tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-23236766983975068282024-03-12T19:30:08.707-07:00MAGANRORDBird news from Alcatraz. This shit is serious.Sweep Commanderhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10624059547111674301noreply@blogger.comBlogger73125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2323676698397506828.post-46549168096688933182010-11-19T21:52:00.000-08:002014-01-02T13:07:14.158-08:00Returning falcons confound and excite the island's bird detectives<div>
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<span style="font-size: large;"><b>They're back.</b></span></div>
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<a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/__w-4JLjnTj0/TLaO6KyseuI/AAAAAAAAAWc/YsQZrUiR8B4/s1600/falcon+female+returns+2.jpg"><img alt="" border="0" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5527762722624404194" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/__w-4JLjnTj0/TLaO6KyseuI/AAAAAAAAAWc/YsQZrUiR8B4/s400/falcon+female+returns+2.jpg" style="cursor: pointer; display: block; height: 338px; margin-bottom: 10px; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; margin-top: 0px; text-align: center; width: 400px;" /></a></div>
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<a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/__w-4JLjnTj0/TLaO7Fk-YmI/AAAAAAAAAW0/9LTahwpGVJI/s1600/falcon+male+returns+2.jpg"><img alt="" border="0" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5527762738404549218" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/__w-4JLjnTj0/TLaO7Fk-YmI/AAAAAAAAAW0/9LTahwpGVJI/s400/falcon+male+returns+2.jpg" style="cursor: pointer; display: block; height: 400px; margin-bottom: 10px; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; margin-top: 0px; text-align: center; width: 396px;" /></a></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">Or at least we </span><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">think</span></i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"> they're our falcons from last winter. </span></div>
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<a href="http://maganrord.blogspot.com/2010/01/death-from-above.html"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">Long story short, in late November 2009, I spotted a lightly colored bird standing straight up atop one of Alcatraz's tall cypress trees.</span></a><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"> It was far away, but its vertical silhouette seemed very out of the ordinary. I pointed it out to Ranger John and asked him to identify it. He nailed it on the first try. It was a peregrine falcon.</span></div>
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<a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/__w-4JLjnTj0/TLaO6bQFEoI/AAAAAAAAAWk/m22Owz_dMVk/s1600/falcon+female+returns+1.jpg"><img alt="" border="0" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5527762727042617986" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/__w-4JLjnTj0/TLaO6bQFEoI/AAAAAAAAAWk/m22Owz_dMVk/s400/falcon+female+returns+1.jpg" style="cursor: pointer; display: block; height: 162px; margin-bottom: 10px; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; margin-top: 0px; text-align: center; width: 400px;" /></a></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">The bird, which turned out to be a female, </span><a href="http://maganrord.blogspot.com/2010/02/where-to-begin.html"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">was then joined by a juvenile male.</span></a><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"> The two remained loosely allied throughout a winter of fun and brutality, feasting on European starlings and </span><a href="http://maganrord.blogspot.com/2010/02/midweek-mystery-meal.html"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">unwary seabirds.</span></a><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"> In their spare time, they provided drama for the usual bird bosses of Alcatraz, our very large and extremely territorial pair of common ravens.</span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">One day in March, </span><a href="http://maganrord.blogspot.com/2010/03/falcon-dines-again-also-comments-fixed.html"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">our female enjoyed one last meal on the top of the power plant's smokestack, spread her wings like sails into the wind and left us for the summer,</span></a><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"> presumably to breed with a sexually mature male in a territory somewhere to the north. </span></div>
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<a href="http://maganrord.blogspot.com/2010/06/raven-male-defends-his-young-raven.html"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">The male was last seen at June's closing.</span></a><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"> Before that, his relationship with Alcatraz seemed more and more tenuous... some experts judged that he was holding Alcatraz as a future breeding territory. The possibility was exciting, especially for those of us who had first participated in discovering and observing him. Alcatraz has never hosted breeding peregrines before. Given the summer population of 1,500 to 2,000 large and aggressive gulls, no one was even sure that breeding peregrines were a possibility. To our dismay, the frequency of peregrine observation was declining, finally approaching zero. </span></div>
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<b><span class="Apple-style-span"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;">And then...</span></span></b></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">Last Sunday, October 9th, I saw a male peregrine falcon with mixed blue and brown plumage on the Alcatraz lighthouse, in the exact same spot that I'd seen our male all of last winter, and indeed, at the same time in the early evening. His prime viewing hours are 5-7 pm. </span></div>
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<a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/__w-4JLjnTj0/TLaO7Q8fv6I/AAAAAAAAAW8/dl6LCu7qCYY/s1600/falcon+male+returns+1.jpg"><img alt="" border="0" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5527762741455994786" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/__w-4JLjnTj0/TLaO7Q8fv6I/AAAAAAAAAW8/dl6LCu7qCYY/s400/falcon+male+returns+1.jpg" style="cursor: pointer; display: block; height: 400px; margin-bottom: 10px; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; margin-top: 0px; text-align: center; width: 336px;" /></a></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">The blue and brown feathers indicate that the peregrine is in transition. He's shedding its brown juvenile quills and donning the prim and chivalrous blue coat of a breeding adult warrior. </span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">The very next day, still stoked from the rediscovery of our male falcon, I made another find: an adult female falcon in the very same cypress tree that our female falcon from last winter preferred. For me, as a birder of The Rock, this was a huge personal lift. BourbonHawk and I have spent countless hours stalking and observing this falcon, neurotically checking her perches even when she had been absent for months. </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"><a href="http://maganrord.blogspot.com/2010/01/death-from-above.html">She is the raison d'etre of this bird blog.</a></span></div>
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<a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/__w-4JLjnTj0/TLa0TmCJb-I/AAAAAAAAAXk/e5D0Z3Zsdsg/s1600/falcon+female+returns+4.jpg"><img alt="" border="0" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5527803841363931106" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/__w-4JLjnTj0/TLa0TmCJb-I/AAAAAAAAAXk/e5D0Z3Zsdsg/s400/falcon+female+returns+4.jpg" style="cursor: pointer; display: block; height: 400px; margin-bottom: 10px; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; margin-top: 0px; text-align: center; width: 312px;" /></a></div>
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<b><span class="Apple-style-span"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;">But is it</span></span></b><b><span class="Apple-style-span"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;"> the same falcon pair from last winter?</span></span></b></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">As it turns out, falcons don't wear name tags. Hell, falcons not obsessively stalked by unstable birders don't even have names. Confirmation that the falcon you saw today is the same bird you saw several months ago isn't easy to produce and in the male's case, there may be reason to doubt his identity as our heroic but moody tiercel from the winter of 2009 and 2010. </span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">His age, given away by his plumage, is a perfect fit. His blue and brown feathers firmly indicate that he hatched in the summer breeding season of 2009, just as our falcon did. He sits on the same east facing ledge of the Alcatraz lighthouse at the very same time of day. He looks to be about the same size.</span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">None the less, we can't be sure that he's ours. </span><a href="http://maganrord.blogspot.com/2010/06/raven-male-defends-his-young-raven.html"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">In June, we saw another male falcon undergoing the same transition from brown to blue.</span></a><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"> If the two had been the same bird, it sure seems as though the molt would be complete by now. As it stands, we can't rule out the possibility that we've been mistaking two male falcon yearlings for just one. </span></div>
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<a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/__w-4JLjnTj0/TLaO6uYonlI/AAAAAAAAAWs/4_t5zDTA4_4/s1600/falcon+male+returns+3.jpg"><img alt="" border="0" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5527762732178775634" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/__w-4JLjnTj0/TLaO6uYonlI/AAAAAAAAAWs/4_t5zDTA4_4/s400/falcon+male+returns+3.jpg" style="cursor: pointer; display: block; height: 258px; margin-bottom: 10px; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; margin-top: 0px; text-align: center; width: 400px;" /></a></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">On the other hand, artifacts of digital photography and bad early evening light in a fog ridden context could also be distorting our sense for his coloration.</span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">One raptor expert told us that the preference of two similar falcons for the same roost might be explained by the attraction that they have for the aggregated guano of other falcons. </span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">None the less, my intuition that this is our same falcon is bolstered by the fact that since May, </span><a href="http://maganrord.blogspot.com/2010/05/alcatraz-has-babies-cuteness-overload.html"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">Alcatraz has had a brown falcon sporting one or two blue feathers.</span></a><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"> With every observation of a falcon in transitional plumage as the year went on, the blue went up and the brown went down. Call me crazy but I think it's the same bird, even if it's taken several months and our intuition is that the whole blue to brown molt should happen inside of 30 days. (Important to keep in mind: every time I assert a suspicion without concrete evidence, I seem to be wrong. Example: the time </span><a href="http://maganrord.blogspot.com/2010/06/raven-male-defends-his-young-raven.html"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">I wrote about a thousand words on how the raven pair was deceiving the National Park Service and incubating a nearly unprecedented second clutch of eggs</span></a><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">)</span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">The identity of the female seems less mysterious. </span></div>
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<a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/__w-4JLjnTj0/TLaaj6kUU6I/AAAAAAAAAXE/SbBRKL-Tbfg/s1600/falcon+female+returns+3.jpg"><img alt="" border="0" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5527775534451544994" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/__w-4JLjnTj0/TLaaj6kUU6I/AAAAAAAAAXE/SbBRKL-Tbfg/s400/falcon+female+returns+3.jpg" style="cursor: pointer; display: block; height: 400px; margin-bottom: 10px; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; margin-top: 0px; text-align: center; width: 388px;" /></a></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">Unlike at the lighthouse, her cypress tree doesn't have aggregated guano on it, and she hangs out in each of its boughs and branches without regard for the presence of peregrine droppings. Call it a subjective unscientific judgement, but she seems comfortable and very much at home in this tree.</span></div>
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<b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">Watch out, ravens...</span></b></div>
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<b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-weight: normal;"><a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/__w-4JLjnTj0/TLac3YiZCUI/AAAAAAAAAXM/qquodYo327c/s1600/raven+friends+2+big.jpg"><img alt="" border="0" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5527778067937298754" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/__w-4JLjnTj0/TLac3YiZCUI/AAAAAAAAAXM/qquodYo327c/s400/raven+friends+2+big.jpg" style="cursor: pointer; display: block; height: 383px; margin-bottom: 10px; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; margin-top: 0px; text-align: center; width: 400px;" /></a></span></b></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">The presence of a pair of adult peregrines on Alcatraz should strike fear into the heart of the island's ruling pair of majestic corvids. </span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">The relationships between ravens and raptors are varied, complicated and potentially violent.</span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">There are recorded instances of ravens killing falcons and falcons have certainly put an end to many a proud raven. Falcons, transcending their smaller size, have even killed golden eagles, some of the most fearsome raptors the world has to offer. The warlike behavior of our young male last winter, attacking any bird of any size from large gull to large raven, gives me every assurance that he is an aggressive creature that fears nothing but a lack of suitable targets.</span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">On the other hand, there is also evidence that ravens and raptors can live in cooperation with one another, especially after a period of years in close proximity. The raven and raptor pairs come to accept the presence of the other and there is even some evidence that they share defensive duties and come to understand one another's alarm calls in the case of an unwanted invader. </span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">In peregrine falcons and common ravens, you have two of the smartest and most complicated minds in the avian world. Concrete expectations for how the two pairs might interact are bound to be a source of frustration and disappointment. Still, up to this point, it's been all fistacuffs, and I doubt the ravens are happy to see our falcons return.</span></div>
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<b><span class="Apple-style-span"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;">Coming soon: </span></span></b></div>
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<b><span class="Apple-style-span"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;">-How the female falcon is a product of the sexual revolution (hint, she has a boy and a house for the summer and </span></span><i><span class="Apple-style-span"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;">another </span></span></i><span class="Apple-style-span"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;">boy and </span></span><i><span class="Apple-style-span"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;">another</span></span></i><span class="Apple-style-span"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;"> house for the winter.)</span></span></b></div>
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<b><span class="Apple-style-span"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;">-How long has Alcatraz had seasonally resident falcons? There's reason to believe that it's longer than we think.</span></span></b></div>
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<b><span class="Apple-style-span"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;">Lastly:</span></span></b></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">There are those that take our aforementioned ravens to be "nasty birds", worthy of little more than target practice for our capable and burly law enforcement rangers. </span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">I would make the case that while they are carrion and trash eating voracious predators, they are also the most committed couple the island has to offer.</span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">The other day, BourbonHawk remarked on just how odd it is that we never see our ravens eating carrion... then we saw this:</span></div>
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<a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/__w-4JLjnTj0/TLau_aLzs3I/AAAAAAAAAXc/KE8ssUwo0Rg/s1600/raven+carrion.jpg"><img alt="" border="0" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5527797997027701618" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/__w-4JLjnTj0/TLau_aLzs3I/AAAAAAAAAXc/KE8ssUwo0Rg/s400/raven+carrion.jpg" style="cursor: pointer; display: block; height: 280px; margin-bottom: 10px; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; margin-top: 0px; text-align: center; width: 400px;" /></a></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">Yes, that is the foot of a tiny dead bird, attached to its downy fluff.</span></div>
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<a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/__w-4JLjnTj0/TLau_OEghPI/AAAAAAAAAXU/H70LBpCfPvM/s1600/raven+carrion+close.jpg"><img alt="" border="0" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5527797993775858930" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/__w-4JLjnTj0/TLau_OEghPI/AAAAAAAAAXU/H70LBpCfPvM/s400/raven+carrion+close.jpg" style="cursor: pointer; display: block; height: 400px; margin-bottom: 10px; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; margin-top: 0px; text-align: center; width: 238px;" /></a></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">They'll even eat the cutest baby gull if it pleases them...</span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">Nasty? Perhaps, but</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"> unlike our sexually liberated falcon femme, these two stay together at all times during the year, abiding by each other, feeding, preening and keeping each other company. Falcons should be wary because these ravens will certainly protect each other.</span></div>
