly island survey today to figure out how many were present. This entailed counting all the seals and sea lions from the lighthouse and walking around to the coves to find elephant seals and other species that are hidden from the lighthouse. This survey yielded 1,939 California Sea Lions, 40 Steller’s Sea Lions, 30 Harbor Seals, 81 Northern Fur Seals, and 116 Northern Elephant Seals. It’s really great to see that these species are recovering on the island after many were absent for so many decades following the sealing days of the late 1800’s. The fur seals are the most recent comeback story for the Farallones. Prior to the Europeans setting foot on the island, fur seals blanketed the ground with over 100,000 individuals. Within a few years of commercial sealing, they were completely extirpated from the islands and were only occasionally seen for the next hundred years. Over the last few decades, a colony has begun to steadily increase at Indian Head Beach. On 1-Oct, we conducted our first survey of the year there and counted 115 pups and over 160 adults and immature – this is a true success story for conservation on the Farallones!

After the pinniped survey, we conducted our first salamander survey of the year. We checked 106 coverboards, but could only find one salamander. This is the Farallon subspecies of Arboreal Salamander, which is kind of ironic considering that the only trees on the island are three recently introduced Monterey Cypresses and a Monterey Pine. These Farallon Salamanders mostly live under rocks unless you give them a coverboard to hide under. Although only one salamander sounds bad, in reality, they don’t really emerge from their subterranean hiding places until after the first substantial rains moisten the soil. After all, lungless salamanders, such as this one, need to keep their skin moist so they can breathe through it.

Finding migrant birds was a challenge, but seven more were tallied to our list. The most exciting were the three species of jaeger seen during the PM seawatch: Long-tailed, Parasitic, and Pomarine. We also added Merlin, Red-necked Phalarope and Western Meadowlark to bring our overall point total up to 85.

Please remember that your support makes this research and conservation possible, so if you can, please pledge either a per-point amount or a flat donation for the event by going to our donation page at: http://www.firstgiving.com/farallonathon.

FARALLONATHON BEGINS

2010-10-05T18:55:00.000-07:00

Two days ago we began our annual Farallonathon. The Farallonathon is similar to a Bird-a-thon, but on the Farallon Islands, we do things a little different. Instead of counting just species of birds, we count all of the animals we encounter including birds, fish, marine mammals, insects, and any other wildlife we find. We even assign points for rare and interesting wildlife events such as shark attacks and birds never before seen on the Farallones.

Money raised from this event goes directly to supporting Farallon research allowing us to purchase biological equipment, food and supplies for island personnel, and pay PRBO staff to analyze and publish the data we collect. The information gathered from our research helps us and others protect the wildlife that use these special islands and the marine environment that surrounds it.

To pledge your financial support for our research, you can pledge a flat amount or you can make your pledge based on the Farallonathon point system. If you pledge your support, you will receive a detailed summary of our experience at the end of the Farallonathon week. Your participation allows us to continue studying this unique and vital ecosystem on the California Coast. Please consider supporting our research by pledging either a per-point amount or a flat donation for the event by going to our donation page at: http://www.firstgiving.com/farallonathon.

On October 3rd, Farallonathon – Day 1, we were not expecting to have a good day and were not planning to start Farallonathon, but the winds were very light, the skies were overcast, and visibility was limited to just 5 miles. These conditions are ideal for bird migrants to reach the island, and we started our day full of anticipation. As we began our surveys, we were not disappointed by what showed up. As I headed up to the lighthouse to begin shark watch, I flushed several Swainson’s and Hermit Thrushes from under the water tank on the hill. I also saw that the Blackburnian Warbler that arrived on 1-Oct was still present. Once I reached the lighthouse, I climbed to the top to see what was hiding under the metal grate – a place where many birds, and a few mega-rare ones, have hunkered down to get out of the wind. From under the grate, several more thrushes flew out faster than I could identify them. This was turning out to be a good day.

Meanwhile, Dan Maxwell was passing Twitville on his way to start a shorebird survey, when he heard a call that stopped him in his tracks. Dropping from the sky, a large bird flew down into the Lavaterra bushes. Dan immediately recognized it as an Evening Grosbeak and ran back up to the houses to tell the others. Although this species is not super-rare on the coast, here on the Farallones, this is a bird that we have all dreamt of seeing because this charismatic bird was the first on the island since 1979! Upon hearing the news, Matt Brady, Noah Strycker, and Oscar Johnson ran out of the house to check it out in the Coast Guard House trees where it had flown while Dan was running back to the PRBO house. While they were all enjoying close-up views of the bird, they began spotting other birds such as a female Canada Warbler and an Ovenbird from the previous few days. Up at the lighthouse, I tried in vain to see the grosbeak in the trees with my spotting scope, but it stayed hidden under the canopy. Eventually, Oscar came up to the lighthouse so I could see it. Ironically, the bird would fly to within 10 feet of me soon after I returned to the lighthouse to resume shark watch.

