Farallon Islands

Yesterday was by far one of the coolest days of my life! The Farallon Islands is a small group (only about 200 acres) of islands 27 miles off the coast of San Francisco. PRBO has biologists out there year-round who conduct different types of surveys depending on the season. The summer is largely dedicated to seabird monitoring. The biologists are the only people who live on the Farallones and very few people from the outside get a chance to visit. They have food delivered to them once every 2 weeks. Because I also work for PRBO I got the chance to volunteer to do the food shop and bring it all to the island!

The food run was absolutely insane! It took 3 hours to do, cost 1110 dollars, and filled 4 carts! We worked until midnight packing the food and then got up at 4:30 to drive to the marina in San Francisco in the pouring rain. We got to the marina and received a call from  the island saying that the weather was too bad and we wouldn't be able to get out there. Luckily, we were able to make it out there yesterday instead and I was ecstatic that I managed to not get seasick once the whole trip!

Because there is no actual place to land on the island, they have to send out a small boat to relay all the supplies back and forth from the large boat to the island. So once we got there, the small boat met us out in the water, and I hopped on with some of the supplies. Then a huge crane comes and attaches to the boat and then lifts the entire boat with me in it out of the water and onto a landing pad. I got out and then started my tour of the island while they unpacked all the food. 

Species Seen on the Island:

-Western Gull

-California Gull

-Black Oystercatcher

-Brandt's Cormorant

-Pelagic Cormorant

-Brown Pelican

-American White Pelican

-Canada Goose

-Brant Goose

-Common Murre

-Elephant Seal

-California Seal 

Western Gull. During the breeding season the gulls get very aggressive. The entire time I was on the island all I could hear was their screaming. The biologists who do nest checks have to wear hard hats to protect themselves!

And this is the reason the gulls get so aggressive. They need to protect their babies!

A chick hatching out of the left egg. 

Common Murre

Male Brandt's Cormorant

Recap of this Week

This past week has been quite busy. With Sam and Amanda off to different parts of the country and being challenged by uncharacteristic rainy weather, Cara and I had a lot of work to do. Last Friday all the interns went on a tour of the Point Reyes National Seashore. We saw elephant seals, a gray whale, California seals, a Steller's seal, and a colony of thousands of Murres! 

On Monday I drove down to Stanford to visit my friend Matt, and dropped Xeronimo off at home. Then tuesday Xeronimo and I spent the day in San Francisco. Pretty cool stuff! 

One of the days last week I essentially got attacked by a river otter. We were banding near Pine Gulch Creek and we heard this loud call. What at first we thought to be a bird was actually a pair of river otters screaming at us. I got into the water to try and take a picture of them. One started coming my way and then at about a couple feet away it started to swim even faster at me and started growling and hissing. I ran away while the otter continued to hiss!

Tomorrow I leave on an AWESOME trip to the Farallon Islands! We have 4 or 5 interns living on the island who conduct research and they need food delivered to them every 2 weeks. It is a very strict process and they only allow certain people to get to the island. I won the chance to shop for the food for them and to deliver it all to the island! I will be taking a power boat out there and hopefully I will get the chance to explore the island a little and see some awesome new species! Let's hope I don't get seasick!

I'm seriously in love with this place!

Elephant Seals lounging on the beach. 

A closer look at the Elephant Seals

Furthest point west of the continental U.S.!

Warbling Vireo. So pretty!

Juvenile American Robin. Obviously, not very happy to be away from its parents. 

A very crappy picture of the little guy that tried to attack me!

Pinnacles Camping Trip

This past weekend we went on our group camping trip to Pinnacles National Monument. Besides camping, we went on a 7 mile hike and did a lot of great birding. I saw a significant amount of new birds that I've never seen before. It was awesome birding with a bunch of very experienced biologists! We got to see the endangered California Condor! They are seriously gigantic (9 foot wingspan!!!)! Other than birds, we saw a lot of other beautiful wildlife!

There was A LOT of this going on. 

Redwood Creek

Today was the first time I banded at Redwood Creek. This site tends to catch more birds than the other sites, so I was expecting madness! Instead, it was a rather calm day with not too many surprises (beside a huge hole in one of our nets, probably from a deer running through?). We did catch a juvenile song sparrow and two juvenile chestnut-backed chickadees. Also, Sam found a hummingbird nest! Very cute! 

Male Bushtit. 

View from the banding station. 

Juvenile Chestnut-Backed Chickadee. This is what the chicks that were hatched in a nest of my hair probably look like now. 

A deer watching us. Maybe the culprit for putting that huge hole in our net!

Banana Slug

Hummingbird nest!

Lagunitas Creek

Yesterday Cara and I banded at Lagunitas Creek for the first time and it was awesome! So far it is my favorite location to band at. We woke up at 4 AM and got there at 5:15, prepared for a very hectic morning at a new banding site. It was the smoothest set up yet! In fact, the entire day went very well. We heard and saw some new birds, including a Black-headed Grosbeak. It's an absolutely gorgeous location with tons of interesting critters!

View from the banding station.

Lagunitas Creek

A female Wilson's Warbler

Weighing the birds is one of my favorite parts of the process! It cracks me up sticking them in a little cup upside down.

Bullfrog Tadpole

A pair of Damselflies mating?

Birding and enjoying my work!