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Sweep Commanderhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10624059547111674301noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2323676698397506828.post-28886589727925175242010-11-17T23:57:00.000-08:002014-01-02T13:02:08.705-08:00Following BourbonHawk: Birding Away From The Rock<span style="font-size: 130%;"><br />I'll pen another sarcasm laden post soon. Tonight, we're all business.<br /><br />America's National Park System is an entity with so infinitely many virtues that if you began to list them, you'd just never finish.<br /><br />The genesis of Golden Gate National Recreation Area, of which Alcatraz is just one facet, came partly through the enlightenment of Congressman Phillip Burton, representing at times, California's fifth and sixth congressional districts.<br /><br /></span><br />
<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-size: 130%;"><a href="http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/c/cd/Philip_Burton.jpg"><img alt="" border="0" src="http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/c/cd/Philip_Burton.jpg" style="cursor: pointer; display: block; height: 500px; margin: 0px auto 10px; text-align: center; width: 300px;" /></a></span><span style="font-size: 130%; font-style: italic;">cool tie, also digging the haircut and those unmatchy pants<br /></span></div>
<span style="font-size: 130%;">Prior to his conversion to the righteous cause, he saw the maintenance and preservation of public land as a distraction from his true mission in government, lessening the economic hardships shouldered by blue collar America.<br /><br />He only concerned himself with the fate of public lands when it was explained to him that rich folks have their own lakes, their own yachts, their own snazzy houses on the shores of said lakes.<br /><br />Shouldn't everyone else at least have the pleasure of walking along the shore of a lake? I mean, at the very least? For Burton, that was all it took.<br /><br />By the way, it was his strategizing and haranguing that gave Alcatraz to GGNRA. If our urban park has a founding father, well... But enough about him for now.<br /><br />As awesome as the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Golden_Gate_National_Recreation_Area">Golden Gate National Recreation Area</a> is, it's not the only name in the public land conservation game.<br /></span><br />
<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-size: 130%;"><span style="font-size: 180%; font-weight: bold;">Adventuring off the reservation</span></span><br />
<span style="font-size: 130%;"><span style="font-size: 180%; font-weight: bold;">Out of the park </span></span><br />
<span style="font-size: 130%;"><span style="font-size: 180%; font-weight: bold;">Out of the National Park System</span></span></div>
<span style="font-size: 130%;"><br />I love BourbonHawk's idea of covering bird life throughout the GGNRA. In the spirit of that temporary journey away from Alcatraz, here's a trip even further afield.<br /><br />Last weekend, my father and I hiked Rush Ranch, a piece of land on the Suisun Marsh, waaaay over there in Fairfield. It's maintained by a nonprofit called the <a href="http://www.solanolandtrust.org/">Solano Land Trust</a> and to be sure, we had a fantastic time. There were raptors </span><span style="font-size: 130%; font-style: italic;">everywhere:<br /><br /></span><br />
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<span style="font-size: 130%;"><a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/__w-4JLjnTj0/TLv4DCspoaI/AAAAAAAAAYc/jaNGpaHhA04/s1600/IMG_3986.JPG"><img alt="" border="0" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5529285698674860450" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/__w-4JLjnTj0/TLv4DCspoaI/AAAAAAAAAYc/jaNGpaHhA04/s400/IMG_3986.JPG" style="cursor: pointer; display: block; height: 305px; margin: 0px auto 10px; text-align: center; width: 400px;" /></a></span><span style="font-size: 130%; font-style: italic;"><br />white tailed kite</span><span style="font-size: 130%;"><br /></span></div>
<span style="font-size: 130%;"><br /></span>
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<span style="font-size: 130%;"><a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/__w-4JLjnTj0/TLv4C3ieFjI/AAAAAAAAAYU/BdUF7u0JxPM/s1600/IMG_3997.JPG"><img alt="" border="0" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5529285695679370802" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/__w-4JLjnTj0/TLv4C3ieFjI/AAAAAAAAAYU/BdUF7u0JxPM/s400/IMG_3997.JPG" style="cursor: pointer; display: block; height: 338px; margin: 0px auto 10px; text-align: center; width: 400px;" /></a></span><span style="font-size: 130%; font-style: italic;"><br />prairie falcon</span><span style="font-size: 130%;"><br /></span><span style="font-size: 130%; font-style: italic;"><br /></span><span style="font-size: 130%;"><a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/__w-4JLjnTj0/TLv9lQD4G9I/AAAAAAAAAY0/lqFd5yr7vFg/s1600/IMG_4012.JPG"><img alt="" border="0" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5529291783935630290" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/__w-4JLjnTj0/TLv9lQD4G9I/AAAAAAAAAY0/lqFd5yr7vFg/s400/IMG_4012.JPG" style="cursor: pointer; display: block; height: 300px; margin: 0px auto 10px; text-align: center; width: 400px;" /></a></span><span style="font-size: 130%;"><br /></span><span style="font-size: 130%; font-style: italic;">red tailed hawk</span></div>
<span style="font-size: 130%;"><br /></span>
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<span style="font-size: 130%;"><a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/__w-4JLjnTj0/TLv5hYNatjI/AAAAAAAAAYs/sFsIpr804EQ/s1600/IMG_3961.JPG"><img alt="" border="0" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5529287319357142578" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/__w-4JLjnTj0/TLv5hYNatjI/AAAAAAAAAYs/sFsIpr804EQ/s400/IMG_3961.JPG" style="cursor: pointer; display: block; height: 304px; margin: 0px auto 10px; text-align: center; width: 400px;" /></a></span><span style="font-size: 130%;"><br /></span><span style="font-size: 130%; font-style: italic;">golden eagle</span></div>
<span style="font-size: 130%; font-style: italic;"><br /></span><span style="font-size: 130%;">Seeing all of the hunting sites around Rush Ranch also gave me pause. I'm a huge animal lover and a strict vegan. I've been a vegetarian since I was around 10 or 11, if I remember correctly and I can still remember my last box of Burger King's chicken tenders which had satisfied me so reliably.<br /><br />I've been a very good liberal about hating guns and hunting, thinking it cruel and unnecessary, not quite seeing the point.<br /><br />On reflection, however, I think going out and dispatching your own meat is far better than getting it from the factory farm. These hunted birds live their wild lives, enjoy their natural diet in the comfort of a habitat protected from human encroachment. Those that do fall at the guns of hunters may experience brief periods of suffering prior to their deaths, but animals in factory farms endure pain and mistreatment throughout their entire lives.<br /><br />Sure, if you're a duck, it sucks to be shot. But there are innumerable hawks, eagles and falcons to remind us that when you're a plant eating marsh bird, mortality is part of the equation and every single one of these raptors has to find, attack, kill and eat an animal every single day.<br /><br />Hunting also seems far more environmentally friendly and sustainable than factory farming. Factory farming is not inextricably tied up in the business of conservation. Hunting absolutely is.<br /><br />Though I would never, ever, ever go on a hunting trip or kill any animal bigger than a spider, it does at least seem to be a nice day outside with the family, in a country where people spend far too much time in front of screens like this one.<br /><br />Finally, from my <a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/enraptored/">dear father's collection</a>, you can get an even better sense for the ecological richness of this place. You see, he's a better photographer and he's got a snazzier camera. I can promise you an extra cool picture of a red tailed hawk diving on a juvenile golden eagle. So rad.<br /><br />Next time: back to Alcatraz.</span>Sweep Commanderhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10624059547111674301noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2323676698397506828.post-6416941163330062442010-11-15T22:27:00.001-08:002010-11-16T00:02:59.543-08:00A new facial disc in the wings, claws and death game<div style="text-align: center;"><span class="Apple-style-span"><u><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span"><br /></span></span></u></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span"><br /></span></span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span">Bonus shot:</span></span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span"><br /></span></span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span">After a one on two fistacuffs with the island's raven pair, our female peregrine kicks back on the smokestack, faces west and relaxes in the setting sun</span></span></i></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span"><br /></span></span></div><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/__w-4JLjnTj0/TOIkiWWqweI/AAAAAAAAAZQ/vWQIa8uSNhE/s1600/IMG_4258.JPG"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 400px; height: 296px;" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/__w-4JLjnTj0/TOIkiWWqweI/AAAAAAAAAZQ/vWQIa8uSNhE/s400/IMG_4258.JPG" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5540030664153940450" /></a><div style="text-align: center;"><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span"><br /></span></span></i></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span">But this post isn't about her. Onto the true substance of it...</span></span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span"><br /></span></span></i></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span">What an odd moment that was. On Thursday, October 28th, BourbonHawk and I trekked up the long and winding path from the dock to the cell house which crowns the peak of the island. As we rounded the final switchback, we spooked a bird from its roost in the dark boughs of a pine tree. </span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span"><br /></span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span">She was light in coloration and at first she seemed to be about the size of a gull, so I just assumed that's what she was. As I took a casual second glance, her plumage took on a rusty color that made me think we'd spooked a visiting hawk. How exciting!</span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span"><br /></span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span">But no. As I watched it slide slowly and gracefully through the air, it's shape was that of a zeppelin, a reddish-white football with rounded wings beating quite casually. It had no neck, and its head, or at least its face seemed to be made up of a forward facing disc. It's proportionally immense feet, toes and talons were carried below and behind in tow. Wow. That was a female barn owl!</span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span"><br /></span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span">As she glided past the ravens' tree, I imagined the two dark corvids perched together on a dark bough, looking on and cursing to one another about the sudden arrival of still another avian apex predator, "Damn... first a pair of falcons that dive on you with their claws out faster than any animal that has ever lived, and now<span class="Apple-style-span"> a huge bird with <a href="http://www.owlpages.com/articles.php?section=Owl+Physiology&title=Talons">a full f#$*%ing swiveling and serrated cutlery set instead of toenails?</a></span> And what's with the lack of a neck to conveniently claw and chew on! Weak all around!"</span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span"><br /></span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span">BourbonHawk and I found ourselves off work for the next two days, but we returned to Alcatraz on the 31st. On that night, which conveniently happened to be Halloween, we'd just closed up shop on Alcatraz's acclaimed night program when a creaking and eerie screech permeated the darkness around us. It quickly became loud enough for us to spot the cuprits, a <i><b>pair</b></i> of ghostly white barn owls floating and fluttering around one another like loud, etherial butterflies spinning circles around a candle's flame.</span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span"><br /></span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span">A pair of barn owls on Alcatraz! What an awesome find!</span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span"><br /></span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span">Sorry for the lack of owl pictures. The owls may love the pitch black but my Canon SX10IS just doesn't. Hopefully these new peregrine pics console you a bit, at least until I find a sleeping owl in daylight. Here's hoping...</span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span"><br /></span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span"><br /></span></span></div><div><a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/__w-4JLjnTj0/TOI1n1LtdXI/AAAAAAAAAZo/gWMXILE7uII/s1600/IMG_4208.JPG"><img src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/__w-4JLjnTj0/TOI1n1LtdXI/AAAAAAAAAZo/gWMXILE7uII/s400/IMG_4208.JPG" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5540049450026497394" style="display: block; margin-top: 0px; margin-right: auto; margin-bottom: 10px; margin-left: auto; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 234px; height: 400px; " /></a></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span"><br /></span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span"><br /></span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span">MAGANRORD quick hits:</span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span"><br /></span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span">The male peregrine hasn't been seen in weeks but he's got a weird way of being absent for long periods of time and returning just when we've given up on him. So I'm still checking for the little guy.</span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span"><br /></span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span">Laura, our radical wildlife biologist saw a merlin on Alcatraz. We're pretty jealous.</span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span"><br /></span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span"><br /></span></span></div><div><a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/__w-4JLjnTj0/TOIzDiXjWII/AAAAAAAAAZY/TXXyiLwsP3Y/s1600/IMG_4253.JPG"><img src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/__w-4JLjnTj0/TOIzDiXjWII/AAAAAAAAAZY/TXXyiLwsP3Y/s400/IMG_4253.JPG" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5540046627477346434" style="display: block; margin-top: 0px; margin-right: auto; margin-bottom: 10px; margin-left: auto; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 249px; height: 400px; " /></a></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span"><br /></span></span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span">The female peregrine shows off her own cutlery</span></span></i></div><div style="text-align: center;"><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span"><br /></span></span></i></div><div style="text-align: center;"><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span"><br /></span></span></i></div><div style="text-align: center;"><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-style: normal; -webkit-text-decorations-in-effect: underline; "><img src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/__w-4JLjnTj0/TOI0UE-_NqI/AAAAAAAAAZg/O90Xu1ksrQw/s400/IMG_4216.JPG" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5540048011159090850" style="display: block; margin-top: 0px; margin-right: auto; margin-bottom: 10px; margin-left: auto; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 400px; height: 300px; " /></span></i></div><div><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-style: normal; color: rgb(0, 0, 238); -webkit-text-decorations-in-effect: underline; "><br /></span></i></div>Sweep Commanderhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10624059547111674301noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2323676698397506828.post-76124691876767686602010-10-16T14:13:00.000-07:002010-10-16T14:14:53.510-07:00A New Feature: Birding around the GGNRA<div style="text-align: justify;">As many of you are aware of, Alcatraz is part of a larger national park known as the <a href="http://www.nps.gov/goga/">Golden Gate National Recreation Area</a>. This park is a group of sites maintained by the National Park Service around the San Francisco Bay Area and constitutes one of the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Golden_Gate_National_Recreation_Area">largest urban parks in the world.</a></div><div style="text-align: justify;"> </div><div style="text-align: justify;">While we certainly intend to keep the focus of this blog on Alcatraz and the birds we find there, there is a really great amount of bird life to be found in our other park sites as well. Having spent a little while at <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Crissy_Field">Crissy Field</a> yesterday, I figured I'd kick off this installation with a few shots from yesterday and from the past that I've taken there. </div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/primalux/4143183774/" title="Long Billed Curlew by primalux, on Flickr"><img alt="Long Billed Curlew" height="328" src="http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2545/4143183774_26a781c786.jpg" width="500" /></a></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: small;">Long Billed Curlew</span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/primalux/4142474857/" title="Killdeer by primalux, on Flickr"><img alt="Killdeer" height="271" src="http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2529/4142474857_c42b67d683.jpg" width="500" /></a></span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: small;">Killdeer</span><br />
<br />
<a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/primalux/5086236233/" title="A Little Birding at Crissy Field by primalux, on Flickr"><img alt="A Little Birding at Crissy Field" height="375" src="http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4151/5086236233_9a9e32a08c.jpg" width="500" /></a><br />
<span style="font-size: small;">Great Egret </span><br />
</div><div style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/primalux/5086237097/" title="A Little Birding at Crissy Field by primalux, on Flickr"><img alt="A Little Birding at Crissy Field" height="290" src="http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4085/5086237097_21cf50c8ea.jpg" width="500" /></a><br />
<span style="font-size: small;">Black Bellied Plover</span><br />
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<a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/primalux/5086237393/" title="A Little Birding at Crissy Field by primalux, on Flickr"><img alt="A Little Birding at Crissy Field" height="285" src="http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4144/5086237393_f5b12618a1.jpg" width="500" /></a><br />
<span style="font-size: small;">Ring Billed Gull</span><br />
<br />
<a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/primalux/4142427619/" title="Cormorants, Gull, Pelicans by primalux, on Flickr"><img alt="Cormorants, Gull, Pelicans" height="375" src="http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2687/4142427619_7e3c8197d0.jpg" width="500" /></a><br />
<span style="font-size: small;">Cormorants, Gull, and Brown Pelicans</span><br />
<br />
<div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-size: small;">The nicest thing about a site like Crissy Field is that it's very easy to see all sorts of bird life without having to trek far, break out the binoculars, etc. It's right there in front of you. In hanging out there for about half an hour yesterday I saw the following birds:</span></span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