An hour later, Matt came up to relieve me from my shift at the lighthouse. While we were talking, a Long-billed Dowitcher flew by with a Pectoral Sandpiper. A few minutes after that, a flock of ducks came flying past the lighthouse. I noticed the pintail, but Matt immediately noticed a female-plumaged teal in the flock with big, pale blue patches on the leading edge of the wing. I studied the duck through my spotting scope and could see that the chin was white, which suggests Blue-winged Teal instead of Cinnamon Teal. My photographs also supported this identification by showing that the bill was relatively small. As I was studying the Blue-winged Teal, Matt also pointed out that there were two Northern Shoveler in the flock. Because most ducks are rare on the Farallones, a flock of three species was incredible.

We finished the day with 59 species of migrant birds, including 13 species of warbler. We also found a Green Darner (dragonfly) and a Familiar Bluet (damselfly) for two more points. Our two resident Gray Whales and 7 transient Humpback Whales gave us another two points. Overall, we finished the day with 63 points. Not spectacular, but the Evening Grosbeak and ducks are not points we are likely to get again, so after looking at the calm winds forecasted for Wed-Fri, we decided this would be a good first day for our Farallonathon.

Again, please consider supporting our research by pledging either a per-point amount or a flat donation for the event by going to our donation page at: http://www.firstgiving.com/farallonathon. Thank you!

Mini Migrant Wave and Fog

2010-09-26T12:29:00.000-07:00

Here on Southeast Farallon Island during the fall songbird monitoring season, weather determines much of what we do because of the way in which it affects songbird migration. Based on work done by Pyle et al. (Condor 1993), migrating birds arriving at Southeast Farallon Island are strongly influenced by local weather conditions. During much of the fall, high pressure over the northern Pacific Ocean combined with low pressure over the interior of California creates a strong northwest wind with alternating clear skies and low fog. This weather syndrome keeps migrating birds near the mainland coast, both because the following wind allows the birds to keep migrating, and clear skies allow migrants to see and follow the coastline. Regardless of wind strength or direction, fog inhibits birds from finding the island, simply because they can’t see it. Therefore, these conditions, which are what we experienced for much of the latter half of August and the first two weeks of September, lead to very few birds arriving on the island. Very few birds on the island means that we get to do a lot of data entry and proofing.

However, this all changed on the night of the 11th of September, and when we awoke on the morning of the 12th we found a high overcast sky and light south to southeast winds. These conditions are created when a weak low pressure system moves in from the Pacific, and are typically present for just a few days before the northwest winds dominate once again. Migrating birds flying over this cloud layer at night are unable to see the land below, so when they drop below the cloud layer in the morning to find food, they sometimes find themselves over open ocean: a truly inhospitable landscape for a landbird. With this high overcast and decreased visibility, landbirds can’t see the mainland, and so are more likely to end up on the Farallon Islands. The following two days continued with similar weather, and culminated in a spectacular wave of migrants on the 14th, with small flocks of warblers and other migrants arriving almost continuously over the course of the day. Here are photos of a few of the expected western migrant species that showed up during those three days of good migrant weather.

Birds of the year on their first migration are inexperienced and are much more likely to end up migrating over open ocean. These birds comprise most of what we see out here on the island. In addition to the expected western species, we get small numbers of ‘vagrant’ eastern songbirds. It is these species that we get particularly excited about finding. A small proportion of hatch-year songbirds are genetically misoriented during migration and follow a predictable incorrect migratory direction. For example, a warbler from the northeastern United States that is supposed to migrate in a southeasterly direction will instead orient in a “mirror-image” direction, i.e. southwest, and thus eventually find itself flying over California. During the three days of light south winds that we experienced, we had relatively good numbers of these eastern warblers show up on the island, the best of which was a Connecticut Warbler found by Matt Brady up at the lighthouse. Also located were a Mourning Warbler, 3 Tennessee Warblers, 4 Chestnut-sided Warblers, 2 Magnolia Warblers, 2 Blackburnian Warblers, 7 Blackpoll Warblers, and 3 American Redstarts. Other rare eastern birds that showed up included 2 Bobolinks, a Chimney Swift, an Orchard Oriole, and a Philadelphia Vireo.

Some less common western migrants seen during these few days included a Black Swift that circled the lighthouse, four Vesper Sparrows, a Blue Grosbeak, a Purple Martin, a Baird’s Sandpiper, a Pectoral Sandpiper, and a Short-eared Owl.

Since those three days of spectacular migrant weather we have been back to northwest winds and fog with very few bird highlights. The most unusual birds since the 14^th have been a Dusky Flycatcher and a Northern Waterthrush, both found on the 22^nd of September. Consequently, we are back to doing lots of data entry and eagerly awaiting the next period of light winds and high overcast!!