1. Red Tailed Hawk<br />
2. Red Shouldered Hawk<br />
3. Brandt's Cormorant<br />
4. Double Crested Cormorant<br />
5. Brown Pelican<br />
6. Western Gull<br />
7. Ring Billed Gull<br />
8. Snowy Egret<br />
9. Great Egret<br />
10. Black Bellied Plover<br />
11. Unknown Species of tiny, tiny Plover<br />
12. Unknown Species of medium-sized Sandpiper<br />
13. Killdeer<br />
14. American Coot<br />
15. Unknown species of Tern<br />
16. Crow<br />
17. Common Raven<br />
18. Black Crowned Night Heron<br />
19. Mallard<br />
20. Tons of little tiny songbirds that I have no idea about<span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-size: small;"> </span></span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-size: small;">This also makes it a great site for the beginner or the casual birder, which I still sort of feel like I would be categorized as, not having a huge amount of field experience other than what I see on hikes or out there on the island. </span> </span></div></div>BourbonHawkhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01386598095118997537noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2323676698397506828.post-80775360872162614372010-09-29T21:07:00.000-07:002010-09-29T21:47:50.536-07:00The imminent relaunch of MAGANRORD!<div style="text-align: center;"><u><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></u></div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/__w-4JLjnTj0/TKQSFOcthzI/AAAAAAAAAVc/wk_FU1FyZ0I/s1600/IMG_9369.JPG"></a>Hosting issues, graphics down, lack of news, waning enthusiasm weakening the quality of my writing - we've been through it all, man. </span><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">But we're about to get back at it. There's just too much more to say about the breathtaking ecological richness of our little island. </span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">So here's what's happening: In the next day or two, our graphics will be back up. BourbonHawk has hooked it up with a mighty fine hosting solution. For my part, I will produce content of a higher quality. </span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">My more recent posts just haven't measured up to the standards I have for my own writing. I read them and I yawn. For some time, it's seemed to me that the deeper you dig into the Maganrord archives, the better the posts become. Now, I'm back and I'm going to reverse that trend. </span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">For now, I'll leave you with a few heretofore unpublished pictures from one of my favorite adventures with BourbonHawk, our trip through the abandoned brandt's cormorant colony.</span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></div><div><a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/__w-4JLjnTj0/TKQSFOcthzI/AAAAAAAAAVc/wk_FU1FyZ0I/s1600/IMG_9369.JPG"><img src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/__w-4JLjnTj0/TKQSFOcthzI/AAAAAAAAAVc/wk_FU1FyZ0I/s400/IMG_9369.JPG" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5522558924050237234" style="display: block; margin-top: 0px; margin-right: auto; margin-bottom: 10px; margin-left: auto; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 400px; height: 300px; " /></a><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span><a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/__w-4JLjnTj0/TKQR3HuqSsI/AAAAAAAAAVU/-YSSPOovjjc/s1600/IMG_9377.JPG"><img src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/__w-4JLjnTj0/TKQR3HuqSsI/AAAAAAAAAVU/-YSSPOovjjc/s400/IMG_9377.JPG" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5522558681728305858" style="display: block; margin-top: 0px; margin-right: auto; margin-bottom: 10px; margin-left: auto; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 324px; height: 400px; " /></a><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span><a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/__w-4JLjnTj0/TKQRS1bwzrI/AAAAAAAAAVM/U0H2_Zh_WZk/s1600/IMG_9371.JPG"><img src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/__w-4JLjnTj0/TKQRS1bwzrI/AAAAAAAAAVM/U0H2_Zh_WZk/s400/IMG_9371.JPG" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5522558058341912242" style="display: block; margin-top: 0px; margin-right: auto; margin-bottom: 10px; margin-left: auto; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 400px; height: 300px; " /></a></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></div><div><a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/__w-4JLjnTj0/TKQTXd_yIRI/AAAAAAAAAVs/f7I3plumP4A/s1600/IMG_9387.JPG"><img src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/__w-4JLjnTj0/TKQTXd_yIRI/AAAAAAAAAVs/f7I3plumP4A/s400/IMG_9387.JPG" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5522560336973144338" style="display: block; margin-top: 0px; margin-right: auto; margin-bottom: 10px; margin-left: auto; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 302px; height: 400px; " /></a><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span><a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/__w-4JLjnTj0/TKQTWwI69MI/AAAAAAAAAVk/7U77zyAcnR0/s1600/IMG_9386.JPG"><img src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/__w-4JLjnTj0/TKQTWwI69MI/AAAAAAAAAVk/7U77zyAcnR0/s400/IMG_9386.JPG" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5522560324663440578" style="display: block; margin-top: 0px; margin-right: auto; margin-bottom: 10px; margin-left: auto; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 400px; height: 300px; " /></a></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">BourbonHawk's original post can be found </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"><a href="http://maganrord.blogspot.com/2010/02/tomb-of-cormorants.html">here.</a> Check it out. It's awesome.</span></div><div><br /></div>Sweep Commanderhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10624059547111674301noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2323676698397506828.post-34880769537990051462010-08-30T21:13:00.000-07:002010-08-31T08:48:51.258-07:00Scattered birds of prey sightings and the changing of the season...<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/__w-4JLjnTj0/THy008uFb8I/AAAAAAAAAU4/h8SMduOYOkM/s1600/RTH4.jpg"></a><div style="text-align: center;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><br /></span></div><div><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:large;">The doldrums...</span></b></div><div><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><br /></span></b></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">There hasn't been much news to report, but that's typical of this time of year.</span></div><div><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><br /></span></b></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">The trials of nesting season are largely behind us. The gnashing of bloody bills in combat to the death, the infanticide against your neighbor's young, the desperate pursuit of a morsel of food that might help to sustain your brood of one to three needy young furries, the solemn necessity of bloodying a newly airworthy young gull that accidentally flies into your breeding territory... it's all largely over and it's given way to this:</span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><object width="480" height="385"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/UXpjNLnjnns?fs=1&hl=en_US"><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/UXpjNLnjnns?fs=1&hl=en_US" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true" width="480" height="385"></embed></object><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"> </span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><br /></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">Quietude. I wonder if the gulls have the capacity or the inclination to sigh in relief. Perhaps they know that a respite like this lasts only until next spring. Then, we'll live the horror again.</span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><br /></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">Personally, I wonder if these birds find themselves relieved that </span><a href="http://www.jstor.org/pss/1521306"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">they can again indulge in a diet of discarded chicken and other trash</span></a><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">.</span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><br /></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">Who could know?</span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><br /></span></div><div><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:large;">Birds of prey spotted on Alcatraz</span></b></div><div><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><br /></span></b></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">When a red tailed hawk has occasion to visit us on Alcatraz, the gulls, occasionally with a bit of help from the ravens, give the invader the boot. One recent example:</span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><object width="480" height="385"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/onZ4Qke1GmU?fs=1&hl=en_US"><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/onZ4Qke1GmU?fs=1&hl=en_US" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true" width="480" height="385"></embed></object></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span class="Apple-style-span"><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><br /></span></b></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">And this is what it does to the gull colony:</span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><object width="480" height="385"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/TjyRPpWq7Jw?fs=1&hl=en_US"><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/TjyRPpWq7Jw?fs=1&hl=en_US" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true" width="480" height="385"></embed></object></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span"><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><br /></span></b></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">They go crazy. While I've heard rumors that red tailed hawks have had their way with a juvenile gull here or there, my experience in the six or so hawk invasions I've seen over the last two and a half years is that the hawks are harassed and pestered by several hundred gulls until they simply leave with nothing. </span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><br /></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/__w-4JLjnTj0/THy008uFb8I/AAAAAAAAAU4/h8SMduOYOkM/s1600/RTH4.jpg"><img src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/__w-4JLjnTj0/THy008uFb8I/AAAAAAAAAU4/h8SMduOYOkM/s400/RTH4.jpg" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5511478865740263362" style="display: block; margin-top: 0px; margin-right: auto; margin-bottom: 10px; margin-left: auto; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 322px; height: 400px; " /></a><div style="text-align: center;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#0000EE;"><u><br /></u></span></div><br /><a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/__w-4JLjnTj0/THy0xuAHemI/AAAAAAAAAUo/ic3JMQnNxFQ/s1600/RTH2.jpg"><img src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/__w-4JLjnTj0/THy0xuAHemI/AAAAAAAAAUo/ic3JMQnNxFQ/s400/RTH2.jpg" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5511478810249755234" style="display: block; margin-top: 0px; margin-right: auto; margin-bottom: 10px; margin-left: auto; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 239px; height: 400px; " /></a><div style="text-align: left;"><u><br /></u></div></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">Why the ravens choose to get involved seems mysterious at first, but they engage with the invaders to ensure that birds of prey don't take advantage of the ample food resources that avail themselves on the </span><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">ravens'</span></i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"> island. Our two ravens preside over a large seabird colony equipped with thousands of large gulls ready to repel any visitor sporting broad wings and a sharply hooked bill. </span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><br /></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/__w-4JLjnTj0/THy0w0pqwMI/AAAAAAAAAUg/byHi-BnbnhU/s1600/RTH1.jpg"><img src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/__w-4JLjnTj0/THy0w0pqwMI/AAAAAAAAAUg/byHi-BnbnhU/s400/RTH1.jpg" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5511478794854777026" style="display: block; margin-top: 0px; margin-right: auto; margin-bottom: 10px; margin-left: auto; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 400px; height: 143px; " /></a></span></div><div><br /></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">These ravens are quite serious about protecting what's theirs. Our apex predators will do all they can to ensure that any winged animal adapted for killing finds its way off the island.</span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span"><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><br /></span></b></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span"><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-weight: normal; "><a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/__w-4JLjnTj0/THy00JeFi6I/AAAAAAAAAUw/erJnyzWtay8/s1600/RTH3.jpg"><img src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/__w-4JLjnTj0/THy00JeFi6I/AAAAAAAAAUw/erJnyzWtay8/s400/RTH3.jpg" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5511478851982953378" style="display: block; margin-top: 0px; margin-right: auto; margin-bottom: 10px; margin-left: auto; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 141px; height: 400px; " /></a></span></span></b></span></div><div><b><br /></b></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">BourbonHawk and I recently witnessed an example of this first hand:</span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><br /></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">An unidentified juvenile hawk perched on a fence outside the entrance to the Alcatraz cellhouse. One of the National Park Service's fabulous bird interns helped us to conclude that it was probably a red shouldered hawk. </span></div><div><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><br /></span></b></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">Just as soon as the young raptor arrived, one of our large ravens landed next to it and began to examine it up and down, quizzically, as if to ask, "youngster, just what are you doing here?"</span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><br /></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">Well, after just a few seconds of physical or social discomfort, the young hawk flew off to the north side of the island, causing a terrified cacophony among the gulls there. C'mon gulls! It's just an immature red tail; grow a pair!</span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><br /></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">Lastly, on the raptor note, falcons have sadly not been seen since our last post.</span></div><div><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><br /></span></b></div><div><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:large;">The year of the California gull comes to a close:</span></b></div><div><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><br /></span></b></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: rgb(0, 0, 238); -webkit-text-decorations-in-effect: underline; "><img src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/__w-4JLjnTj0/THykD1mIi3I/AAAAAAAAAUY/NS1X5ORsmxE/s400/california+gull.JPG" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5511460429828230002" style="display: block; margin-top: 0px; margin-right: auto; margin-bottom: 10px; margin-left: auto; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 367px; height: 400px; " /></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: rgb(0, 0, 238); -webkit-text-decorations-in-effect: underline; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><br /></span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">Earlier in the year, we could reliably expect to make constant visual and auditory contact with these </span><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Miracle_of_the_gulls"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">holy-to-Mormons gulls</span></a><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"> on every outing. Now, we don't see them much at all.</span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><br /></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">Breeding California gulls have recently increased their numbers on Alcatraz and they did so markedly in the summer of 2010, perhaps because the South Bay salt flats that brought them so much reproductive success in the last thirty years are undergoing conversion to tidal salt marshes. Some of the displaced birds may have bred on Alcatraz. </span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><br /></span></div><div><a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/__w-4JLjnTj0/THykDY_70VI/AAAAAAAAAUQ/_D8YgmKhpv8/s1600/California+gull2.jpg"><img src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/__w-4JLjnTj0/THykDY_70VI/AAAAAAAAAUQ/_D8YgmKhpv8/s400/California+gull2.jpg" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5511460422151819602" style="display: block; margin-top: 0px; margin-right: auto; margin-bottom: 10px; margin-left: auto; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 400px; height: 279px; " /></a></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><br /></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">An interesting tidbit from Alcatraz's pro biologist: the California gull eggs are laid and hatched a week prior to those of the larger and more numerous western gulls. It's hard to say but this may offer the Californias a tiny bit of protection against their larger cousins. </span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><br /></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">Both western gulls and California gulls also breed on the Farallone islands just 27 miles outside the Golden Gate. There, the California gull eggs and young are universally predated by western gulls, giving the impression of impermanence to the California gulls' first recorded nesting habitat on the open ocean. </span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><br /></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">The news isn't all bad for our CAGUs... in 1982, they sported 200 breeding birds in the San Francisco Bay Area. The recent salt marsh restoration not withstanding, they reached 46,800 birds in 2008. Holy birds, indeed.</span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><br /></span></div><div><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:large;">On Friday... a special seabird has returned to us. You might say that it has 're-terned!' Haha, puns are awesome.</span></b></div>Sweep Commanderhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10624059547111674301noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2323676698397506828.post-70361956399861107702010-08-20T14:14:00.001-07:002010-08-20T15:17:32.374-07:00NEW FALCON<div style="text-align: center;"><u><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#FFFFFF;"><br /></span></u></div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#FFFFFF;">There hasn't been much news to report lately- nesting season is humming along and slowly winding down. Dead juvenile WEGUs have been showing up here and there but outside of a few scattered reports of peregrine falcon sightings, there hasn't been much to report.</span><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#FFFFFF;"><br /></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#FFFFFF;">We've all been biding our time, waiting for the late autumn wave of migrating raptors that might return our </span><a href="http://maganrord.blogspot.com/2010/03/falcon-dines-again-also-comments-fixed.html"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#FFFFFF;">departed femme falcon</span></a><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#FFFFFF;"> to Alcatraz. She spent the winter of 2009/2010 with us and we want her back:</span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#FFFFFF;"><br /></span></div><div><a href="http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4020/4433834579_4d157fbef4.jpg"><img src="http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4020/4433834579_4d157fbef4.jpg" border="0" alt="" style="display: block; margin-top: 0px; margin-right: auto; margin-bottom: 10px; margin-left: auto; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 500px; height: 375px; " /></a></div><div><div style="text-align: center;"><u><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#FFFFFF;"><br /></span></u></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span class="Apple-style-span"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#FFFFFF;">She tore flesh from flesh on the top of tall buildings and we dearly miss her. Sadly, the falcon sighted recently isn't her, but we were happy to finally get a glimpse of it ourselves:</span></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#FFFFFF;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span class="Apple-style-span"><a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/__w-4JLjnTj0/TG76bLgpJfI/AAAAAAAAAUI/D2bC2StqeDQ/s1600/new+falcon+02.jpg"><img src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/__w-4JLjnTj0/TG76bLgpJfI/AAAAAAAAAUI/D2bC2StqeDQ/s400/new+falcon+02.jpg" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5507614739173811698" style="display: block; margin-top: 0px; margin-right: auto; margin-bottom: 10px; margin-left: auto; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 259px; height: 400px; " /></a><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#FFFFFF;"><br /></span><a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/__w-4JLjnTj0/TG76aBZVLwI/AAAAAAAAAUA/IsdO36a5L_s/s1600/new+falcon+01.jpg"><img src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/__w-4JLjnTj0/TG76aBZVLwI/AAAAAAAAAUA/IsdO36a5L_s/s400/new+falcon+01.jpg" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5507614719278919426" style="display: block; margin-top: 0px; margin-right: auto; margin-bottom: 10px; margin-left: auto; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 316px; height: 400px; " /></a></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#FFFFFF;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span class="Apple-style-span"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#FFFFFF;">While it appears to be a female, it isn't </span><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#FFFFFF;">our </span></i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#FFFFFF;">female. It's definitely a juvenile, having emerged from the egg as a tiny ball of falcon fluff earlier this summer. I tried in vain to see if we could find a band on her but she was so far away that I couldn't quite manage it. </span></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><u><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#FFFFFF;"><br /></span></u></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#FFFFFF;"><u></u> When falcons fledge, quite naturally they leave their parents' territory and begin to explore the world around them. I'd imagine that every year Alcatraz is visited by a few juveniles recently fledged by the breeding pairs in San Francisco and the bay. </span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><u><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#FFFFFF;"><br /></span></u></div><div><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#FFFFFF;">Just had to link to this:</span></b></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#FFFFFF;"><br /></span></div><div><a href="http://www.birdchick.com/wp/2010/08/i-wanna-go-birding-with-this-guy/">Birdchick yearns to bird with both Jackie Chan and Owen Wilson...</a><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#FFFFFF;"> and she yearns to engage them in still </span><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#FFFFFF;">other</span></i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#FFFFFF;"> extracurricular activities. One activity involves a certain kind of sandwich. Another involves a harness. Oh, Birdchick... when did you get so suggestive? I truly didn't see it coming.</span></div></div>Sweep Commanderhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10624059547111674301noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2323676698397506828.post-83724440767700778332010-08-09T21:12:00.000-07:002010-08-09T23:20:49.201-07:00Brootality on Alcatraz is dished out by the ton, not the pound or the ounce<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/__w-4JLjnTj0/TGDfTD-AVmI/AAAAAAAAAT4/7tpa03RBs3g/s1600/rogue+cormorant+2.jpg"></a><div style="text-align: center;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#FF0000;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: rgb(255, 0, 0); "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">Warning: This post contains highly detailed images of a dead bird</span></span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#FF0000;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><br /></span></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#FFFFFF;">Not all gulls survive to be the subject of a thoughtful, well composed portrait.</span></span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#FFFFFF;"><br /></span></span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span class="Apple-style-span"><a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/__w-4JLjnTj0/TGDVJqX4UwI/AAAAAAAAATI/pzwRTgFlE-w/s1600/weguportrait.jpg"><img src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/__w-4JLjnTj0/TGDVJqX4UwI/AAAAAAAAATI/pzwRTgFlE-w/s400/weguportrait.jpg" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5503633106616734466" style="display: block; margin-top: 0px; margin-right: auto; margin-bottom: 10px; margin-left: auto; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 400px; height: 300px; " /></a></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#FFFFFF;"><br /></span></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#FFFFFF;">Newly departed birds like the fellow below appear just about every day on Alcatraz. Collectively, adult western gulls treat their young with positive br00tality:</span></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#FFFFFF;"><br /></span></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span class="Apple-style-span"><a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/__w-4JLjnTj0/TGDYJvHyX9I/AAAAAAAAATY/jnJ_Uuo8BZk/s1600/dead+juvie+three.jpg"><img src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/__w-4JLjnTj0/TGDYJvHyX9I/AAAAAAAAATY/jnJ_Uuo8BZk/s400/dead+juvie+three.jpg" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5503636406426296274" style="display: block; margin-top: 0px; margin-right: auto; margin-bottom: 10px; margin-left: auto; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 300px; height: 400px; " /></a></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#FFFFFF;"><br /></span></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span class="Apple-style-span"><a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/__w-4JLjnTj0/TGDVKLVgdVI/AAAAAAAAATQ/977vC4GEFa0/s1600/dead+juvie+one.jpg"><img src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/__w-4JLjnTj0/TGDVKLVgdVI/AAAAAAAAATQ/977vC4GEFa0/s400/dead+juvie+one.jpg" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5503633115465151826" style="display: block; margin-top: 0px; margin-right: auto; margin-bottom: 10px; margin-left: auto; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 400px; height: 300px; " /></a></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#FFFFFF;"><br /></span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#FF0000;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0); "><a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/__w-4JLjnTj0/TGDYKzdKyDI/AAAAAAAAATo/Sunw57l7nDI/s1600/dead+juvie+four.jpg"><img src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/__w-4JLjnTj0/TGDYKzdKyDI/AAAAAAAAATo/Sunw57l7nDI/s400/dead+juvie+four.jpg" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5503636424769587250" style="display: block; margin-top: 0px; margin-right: auto; margin-bottom: 10px; margin-left: auto; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 400px; height: 300px; " /></a><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#FFFFFF;"><br /></span></span><a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/__w-4JLjnTj0/TGDYKSE9ksI/AAAAAAAAATg/EG9Z_d3ql4M/s1600/dead+juvie+two.jpg"><img src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/__w-4JLjnTj0/TGDYKSE9ksI/AAAAAAAAATg/EG9Z_d3ql4M/s400/dead+juvie+two.jpg" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5503636415809688258" style="display: block; margin-top: 0px; margin-right: auto; margin-bottom: 10px; margin-left: auto; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 400px; height: 300px; " /></a><div style="text-align: left;"><u><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#FFFFFF;"><br /></span></span></u></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#FFFFFF;">I am grateful that the flies that colonized this guy appeared to be of the common variety. </span></span><u><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#FFFFFF;">As veterans of the Alcatraz autumn are well aware, the island suffers from a miserable fly season. </span></span></u></div><div style="text-align: left;"><u><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#FFFFFF;"><br /></span></span></u></div><div style="text-align: left;"><u><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#FFFFFF;">The culprit is a strange and exotic insect that specializes in breeding deep within the corpses of cormorants and perhaps other waterbirds. </span></span></u></div><div style="text-align: left;"><u><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#FFFFFF;"><br /></span></span></u></div><div style="text-align: left;"><u><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#FFFFFF;">Once these grubs take to the wing, they terrorize human beings. Other flies actually fear human beings. These guys, by contrast, will evade your swats and slaps positively undeterred in landing on your hair, your neck, your cheek or any other part of your body that might serve to gross you out.</span></span></u></div><div style="text-align: left;"><u><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#FFFFFF;"><br /></span></span></u></div><div style="text-align: left;"><u><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#FFFFFF;">I've had one on my eye. No joke there. God knows what it wanted with my eye.</span></span></u></div><div style="text-align: left;"><u><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#FFFFFF;"><br /></span></span></u></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="-webkit-text-decorations-in-effect: none; "><div style="text-align: center;"><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:large;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#FFFFFF;">Rogue Cormorant Apprehended!</span></span></b></div><div style="text-align: center;"><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#FFFFFF;"><br /></span></span></b></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#FFFFFF;">This guy was apprehended by our concerned NPS staff. Call it an immature Brandt's cormorant. That's what it is.</span></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#FFFFFF;"><br /></span></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/__w-4JLjnTj0/TGDfTD-AVmI/AAAAAAAAAT4/7tpa03RBs3g/s1600/rogue+cormorant+2.jpg"><img src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/__w-4JLjnTj0/TGDfTD-AVmI/AAAAAAAAAT4/7tpa03RBs3g/s400/rogue+cormorant+2.jpg" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5503644263222629986" style="display: block; margin-top: 0px; margin-right: auto; margin-bottom: 10px; margin-left: auto; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 400px; height: 258px; " /></a></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#FFFFFF;"><br /></span></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#FFFFFF;">The happy fellow was arrested while gleefully marching along the road that stretches from the dock up to the cellhouse. The bird meant no harm to anyone and was apparently healthy but was friendly enough to make itself very suspicious. </span></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#FFFFFF;"><br /></span></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#FFFFFF;">Brandt's cormorants are notoriously timid and flush at almost any cause. </span></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#FFFFFF;"><br /></span></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#FFFFFF;">This one, however, was so comfortable in the presence of human beings that apprehending it was about as simple as throwing a towel over it and scooping it up.</span></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#FFFFFF;"><object width="480" height="385"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/6dgqHPm-Fa8&hl=en_US&fs=1"><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/6dgqHPm-Fa8&hl=en_US&fs=1" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true" width="480" height="385"></embed></object></span></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#FFFFFF;"><br /></span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#FFFFFF;">Finally, acting upon the fact of this friendly bird being both strong and uninjured, and the fact that a gregarious disposition is unusual for a wild animal but is not any kind of cause for arrest, the bird was allowed to reluctantly leave its box and wander free. <a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/__w-4JLjnTj0/TGDYKzdKyDI/AAAAAAAAATo/Sunw57l7nDI/s1600/dead+juvie+four.jpg"></a></span></span></div><div><br /></div></span></div></span></span></div>Sweep Commanderhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10624059547111674301noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2323676698397506828.post-13110138308500194042010-08-02T21:13:00.000-07:002010-08-03T01:14:51.881-07:00Juvenile gulls begin to fly. Consequently, many die. (Also, falcon news!)<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/__w-4JLjnTj0/TFe1N9e7-pI/AAAAAAAAATA/3KsFz2U1e8o/s1600/wounded+juvie+wegu.jpg"></a><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><br /></span></div>Alcatraz's new western gulls have acquired their flight feathers and their instincts are driving them into the air. Their inexperienced and ungainly flight, as well as the territoriality of other gulls puts them squarely in harm's way.</span><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><br /></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">Take, for example, this WEGU's compromised position:</span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><br /></span></div><div><a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/__w-4JLjnTj0/TFeoD1F5ldI/AAAAAAAAASY/YuZjz49tlbs/s1600/wounded+juvie+parade+ground.jpg"><img src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/__w-4JLjnTj0/TFeoD1F5ldI/AAAAAAAAASY/YuZjz49tlbs/s400/wounded+juvie+parade+ground.jpg" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5501050253601248722" style="display: block; margin-top: 0px; margin-right: auto; margin-bottom: 10px; margin-left: auto; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 400px; height: 268px; " /></a></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><br /></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">If you're new to the wing, this is what the excitement of flight can get you. It's a </span><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">very </span></i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">common sight on Alcatraz. </span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><br /></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">Allow me to explain. This is what's called the Parade Ground:</span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><br /></span></div><div><a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/__w-4JLjnTj0/TFeweEQi-bI/AAAAAAAAASg/IwBHwot5TvA/s1600/parade+ground.jpg"><img src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/__w-4JLjnTj0/TFeweEQi-bI/AAAAAAAAASg/IwBHwot5TvA/s400/parade+ground.jpg" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5501059500442057138" style="display: block; margin-top: 0px; margin-right: auto; margin-bottom: 10px; margin-left: auto; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 400px; height: 300px; " /></a></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><br /></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">Click on the image to get the full effect.</span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><br /></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">It's an area of flat pavement, dense shrubs and the remains of apartment buildings constructed to house correctional officers and then razed by the federal government in the 1970s after the closing of the prison and the end of the </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Occupation_of_Alcatraz">Indian Occupation</a>.</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"> The structures were destroyed in order to ensure that a bunch of troublemakers could never again occupy the area and use it to showcase a loud, chaotic and violent mess. </span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><br /></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">Clearly the government didn't see this western gull colony coming. The gulls breed on the parade ground in huge numbers in a tightly packed configuration</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">. There, they screech, squawk and </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><a href="http://maganrord.blogspot.com/2010/03/hey-guys-save-some-of-that-for-our.html">fight one another in long and bloody engagements</a></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">.</span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><br /></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">Then, as nesting season progresses and the eggs hatch, infanticide is suddenly on the menu and the adults happily indulge. When chicks are small enough to swallow, an adult gull will occasionally regurgitate a pellet containing the tiny indigestible remains of one of its own species.</span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><br /></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">Then, as the young gulls learn to fly, they've suddenly got a novel means to trespass upon the territories of others. And far be it from an adult WEGU, so imposed upon, to forego a shot at violence:</span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><object width="480" height="385"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/vveJc3GsjLk&hl=en_US&fs=1"><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/vveJc3GsjLk&hl=en_US&fs=1" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true" width="480" height="385"></embed></object><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"> </span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">One pair of gulls has been especially prolific thus far in nailing invaders:</span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/__w-4JLjnTj0/TFe1MkJMA-I/AAAAAAAAASo/3wwXK8uNJjY/s1600/dead+juvenile+wegus.jpg"><img src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/__w-4JLjnTj0/TFe1MkJMA-I/AAAAAAAAASo/3wwXK8uNJjY/s400/dead+juvenile+wegus.jpg" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5501064697321620450" style="display: block; margin-top: 0px; margin-right: auto; margin-bottom: 10px; margin-left: auto; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 346px; height: 400px; " /></a></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><br /></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">The two living juveniles in the above picture reside in this territory and their parents aggressively defend it. The other two birds, open and horizontal, meant no harm. They were learning to fly and they were flying badly. They were unfortunate enough to stumble into this territory which happens to be bordered by the foot tall remains of a small building. As these two accidental trespassers tried to escape, they failed to achieve enough altitude to clear the short wall and they were killed. </span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><br /></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">Most gulls are luckier, managing to evade the violence of the adults and escape with their lives. Many young gulls on Alcatraz survive to continue their development but retain these badges of honor, sustained in combat with the older brutes they hope to become:</span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><br /></span></div><div><a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/__w-4JLjnTj0/TFe1N9e7-pI/AAAAAAAAATA/3KsFz2U1e8o/s1600/wounded+juvie+wegu.jpg"><img src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/__w-4JLjnTj0/TFe1N9e7-pI/AAAAAAAAATA/3KsFz2U1e8o/s400/wounded+juvie+wegu.jpg" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5501064721303599762" style="display: block; margin-top: 0px; margin-right: auto; margin-bottom: 10px; margin-left: auto; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 400px; height: 242px; " /></a><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><br /></span><a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/__w-4JLjnTj0/TFe1NZrxSYI/AAAAAAAAAS4/DoDGXNh0Yko/s1600/wounded+juvie+wegu2.jpg"><img src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/__w-4JLjnTj0/TFe1NZrxSYI/AAAAAAAAAS4/DoDGXNh0Yko/s400/wounded+juvie+wegu2.jpg" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5501064711693748610" style="display: block; margin-top: 0px; margin-right: auto; margin-bottom: 10px; margin-left: auto; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 390px; height: 400px; " /></a></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><br /></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">That is not a good haircut. You'd better believe I would get my money back.</span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><br /></span></div><div><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:large;">Falcon News!</span></b></div><div><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><br /></span></b></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">One of our awesome bird biologists has spotted and photographed an adult falcon on Alcatraz. It's been a while. </span><a href="http://maganrord.blogspot.com/2010/06/raven-male-defends-his-young-raven.html"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">Our maturing male falcon appears from time to time and was last seen in late June</span></a><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">.</span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><br /></span></div><div><a href="http://maganrord.blogspot.com/2010/03/falcon-dines-again-also-comments-fixed.html"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">Our female was last seen in mid March</span></a><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">. </span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><br /></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">On seeing the picture, I immediately took it to be a female. When I bounced my suspicion off of BourbonHawk, she opined that if turns out to be a female, it's probably too dark to be our friend from last year.</span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><br /></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">After reviewing the photos, I think she's right. It may be a female peregrine, but it's not </span><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">our</span></i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"> female peregrine.</span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><br /></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">One park ranger and one Parks Conservancy employee have also reported seeing peregrines recently, but no sightings have been made on birds occupying our peregrines' familiar preferred roosts, which is an additional consideration in favor of this being a bird new to Alcatraz. </span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><br /></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">If this is a female with designs on hanging around for a while and if our heroic young tiercel is still about, this should make him very happy indeed.</span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><br /></span></div><div><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:large;">The island's gulls knew this day would come</span></b></div><div><b><br /></b></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">And they've been practicing their battle moves on anything at all with a raptor silhouette:</span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><br /></span></div><div><object width="480" height="385"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/IwPb_LnQEcc&hl=en_US&fs=1"><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/IwPb_LnQEcc&hl=en_US&fs=1" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true" width="480" height="385"></embed></object></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><br /></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">Here, they harass a harmless turkey vulture.</span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><br /></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">The video is short but the chase was much longer. The vulture's reaction to the harassment was easy to read and was something along the lines of: <i>Ugh! What? And why? <b>Do! Not! Want!</b></i></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><br /></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">On the flip side, I had no idea that vultures were so agile in the air. Can I be excused for taking them to be slow, dumb and lazy?</span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><br /></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">At any rate, most birds hate the sight of a hooked beak and they will instinctively count it as a threat and mount an attack if they are able. </span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><br /></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">Their instincts fail to make the distinction between a peregrine falcon which sometimes uses its hooked beak to behead live prey and a turkey vulture which means no harm to most living things, but has a sharply hooked beak in order to open the body cavities of the already dispatched. </span></div><div><br /></div>Sweep Commanderhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10624059547111674301noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2323676698397506828.post-30008319295458360522010-07-28T01:04:00.000-07:002010-07-28T08:57:46.942-07:00Young WEGUs excitedly perform "I can fly!" dance!<div style="text-align: center;"><u><br /></u></div><div style="text-align: center;"><object width="480" height="385"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/mQ0cYlFrCI4&hl=en_US&fs=1"><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/mQ0cYlFrCI4&hl=en_US&fs=1" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true" width="480" height="385"></embed></object></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><br /></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">This particular gull is known to us as Beezel Jr., named in honor of one of BourbonHawk's ex boyfriends. Beezel Sr. scored a 1500 on his SATs, dropped out of school and has gone on to imbibe copiously and manage a RadioShack. That's a true story and it's one reason why I love this city. We have much higher hopes for this young gull, but I digress...</span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><br /></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">For a brief moment, before these animals fledge and become violent, desirous and trife, they are little balls of fuzz and optimism. Earlier this year, I took this footage of a much younger western gull, apparently beginning to exercise the tiny wing muscles that will eventually power it into the air:</span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><object width="480" height="385"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/gJxDPUD3RM4&hl=en_US&fs=1"><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/gJxDPUD3RM4&hl=en_US&fs=1" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true" width="480" height="385"></embed></object></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><br /></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">The seemingly drunken twirl and tumble is the signature dance of the baby gull and it's one of the cutest animal behaviors that I've ever seen.</span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><br /></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">At this late date, most young gulls on Alcatraz are very deep in the process of losing their fluffy down and as the first video shows, a few of the older and braver birds are actually starting to grow the hardware necessary to contemplate life in the sky.</span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><br /></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">While these young gulls are poised to gain a measure of independence from their parents, less fortunate others are only now entering the world of the living:</span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><br /></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">And this story begins much earlier in the year on the island's western slopes. In 2010, this was the very first gull nest we observed on Alcatraz:</span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><br /></span></div><div><a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/__w-4JLjnTj0/TAAUX0idtfI/AAAAAAAAAKU/Jc4_oDCZMI4/s320/077.JPG"><img src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/__w-4JLjnTj0/TAAUX0idtfI/AAAAAAAAAKU/Jc4_oDCZMI4/s320/077.JPG" border="0" alt="" style="display: block; margin-top: 0px; margin-right: auto; margin-bottom: 10px; margin-left: auto; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 320px; height: 240px; " /></a></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><br /></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">As far as we can tell, this nest was the first to bear gull chicks, though they would have done just as well to stay in the shell as this was the sad result:</span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><br /></span></div><div><a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/__w-4JLjnTj0/TASkT5fVITI/AAAAAAAAAK0/GbTns4GWkvw/s320/072.JPG"><img src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/__w-4JLjnTj0/TASkT5fVITI/AAAAAAAAAK0/GbTns4GWkvw/s320/072.JPG" border="0" alt="" style="display: block; margin-top: 0px; margin-right: auto; margin-bottom: 10px; margin-left: auto; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 320px; height: 240px; " /></a></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">Their entire brood died within a day of hatching. We began to refer to them as 'the worst parents on Alcatraz'.</span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><br /></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">And they may be, though they aren't through yet as we recently caught them incubating a new egg:</span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><br /></span></div><div><a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/__w-4JLjnTj0/TE_FZWFjn8I/AAAAAAAAARg/yWLdxuFxOHA/s1600/018.JPG"><img src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/__w-4JLjnTj0/TE_FZWFjn8I/AAAAAAAAARg/yWLdxuFxOHA/s400/018.JPG" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5498830709258952642" style="display: block; margin-top: 0px; margin-right: auto; margin-bottom: 10px; margin-left: auto; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 400px; height: 320px; " /></a></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><br /></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">And before long...</span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><br /></span></div><div><a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/__w-4JLjnTj0/TE_RkYY_SfI/AAAAAAAAARo/O3fNa979z48/s1600/2.jpg"><img src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/__w-4JLjnTj0/TE_RkYY_SfI/AAAAAAAAARo/O3fNa979z48/s400/2.jpg" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5498844092995422706" style="display: block; margin-top: 0px; margin-right: auto; margin-bottom: 10px; margin-left: auto; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 400px; height: 259px; " /></a></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><br /></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">As it turns out, this pair was incubating not one but two eggs... and equally apparently, this pair, challenged in the ways of parenting, has stretched its tally of dead young ones to four on the season. The new baby gull in front and to the right is not sleeping. The casualties of nesting season always seem to run unacceptably high.</span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><br /></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">Baby gulls die all the time:</span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><br /></span></div><div><a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/__w-4JLjnTj0/TE_Rk_oitbI/AAAAAAAAARw/xHf-860qSo4/s1600/IMG_9392.jpg"><img src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/__w-4JLjnTj0/TE_Rk_oitbI/AAAAAAAAARw/xHf-860qSo4/s400/IMG_9392.jpg" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5498844103529641394" style="display: block; margin-top: 0px; margin-right: auto; margin-bottom: 10px; margin-left: auto; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 400px; height: 172px; " /></a></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">We at Maganrord have no idea what allows one pair of gulls to successfully rear four young ones while another pair suffers two total brood failures in a single season. Perhaps they've just had a bad year. Maybe they're simply bad at this. We can't say for sure.</span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><br /></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">Another gull pair on Alcatraz is rearing a second brood after the failure of its first:</span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><br /></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">First we saw this:</span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><br /></span></div><div><a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/__w-4JLjnTj0/TE_easAJL9I/AAAAAAAAAR4/Ge4amM9aULU/s1600/049.JPG"><img src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/__w-4JLjnTj0/TE_easAJL9I/AAAAAAAAAR4/Ge4amM9aULU/s400/049.JPG" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5498858220112392146" style="display: block; margin-top: 0px; margin-right: auto; margin-bottom: 10px; margin-left: auto; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 400px; height: 300px; " /></a></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><br /></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">One had hatched and a second egg was clearly visible.</span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><br /></span><a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/__w-4JLjnTj0/TE_f1iuhfeI/AAAAAAAAASI/GvY0i9PoKsQ/s1600/IMG_9392.jpg"><img src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/__w-4JLjnTj0/TE_f1iuhfeI/AAAAAAAAASI/GvY0i9PoKsQ/s400/IMG_9392.jpg" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5498859780990664162" style="display: block; margin-top: 0px; margin-right: auto; margin-bottom: 10px; margin-left: auto; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 400px; height: 300px; " /></a><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><br /></span><a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/__w-4JLjnTj0/TE_fZcAHDKI/AAAAAAAAASA/dkpgWeoo9Gs/s1600/062.jpg"><img src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/__w-4JLjnTj0/TE_fZcAHDKI/AAAAAAAAASA/dkpgWeoo9Gs/s400/062.jpg" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5498859298149043362" style="display: block; margin-top: 0px; margin-right: auto; margin-bottom: 10px; margin-left: auto; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 400px; height: 300px; " /></a></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><br /></span></div><div><a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/__w-4JLjnTj0/TE_gtQntosI/AAAAAAAAASQ/izQgotS6SFw/s1600/jsm5.jpg"><img src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/__w-4JLjnTj0/TE_gtQntosI/AAAAAAAAASQ/izQgotS6SFw/s400/jsm5.jpg" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5498860738202936002" style="display: block; margin-top: 0px; margin-right: auto; margin-bottom: 10px; margin-left: auto; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 400px; height: 300px; " /></a></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><br /></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">Although I don't have a picture of it here, the second egg has hatched and both chicks are doing just fine. </span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><br /></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">In contrast to the aforementioned pair on the west side of the island, this pair is always feeding its young or yelling at a human being that ventures too close. As parents, these gulls seem far more attentive and competent. I can't say why these gulls lost out on their first brood, but I suspect they'll do much better this time around</span>.</div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><br /></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">Meanwhile, our more advanced juvenile gulls will soon be learning the value of their flight feathers. In nesting seasons past, I've learned that in contrast to our skilled adult gulls, newly airborne WEGUs are terrible pilots. They don't know how to ascend, descend, change direction or land</span>.</div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><br /></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">Up next, the sad conclusion of our cowbird series. Spoiler: Please don't tame a bird in a national park. Bad things will happen.<br /></span></div>Sweep Commanderhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10624059547111674301noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2323676698397506828.post-28734204048578743512010-07-27T08:37:00.000-07:002010-07-27T08:37:08.153-07:00Our secret identitieshave been revealed! As well as so many other things. <br />
<a href="http://kalwnews.org/audio/2010/07/26/birding-alcatraz_491485.html">Here we are, doing our best to sound interesting on Crosscurrents.</a> It's a short piece, maybe 5 minutes tops, so please check it out if you've got the time. Thanks!BourbonHawkhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01386598095118997537noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2323676698397506828.post-51309458474043854982010-07-26T12:34:00.000-07:002010-07-26T20:17:40.825-07:00Radio Maganrord!<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><br /></span><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_WkqHei_7afA/S2ekR7eUL-I/AAAAAAAAAew/xpTdmpVE8Dw/s400/4310093211_1abe5736fd.jpg"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 400px; height: 300px;" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_WkqHei_7afA/S2ekR7eUL-I/AAAAAAAAAew/xpTdmpVE8Dw/s400/4310093211_1abe5736fd.jpg" alt="" border="0" /></a><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><br />Earlier in the year, the Maganrord team was interviewed on Alcatraz for Crosscurrents, an award winning local news program heard on KALW 91.7 FM.<br /><br />Listen for us on today's edition between 4:30 and 5.<br /><br /></span><span style="font-weight: bold;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">For those of you scoping us out for the very first time, I'd like to give you a dose of classic Maganrord:</span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><br /><br />In early February, we were given special permission to trod through the remains of our dormant cormorant colony, which collapsed dramatically in 2009 due to lack of food.<br /><br /></span><a href="http://maganrord.blogspot.com/2010/02/tomb-of-cormorants.html"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">This is what we saw.</span></a><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><br /><br />Our world famous female peregrine falcon has left us, perhaps for good, but we'll always remember the good times. </span><a href="http://maganrord.blogspot.com/2010/02/midweek-mystery-meal.html"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">Here, she takes an unknown alcid, perhaps a common murre.</span></a><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><br /><br /></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><a href="http://maganrord.blogspot.com/2010/03/falcon-dines-again-also-comments-fixed.html">Here, she takes one final bloody meal before spreading her wings and taking to the air.</a> We haven't seen her since</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">.<br /><br /></span><a href="http://maganrord.blogspot.com/2010/05/is-last-alcatraz-gosling-too-big-to.html"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">Read here about the feel good story of the season: Alcatraz's unlikely miracle of a goose.</span></a><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><br /><br />And finally, in case you were ever curious about it, </span><a href="http://maganrord.blogspot.com/2010/05/mommy-what-is-stacking-also-babies.html"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">this is what it looks and sounds like when gulls slow things down and get a little romantic.</span></a><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><br /><br />Stay tuned over the next couple of days. We're cooking up a report on the progress of the island's young western gulls and the conclusion of the cowbird series. Here's a partial spoiler: it ends very badly.</span>Sweep Commanderhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10624059547111674301noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2323676698397506828.post-22013481383866957982010-07-18T23:49:00.000-07:002010-07-20T00:50:49.035-07:00Cowbirds III: Media deluge, appearance by a female adult and a bonus new GBH fishing video!<div style="text-align: center;"><u><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#0000EE;"><br /></span></u></div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">Today was a better day for snagging photos of the juvenile cowbird than we'd had prior. Here's what we've got:</span><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><br /></span></div><div><a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/__w-4JLjnTj0/TEQHjg32LRI/AAAAAAAAARI/7jM8UsuBuco/s1600/cowbird+juvenile+profile.jpg"><img src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/__w-4JLjnTj0/TEQHjg32LRI/AAAAAAAAARI/7jM8UsuBuco/s320/cowbird+juvenile+profile.jpg" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5495525751999835410" style="display: block; margin-top: 0px; margin-right: auto; margin-bottom: 10px; margin-left: auto; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 320px; height: 244px; " /></a></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><br /></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">The little guy has become somewhat... tame.</span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><br /></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/__w-4JLjnTj0/TEQPm6FHvuI/AAAAAAAAARY/jPNTQUlltfg/s1600/cowbird+juvenile+shoe.jpg"><img src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/__w-4JLjnTj0/TEQPm6FHvuI/AAAAAAAAARY/jPNTQUlltfg/s320/cowbird+juvenile+shoe.jpg" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5495534606399028962" style="display: block; margin-top: 0px; margin-right: auto; margin-bottom: 10px; margin-left: auto; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 320px; height: 167px; " /></a></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/__w-4JLjnTj0/TEQFE3-nYFI/AAAAAAAAARA/RwZSMLnicTQ/s1600/cowbird+juvenile+hand+feeding.jpg"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-decorations-in-effect: none; "></span></a><a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/__w-4JLjnTj0/TEQFE3-nYFI/AAAAAAAAARA/RwZSMLnicTQ/s1600/cowbird+juvenile+hand+feeding.jpg"><img src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/__w-4JLjnTj0/TEQFE3-nYFI/AAAAAAAAARA/RwZSMLnicTQ/s320/cowbird+juvenile+hand+feeding.jpg" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5495523026603040850" style="display: block; margin-top: 0px; margin-right: auto; margin-bottom: 10px; margin-left: auto; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 320px; height: 240px; " /></a></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><br /></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">Above, a visitor gets a little too close and had to be reminded of the rules that govern the treatment of wild birds in a national park.</span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><br /></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">But what's that weird growth his nose? He'd better get that looked at.</span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><br /></span></div><div><a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/__w-4JLjnTj0/TEQFEU1SpzI/AAAAAAAAAQ4/1b-WyGjseR8/s1600/cowbird+juvenile+growth.jpg"><img src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/__w-4JLjnTj0/TEQFEU1SpzI/AAAAAAAAAQ4/1b-WyGjseR8/s320/cowbird+juvenile+growth.jpg" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5495523017168693042" style="display: block; margin-top: 0px; margin-right: auto; margin-bottom: 10px; margin-left: auto; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 320px; height: 309px; " /></a></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><br /></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">When it talks and moves:</span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><br /></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><object width="480" height="385"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/3lrt8v0hxIQ&hl=en_US&fs=1"><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/3lrt8v0hxIQ&hl=en_US&fs=1" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true" width="480" height="385"></embed></object></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><br /></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">The little guy is cute, bold, interactive and embarrassingly tame. For reasons I can't go into on this blog, I think it a fitting name for it would be Gil Jr. </span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><br /></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">Walking around the island today, scoping out small birds, I found several other probable cowbird juveniles as well, including two positive IDs on the west side of the island. There may be a cowbird breeding racket on Alcatraz and it makes sense. Cowbirds range here and we have the songbirds they like to victimize.</span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><br /></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">In our previous cowbird posts, I mentioned that egg laying cowbirds are known to sometimes linger around the nests they've visited to guarantee that their eggs are well treated by the forced adoptive parents.</span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><br /></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">Well, today I encountered what I believe to be a female cowbird:</span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><br /></span></div><div><a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/__w-4JLjnTj0/TEQFD0PHIYI/AAAAAAAAAQw/QuUDn99mrr4/s1600/cowbird+female+two.jpg"><img src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/__w-4JLjnTj0/TEQFD0PHIYI/AAAAAAAAAQw/QuUDn99mrr4/s320/cowbird+female+two.jpg" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5495523008418619778" style="display: block; margin-top: 0px; margin-right: auto; margin-bottom: 10px; margin-left: auto; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 256px; height: 320px; " /></a></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><br /></span></div><div><a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/__w-4JLjnTj0/TEQFDXGvL9I/AAAAAAAAAQo/qNFf-9gaUZA/s1600/cowbird+female+three.jpg"><img src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/__w-4JLjnTj0/TEQFDXGvL9I/AAAAAAAAAQo/qNFf-9gaUZA/s320/cowbird+female+three.jpg" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5495523000598867922" style="display: block; margin-top: 0px; margin-right: auto; margin-bottom: 10px; margin-left: auto; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 282px; height: 320px; " /></a></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><br /></span></div><div><a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/__w-4JLjnTj0/TEQFC6m-o1I/AAAAAAAAAQg/KnxR81pwiE8/s1600/cowbird+female+one.jpg"><img src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/__w-4JLjnTj0/TEQFC6m-o1I/AAAAAAAAAQg/KnxR81pwiE8/s320/cowbird+female+one.jpg" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5495522992949470034" style="display: block; margin-top: 0px; margin-right: auto; margin-bottom: 10px; margin-left: auto; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 294px; height: 320px; " /></a></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><br /></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">I know these pictures are far from clear and the resemblance to the juvenile form is definitely strong, but the light trim around the flight feathers is much more subtle than that of the juvenile. The barring on the breast is more subtle and uniform.</span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><br /></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">The entire bird is darker, featuring much less yellow.</span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><br /></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">Her shape and gait are different. She looks more like a tall, confident blackbird than a pot bellied beggar and she pursued her business unaccompanied by any adoptive parents.</span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><br /></span></div><div><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">Great blue heron!</span></b></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><br /></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><object width="480" height="385"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/Juv8bYkxy9w&hl=en_US&fs=1"><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/Juv8bYkxy9w&hl=en_US&fs=1" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true" width="480" height="385"></embed></object></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><br /></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">As the video closes, one of Alcatraz's bright and intrepid law enforcement rangers begins to raise the interesting question of how a great blue heron can hunt as it does when its eyes are located not on the front of its head but rather on the sides, which presumably hurts its ability to perceive depth and distance.</span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><br /></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">But you can't argue with the results, I guess.</span></div><div><br /></div>Sweep Commanderhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10624059547111674301noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2323676698397506828.post-42750259954344218442010-07-17T11:19:00.000-07:002010-07-17T12:08:46.291-07:00Cowbirds part two: Concrete ID and links both amusing and thought provoking<div style="text-align: center;"><u><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#551A8B;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><br /></span></span></u></div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><br /></span><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2253/2242642212_e6af1a73b7.jpg"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 500px; height: 378px;" src="http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2253/2242642212_e6af1a73b7.jpg" border="0" alt="" /></a><div style="text-align: center;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">I found this awesome capture of a brown headed cowbird juvenile on Flickr.</span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/mgsbird/2242642212/sizes/o/"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">(Source)</span></a><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"> </span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">And again, here is the bird I observed associating with the white crowned sparrow pair.</span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/__w-4JLjnTj0/TEC1FeZKNlI/AAAAAAAAAQY/R4Jqf6LvT5E/s400/cowbird.jpg"><img src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/__w-4JLjnTj0/TEC1FeZKNlI/AAAAAAAAAQY/R4Jqf6LvT5E/s400/cowbird.jpg" border="0" alt="" style="display: block; margin-top: 0px; margin-right: auto; margin-bottom: 10px; margin-left: auto; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 400px; height: 353px; " /></a></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><br /></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">Finch like beak? Check.</span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">Said finch-beak displaying bicoloring with darker upper mandible and yellow lower? Check.</span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">Brown primaries with yellow trim? Check.</span></div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">Black eyes, mottled yellow brown breast bars? Check and check.</span><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">Fat little pot-belly? I don't think that one 'check' will do.</span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><br /></span></div><div><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">Links!</span></b></div><div><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><br /></span></b></div><div><a href="http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/sciencenow/0407/03.html"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">This rad NOVA Science Now video</span></a><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"> explores the cowbird way of life with sufficient mafia metaphors and kitch to show how overdone the gangster analogy was before I got a chance to have any fun with it. *Sigh* Also, Neil deGrasse Tyson does a mean cowbird themed Marlon Brando.</span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><br /></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><br /></span></div><div><a href="http://www.birdchick.com/wp/2010/05/should-you-remove-a-cowbird-egg/"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">This equally rad post</span></a><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"> by BirdChick examines the ethical and legal issues surrounding the removal of cowbird eggs.</span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><br /></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><br /></span></div><div><a href="http://www.birdchick.com/wp/2009/09/roadrunner-attacking-cowbird-video/"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">In this video</span></a><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">, also posted by BirdChick, you can see a roadrunner nab a cowbird about 2 minutes and 45 seconds in.</span></div><div><br /></div>Sweep Commanderhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10624059547111674301noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2323676698397506828.post-44267425753973458372010-07-16T12:11:00.000-07:002010-07-16T14:00:51.280-07:00Bird census: Brown headed cowbird?!<div style="text-align: left;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">Br00dal parasitism on Alcatraz! This is seemingly benign young sparrow is no sparrow at all.</span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/__w-4JLjnTj0/TEC1FeZKNlI/AAAAAAAAAQY/R4Jqf6LvT5E/s1600/cowbird.jpg"><img src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/__w-4JLjnTj0/TEC1FeZKNlI/AAAAAAAAAQY/R4Jqf6LvT5E/s400/cowbird.jpg" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5494590651054569042" style="display: block; margin-top: 0px; margin-right: auto; margin-bottom: 10px; margin-left: auto; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 400px; height: 353px; " /></a></div><div style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/13732011@N03/sets/72157624387969989/show/"><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">A few more pictures here, though I'm sorry to say that none are of excellent quality</span></i></a></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><br /></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">Though its adopted parents are sparrows, this little guy is actually a black bird, and it's thematic to discover that he or she is being reared on Alcatraz because this is truly the mafioso racketeer of the bird world.</span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">They are known as brood or nest parasites. Around 40 times each breeding season, the female will lay a single egg inside the nest of another bird. If the nest contains eggs or young, the cowbird will eject or destroy some or all of them to ensure that proper effort and attention is paid by the adoptive parents to the young cowbird and not the young of their own species.</span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">The brown headed cowbird is such a gangster that if the nesting bird recognizes and ejects the foreign presence in its nest, the cowbird will often return to demolish the nest and everything inside it. </span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">This is what happens if a sparrow or finch forgets to look after the package left for them by their caring and magnanimous neighbor, the brown headed cowbird. These generous creatures would be </span><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">positively grief-stricken</span></i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"> if anything were to happen to your gorgeous nest.</span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">If the victimized bird simply builds a new nest, the cowbird will return and lay another egg in it. They take notes and they are thorough.</span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">I spotted the seemingly harmless little guy, hopping around with two white crowned sparrows, presumably the adoptive/host parents. It would hop near to one or the other, place its beak near the side of the smaller sparrow's head and shriek for food.</span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">Interestingly, We've never seen a cowbird on Alcatraz. I hope I've got the ID right. At this point, I'm pretty sure.</span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">Recognition as a nuisance species:</span></b></div><div style="text-align: left;"><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><br /></span></b></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">American song bird populations are declining and one contributing factor may be the change in land use patterns towards agricultural purposes. The cowbird is now better able to feed and thus better able to breed and terrorize its host species. As such, it has been designated a pest or nuisance species in parts of the United States.</span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">There are even </span><a href="http://www.tpwd.state.tx.us/huntwild/wild/nuisance/cowbirds/trapping_program/index.phtml"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">active trapping programs</span></a><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"> designed to give the songbirds a leg up on the mob. </span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;"><b>UPDATE:</b></div><div style="text-align: left;"><b><br /></b></div><div style="text-align: left;">I found this video from earlier in the year. It's a bird digging for insects or perhaps seeds in the undergrowth of the snowy egret thicket. </div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: center;"><object width="480" height="385"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/4SMaDbBGkag&hl=en_US&fs=1"></param><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"></param><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"></param><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/4SMaDbBGkag&hl=en_US&fs=1" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true" width="480" height="385"></embed></object></div><div style="text-align: center;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;">Perhaps it's the same individual. Or perhaps there are a number of these little gangsters on Alcatraz.</div>Sweep Commanderhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10624059547111674301noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2323676698397506828.post-14886845977512539442010-07-14T22:14:00.000-07:002010-07-14T22:27:27.252-07:00Brief updates from the elusive BourbonHawk<ul><li>-- The Great Blue Heron has become a regular at our dock in the early evening. I went a couple of years only seeing him a handful of times and now it seems like every day when we come down to board the last boat around 6, he's there hanging out. One of our GSRs tells me she sees him fishing there quite often, and lately he's been steadily harassed by the gulls.</li>
<li>-- <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Common_Murre">Common Murres</a> are definitely on the island now. Several NPS staff members have told us they've seen them below the laundry building and today we confirmed this with a few of our biologist interns. They apparently are also seen pretty often flying by the west side of the island. We're going to have to keep a lookout. While not uncommon in the bay, I've certainly never seen one on the island, so this is rather exciting. It also lends a little more credibility to our guess at what our female peregrine was eating <a href="http://maganrord.blogspot.com/2010/02/midweek-mystery-meal.html">here</a>.</li>
<li>-- The WeGu pair that relaid, seen at the end of <a href="http://maganrord.blogspot.com/2010/06/this-is-big-honking-deal-mr-president.html">this</a> post, have had their new clutch hatch! When we came upon them yesterday, one of the chicks was already dead, one was alive and moving about, and one egg had yet to hatch. With my binoculars I spotted another newly hatched clutch on the Parade Ground, and today our biologist interns Laura and Rachel showed us another more easily-viewable nest with a newly hatched chick. We thought the cuteness was gone for the year. We were WRONG.</li>
<li>-- Tiercel our tiercel hasn't been seen in a while. All I have to say about that is: Buddy, you're gonna be sorry if our lovely lady falcon from last year shows up again and you've already flown off for greener pastures. </li>
</ul>BourbonHawkhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01386598095118997537noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2323676698397506828.post-87752066102880422112010-07-12T23:30:00.000-07:002010-07-14T23:16:19.128-07:00Update goodie bag!<div style="text-align: center;"><u><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#0000EE;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><br /></span></span></u></div><div style="text-align: left;"><u><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><br /></span></u></div><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/__w-4JLjnTj0/TDwO7S2saNI/AAAAAAAAAPo/Zb7Hao2P8EY/s1600/WEGUbridge.jpg"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 400px; height: 286px;" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/__w-4JLjnTj0/TDwO7S2saNI/AAAAAAAAAPo/Zb7Hao2P8EY/s400/WEGUbridge.jpg" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5493282057321474258" /></a><div style="text-align: left;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#0000EE;"><u><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#000000;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><br /></span></span></u></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">Sorry for the hiatus. I've been working feverishly on various different posts on the island's common ravens and often I've found myself getting precisely nowhere. In the next day or two, however, I expect that to change.</span><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><br /></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">In the interim, here's a brief island update:</span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><br /></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">PIGUs (Pigeon guillemots) !!</span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><object width="480" height="385"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/Tg9swx9I67U&hl=en_US&fs=1"><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/Tg9swx9I67U&hl=en_US&fs=1" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true" width="480" height="385"></embed></object></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><br /></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">In the above video, they show their considerable cuteness, vocalizing to one another at a frequency which threatens to break glass. Watch the video to the end and convince yourself that those birds could possibly be making those sounds. They seem less like real birds than bathtub squeaky toys.</span></div></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><br /></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">Breeding brandt's cormorants! Sorry for the fuzzy picture. This nest is far away from my camera lens, but you can still see the mottled white plumage displayed by the young hopeful.</span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><br /></span></div><div><a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/__w-4JLjnTj0/TDwO62VynvI/AAAAAAAAAPg/TxyMVcdAbyo/s1600/brandt%27s+corm+chick.jpg"><img src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/__w-4JLjnTj0/TDwO62VynvI/AAAAAAAAAPg/TxyMVcdAbyo/s400/brandt%27s+corm+chick.jpg" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5493282049667276530" style="display: block; margin-top: 0px; margin-right: auto; margin-bottom: 10px; margin-left: auto; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 321px; height: 400px; " /></a></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><br /></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">The bird of note on Alcatraz this season may very well be </span><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Miracle_of_the_gulls"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">the holiest gull to the Mormon faith. Really.</span></a><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"> </span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><br /></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">The California gull's favored breeding habitat in the south San Francisco bay is being destroyed in a process intended to restore tidal salt marshes in the interior bay. The refugee gulls, robbed of their year-to-year territories have fled. Many have settled on Alcatraz. The number of California gull nests on Alcatraz in 2010 is significantly higher than in 2009.</span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><br /></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">Future summers may see a decline in their numbers and they will certainly never know parity with our larger, dominant western gulls and with that in mind, let's designate 2010, </span><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">The Year of the California Gull!</span></b></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><br /></span></div><div><a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/__w-4JLjnTj0/TDwO76bKNzI/AAAAAAAAAPw/DkkEbIRdaS4/s1600/California+gull2.jpg"><img src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/__w-4JLjnTj0/TDwO76bKNzI/AAAAAAAAAPw/DkkEbIRdaS4/s400/California+gull2.jpg" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5493282067943405362" style="display: block; margin-top: 0px; margin-right: auto; margin-bottom: 10px; margin-left: auto; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 400px; height: 279px; " /></a></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><br /></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">Break out your yellow leggings and paint a black ring around your nose! 'Tis the season!</span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><br /></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">The snowy egrets? If only there were any news. They continue to grow and continue to tickle us with their elegant plumage and bizarre vocalizations. </span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><br /></span></div><div><a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/__w-4JLjnTj0/TDwO8VI4CzI/AAAAAAAAAP4/VOPKkeITHEY/s1600/SNEG+Update.jpg"><img src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/__w-4JLjnTj0/TDwO8VI4CzI/AAAAAAAAAP4/VOPKkeITHEY/s400/SNEG+Update.jpg" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5493282075114474290" style="display: block; margin-top: 0px; margin-right: auto; margin-bottom: 10px; margin-left: auto; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 400px; height: 285px; " /></a></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><br /></span></div><div><a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/__w-4JLjnTj0/TDwUNGFSRiI/AAAAAAAAAQQ/NNdBh9kR7pw/s1600/SNEGUPDATE2.jpg"><img src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/__w-4JLjnTj0/TDwUNGFSRiI/AAAAAAAAAQQ/NNdBh9kR7pw/s400/SNEGUPDATE2.jpg" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5493287860688799266" style="display: block; margin-top: 0px; margin-right: auto; margin-bottom: 10px; margin-left: auto; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 400px; height: 324px; " /></a></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><br /></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">And let's not forget our WEGUs.</span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">It's amazing how little time it takes to go from all of this cuteness:</span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><object width="480" height="385"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/gJxDPUD3RM4&hl=en_US&fs=1"><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/gJxDPUD3RM4&hl=en_US&fs=1" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true" width="480" height="385"></embed></object></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">To all of this:</span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/__w-4JLjnTj0/TDwPNPl_ymI/AAAAAAAAAQI/raQww5B4ark/s1600/salt+and+pepper.jpg"><img src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/__w-4JLjnTj0/TDwPNPl_ymI/AAAAAAAAAQI/raQww5B4ark/s400/salt+and+pepper.jpg" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5493282365683780194" style="display: block; margin-top: 0px; margin-right: auto; margin-bottom: 10px; margin-left: auto; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 400px; height: 294px; " /></a></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><br /></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">And it only gets worse from here. Here I have to plagiarize or at least paraphrase from the </span><a href="http://losfarallones.blogspot.com/"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">unbelievably awesome Los Farallones blog</span></a><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">. The gulls are cute for three weeks out of the year before they arc sharply towards a stocky, ugly form housing a violent and desperate personality. Each of the cutest baby WEGUs is a bid to become such an objectionable animal. Take it for what it's worth.</span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><br /></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><br /></span></div><div><a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/__w-4JLjnTj0/TDwO82V3HnI/AAAAAAAAAQA/AI4lLENJtNg/s1600/salt+and+pepper+2.jpg"><img src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/__w-4JLjnTj0/TDwO82V3HnI/AAAAAAAAAQA/AI4lLENJtNg/s400/salt+and+pepper+2.jpg" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5493282084027309682" style="display: block; margin-top: 0px; margin-right: auto; margin-bottom: 10px; margin-left: auto; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 400px; height: 264px; " /></a></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><br /></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">But it's hard not to feel triumphant for them when they finally flap their wings.</span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><br /></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">The ravens are next. Stay tuned.</span></div>Sweep Commanderhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10624059547111674301noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2323676698397506828.post-4671082815990537112010-07-04T20:57:00.000-07:002010-07-04T22:41:32.168-07:00"This is a big honking deal, Mr. President!"<div style="text-align: center;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#0000EE;"><u><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><br /></span></u></span></div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><br /></span><div style="text-align: center;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#0000EE;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#551A8B;"><u><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><br /></span></u></span></span></div><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/__w-4JLjnTj0/TCltkbMZBDI/AAAAAAAAAOg/2A1ORxIR3R0/s1600/biden.jpg"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 379px; height: 284px;" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/__w-4JLjnTj0/TCltkbMZBDI/AAAAAAAAAOg/2A1ORxIR3R0/s400/biden.jpg" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5488038093470106674" /></a><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><br /></span><a href="http://slog.thestranger.com/slog/archives/2010/03/23/mr-presdient-this-is-a-big-fucking-deal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">Okay, so Vice President Joe Biden didn't really say that about the surprise fledging of Ryan T. Gosling.</span></a><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"> But if he was familiar with the circumstances and the course of events surrounding the miraculous rise of the little guy, I'm sure he'd have a profane bit of glib sarcasm just for us.</span><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><br /></span></div><div><a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/__w-4JLjnTj0/TCmLQ8igsII/AAAAAAAAAPI/G9NSRxfDxiA/s1600/015.JPG"><img src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/__w-4JLjnTj0/TCmLQ8igsII/AAAAAAAAAPI/G9NSRxfDxiA/s400/015.JPG" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5488070744172703874" style="display: block; margin-top: 0px; margin-right: auto; margin-bottom: 10px; margin-left: auto; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 400px; height: 295px; " /></a></div><div><div style="text-align: center;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#0000EE;"><u><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><br /></span></u></span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">In the following video, Ryan's learning to fly!</span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><u><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><br /></span></u></div><div><div style="text-align: center;"><object style="background-image:url(http://i4.ytimg.com/vi/Gd7TBOFdM9g/hqdefault.jpg)" width="425" height="344"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/Gd7TBOFdM9g&hl=en_US&fs=1"><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/Gd7TBOFdM9g&hl=en_US&fs=1" width="425" height="344" allowscriptaccess="never" allowfullscreen="true" wmode="transparent" type="application/x-shockwave-flash"></embed></object></div> <div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">Yay!</span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><br /></span></div><div><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">Odds, ends:</span></b></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">Cormorant chicks are about. Here's a photo from what is, to my knowledge, our only visible chick bearing nest. </span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><br /></span></div><div><a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/__w-4JLjnTj0/TCltxQXSYlI/AAAAAAAAAOo/V-u5aKRbReY/s1600/011.JPG"><img src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/__w-4JLjnTj0/TCltxQXSYlI/AAAAAAAAAOo/V-u5aKRbReY/s400/011.JPG" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5488038313901318738" style="display: block; margin-top: 0px; margin-right: auto; margin-bottom: 10px; margin-left: auto; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 400px; height: 300px; " /></a></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><br /></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">Don't tell me that the word "dinosaur" doesn't occur to you when you see these images. </span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><br /></span></div><div><a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/__w-4JLjnTj0/TCluXZWrm3I/AAAAAAAAAOw/VvIt2MxY-I8/s1600/013.JPG"><img src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/__w-4JLjnTj0/TCluXZWrm3I/AAAAAAAAAOw/VvIt2MxY-I8/s400/013.JPG" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5488038969149725554" style="display: block; margin-top: 0px; margin-right: auto; margin-bottom: 10px; margin-left: auto; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 400px; height: 300px; " /></a></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><br /></span></div></div></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">In the Alcatraz nesting season, sometimes an early failure can lead to a late success. In our last post, we speculated wildly and without credibility that the ravens might be double brooding. Take our suggestions there with a grain of salt.</span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><br /></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">With the following gull pair, we're on much safer ground. </span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><br /></span></div><div><a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/__w-4JLjnTj0/TAAUX0idtfI/AAAAAAAAAKU/Jc4_oDCZMI4/s320/077.JPG"><img src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/__w-4JLjnTj0/TAAUX0idtfI/AAAAAAAAAKU/Jc4_oDCZMI4/s320/077.JPG" border="0" alt="" style="display: block; margin-top: 0px; margin-right: auto; margin-bottom: 10px; margin-left: auto; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 320px; height: 240px; " /></a></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><br /></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">Theirs was the very first gull nest we noticed this year and perhaps not coincidentally, it was also the first to bear young. Unfortunately, this was the best they could do:</span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><br /></span></div><div><a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/__w-4JLjnTj0/TASkT5fVITI/AAAAAAAAAK0/GbTns4GWkvw/s320/072.JPG"><img src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/__w-4JLjnTj0/TASkT5fVITI/AAAAAAAAAK0/GbTns4GWkvw/s320/072.JPG" border="0" alt="" style="display: block; margin-top: 0px; margin-right: auto; margin-bottom: 10px; margin-left: auto; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 320px; height: 240px; " /></a></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><br /></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">It's not clear why, but none of their hatchlings survived for longer than a day or two. But mom and dad haven't given up. Here's a picture of Ryan T. Gosling and parents walking by their renewed efforts:</span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><br /></span></div><div><a href="http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4034/4654938621_ffed9728a7.jpg"><img src="http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4034/4654938621_ffed9728a7.jpg" border="0" alt="" style="display: block; margin-top: 0px; margin-right: auto; margin-bottom: 10px; margin-left: auto; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 500px; height: 375px; " /></a></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><br /></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">And this last week, we finally managed to photograph an egg:</span></div><div> </div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><br /></span></div><div><a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/__w-4JLjnTj0/TCl6w6NXi0I/AAAAAAAAAO4/kjXB_uXGSpM/s1600/018.JPG"><img src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/__w-4JLjnTj0/TCl6w6NXi0I/AAAAAAAAAO4/kjXB_uXGSpM/s400/018.JPG" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5488052601605294914" style="display: block; margin-top: 0px; margin-right: auto; margin-bottom: 10px; margin-left: auto; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 400px; height: 320px; " /></a></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><br /></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">It's a bit difficult to see, but if you focus your attention on the area between the parent gull's two pink legs, you should be able to pick it out.</span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><br /></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">And finally, as we boarded the boat home the other day, this guy, Mr. elusive great blue heron was waiting for us on the rocks near the dock, scanning the water for easy prey:</span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><br /></span></div><div><a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/__w-4JLjnTj0/TDFip-QPjUI/AAAAAAAAAPQ/cs8-5jtw1EE/s1600/GBH.jpg"><img src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/__w-4JLjnTj0/TDFip-QPjUI/AAAAAAAAAPQ/cs8-5jtw1EE/s400/GBH.jpg" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5490277893966630210" style="display: block; margin-top: 0px; margin-right: auto; margin-bottom: 10px; margin-left: auto; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 221px; height: 400px; " /></a></div><div><br /></div>Sweep Commanderhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10624059547111674301noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2323676698397506828.post-62473179353212435752010-06-27T01:08:00.000-07:002010-06-27T01:09:49.228-07:00Raven male defends his young; raven female is... where?<div><br /></div><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/__w-4JLjnTj0/TCcAm_AfiVI/AAAAAAAAAOY/tGIz-EgI9hQ/s1600/raventwo.jpg"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 400px; height: 300px;" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/__w-4JLjnTj0/TCcAm_AfiVI/AAAAAAAAAOY/tGIz-EgI9hQ/s400/raventwo.jpg" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5487355340722768210" /></a><div style="text-align: left;"><u><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#0000EE;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#000000;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><br /></span></span></span></u></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#551A8B;"><u><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><br /></span></u></span></div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">There's a small mystery on Alcatraz right now and only our ravens know what's really going on.</span><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><br /></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">The ravens bred in 2010, but only </span><a href="http://maganrord.blogspot.com/2010/05/mommy-what-is-stacking-also-babies.html"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">one branchling left the nest alive.</span></a><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"> </span><a href="http://maganrord.blogspot.com/2010/05/oh-bloody-murder.html"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">The adults watched over their young one closely and killed an adult western gull,</span></a><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"> apparently for showing a little too much interest in their pride and joy.</span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><br /></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">Then, suddenly, </span><a href="http://maganrord.blogspot.com/2010/06/juvenile-raven-vanishes-breeding.html"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">we went from three observable ravens to two</span></a><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">. It seemed that the juvenile was gone. As new ravens will stay with their parents for a period of months, successful fledging and departure seemed unlikely. The speculation was of its possible demise.</span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><br /></span></div><div><a href="http://maganrord.blogspot.com/2010/06/juvenile-raven-found-but-strange.html"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">As usual, the ravens had us fooled. The juvenile was still very much with us, and hiding right before our eyes.</span></a><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"> She or he vocalized softly and hoarsely while displaying submissive crouching and begging behavior typical of a juvenile or a subordinate individual in a larger group but unlikely behavior for for a breeding adult.</span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><br /></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">One mystery was solved. One of our visible ravens was the juvenile. The other was the male, discernible by its size and its trademark "fur pants" dominance display. So where is our breeding female? She's been unobserved for quite some time now.</span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><br /></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">I have a crazy hypothesis: she may be incubating a second clutch of eggs.</span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><br /></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><br /></span></div><div><a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/__w-4JLjnTj0/TCcAmKM5t4I/AAAAAAAAAOQ/sD5V5FLccpI/s1600/ravens+guard+tower.JPG"><img src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/__w-4JLjnTj0/TCcAmKM5t4I/AAAAAAAAAOQ/sD5V5FLccpI/s400/ravens+guard+tower.JPG" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5487355326547736450" style="display: block; margin-top: 0px; margin-right: auto; margin-bottom: 10px; margin-left: auto; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 400px; height: 300px; " /></a></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><br /></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><br /></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">This would be more than unusual. It's almost unprecedented. Ravens are not double brooders, though given enough time, they will attempt another clutch if their first brood of chicks and eggs fails completely. Double brooding by ravens is so uncommon that it's only been documented in </span><a href="http://students.washington.edu/webb/Webb_Ellstrand2002.pdf"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">one single instance, during breeding season 2001, on the campus of UC Irvine</span></a><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">.</span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><br /></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">My suggestion is just a hunch, but it has the following considerations in its favor:</span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><br /></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">First, there's time for a second brood. The ravens nested early this year. In the single documented case of double brooding, enough time and plentiful food resources were cited as possible factors enabling the behavior. </span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><br /></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">As for food, with a home territory like Alcatraz, with so much ecology and so much trash at hand, food wouldn't seem to be a problem.</span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><br /></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">Second, the natural resources arm of the Golden Gate National Recreation Area has visited the ravens' nest multiple times in 2010 and damage to the nest may have occurred. Just as the number of visible ravens dropped from three to two, they were observed carrying nest building materials to their tree, perhaps repairing damage their nest structures incurred. Bernd Heinrich, noted raven expert and author of the great book </span><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">Mind of the Raven</span></i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">, observed that the ravens' cue to mate is </span><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">not</span></i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"> a ready female, but rather a finished nest.</span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><br /></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">Damaging the ravens' nesting structures may have inadvertently put them on a path towards a second clutch.</span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><br /></span></div><div><a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/__w-4JLjnTj0/TCcAloTBUHI/AAAAAAAAAOI/lCMb8xoHxWk/s1600/ravenone.jpg"><img src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/__w-4JLjnTj0/TCcAloTBUHI/AAAAAAAAAOI/lCMb8xoHxWk/s400/ravenone.jpg" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5487355317446594674" style="display: block; margin-top: 0px; margin-right: auto; margin-bottom: 10px; margin-left: auto; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 400px; height: 300px; " /></a></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><br /></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">The third consideration is that while double brooding has never been documented except in the one paper I linked to, the paper's authors complain that not enough observations of this type have been attempted, especially on the divergent California clade, to which our ravens belong.</span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><br /></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">The surprising genetic differences between ravens of the American southwest and those found in all other contexts will be addressed in an upcoming post laying out what little we know about Alcatraz's raven pair.</span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><br /></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">The last consideration I'd offer in favor of the double brooding hypothesis is that Bernd Heinrich also says that if a raven minding a home territory loses its mate, he or she will find a replacement quickly, often within a day. That hasn't happened, though another plausible explanation for that might be that it's simply too late for courting and pair bonding this year, though I don't recall Heinrich indicating that this behavior is variable across the seasons. </span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><br /></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">This, combined with my gut feeling that the outright death of the female seems pretty unlikely, gives me the sense that our ravens are up to something once again.</span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><br /></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">This double brooding suggestion may be absolutely wrong and I realize that it sounds crazy. My hunches regarding birds are almost universally mistaken but if I'm right in this case, I'd like to be able to say I saw it coming.</span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><br /></span></div><div><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">Odds, ends:</span></b></div><div><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><br /></span></b></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">The island loves to make a liar out of me. No sooner did I write a post entitled "A Coda on the Falcons of Alcatraz" than did the male peregrine decide to show himself on a consistent, daily basis. For now, the kid is back:</span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><br /></span></div><div><a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/__w-4JLjnTj0/TCbtth79uQI/AAAAAAAAANs/QA2YdaJSQSE/s1600/073.JPG"><img src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/__w-4JLjnTj0/TCbtth79uQI/AAAAAAAAANs/QA2YdaJSQSE/s400/073.JPG" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5487334562457303298" style="display: block; margin-top: 0px; margin-right: auto; margin-bottom: 10px; margin-left: auto; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 370px; height: 400px; " /></a></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><br /></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">Now all he needs is a female companion to really give Alcatraz's ruling authoritarian corvidocracy a run for its money and I wouldn't miss it for the world. </span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><br /></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">Also as I disembarked onto the Alcatraz dock on Thursday, I was rendered speechless. I'd heard about ducklings on Alcatraz but neither BourbonHawk nor I had ever seen any. But there she was, a duck mother and her eight chicks, soon to be food for the predators that inhabit the island and the bay. </span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><br /></span></div><div><a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/__w-4JLjnTj0/TCbs-33bV0I/AAAAAAAAANk/tDbSnAAV1wk/s1600/006.JPG"><img src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/__w-4JLjnTj0/TCbs-33bV0I/AAAAAAAAANk/tDbSnAAV1wk/s400/006.JPG" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5487333760890001218" style="display: block; margin-top: 0px; margin-right: auto; margin-bottom: 10px; margin-left: auto; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 400px; height: 221px; " /></a></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><br /></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">Sometimes words aren't good enough, so I slapped BourbonHawk on the arm and pointed them out to her, this late in the year and bobbing far too close to the machinery mounted to the rear of the boat we'd just disembarked from. We had a few jokes about these witless ducks being sucked up to their doom, but fortunately that didn't happen.</span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><object width="480" height="385"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/H58Mmk0T0ME&hl=en_US&fs=1&"><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/H58Mmk0T0ME&hl=en_US&fs=1&" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true" width="480" height="385"></embed></object></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><br /></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">At any rate, I know they're gonners. My only hope is that they get taken by some novel predator like a seal, a porpoise or a sea lion. I'm getting a bit tired of all of this gull and raven brutality.</span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><br /></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">Here's your update on Ryan T. Gosling, the honking miracle. He's almost there. At this late date, it's a bit difficult to tell which one of the three he is, but I usually assume that the two proudest looking geese are his parents, and he's just the other one. </span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><br /></span></div><div><a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/__w-4JLjnTj0/TCbxE0RSDyI/AAAAAAAAAN0/3IikfGpOSr0/s1600/062.JPG"><img src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/__w-4JLjnTj0/TCbxE0RSDyI/AAAAAAAAAN0/3IikfGpOSr0/s400/062.JPG" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5487338261050429218" style="display: block; margin-top: 0px; margin-right: auto; margin-bottom: 10px; margin-left: auto; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 400px; height: 135px; " /></a></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><br /></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">Brandt's cormorants! They're back indeed. Here's a picture from last year's disastrous lack of a nesting season:</span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><br /></span></div><div><a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/__w-4JLjnTj0/S1tff7DqspI/AAAAAAAAACY/kdw0U6zGIRA/s320/IMG_2509.JPG"><img src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/__w-4JLjnTj0/S1tff7DqspI/AAAAAAAAACY/kdw0U6zGIRA/s320/IMG_2509.JPG" border="0" alt="" style="display: block; margin-top: 0px; margin-right: auto; margin-bottom: 10px; margin-left: auto; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 320px; height: 240px; " /></a></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><br /></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">And a picture from our last very good year, 2008:</span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><br /></span></div><div><a href="http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2008/2517089448_daa7286b35.jpg"><img src="http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2008/2517089448_daa7286b35.jpg" border="0" alt="" style="display: block; margin-top: 0px; margin-right: auto; margin-bottom: 10px; margin-left: auto; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 500px; height: 375px; " /></a></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><br /></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">And here's a picture from last week:</span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><br /></span></div><div><a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/__w-4JLjnTj0/TCbzH48TqUI/AAAAAAAAAN8/8DyhCBrH0cQ/s1600/032.JPG"><img src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/__w-4JLjnTj0/TCbzH48TqUI/AAAAAAAAAN8/8DyhCBrH0cQ/s400/032.JPG" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5487340512867494210" style="display: block; margin-top: 0px; margin-right: auto; margin-bottom: 10px; margin-left: auto; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 400px; height: 194px; " /></a></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><br /></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">Progress is clearly being made and there are nests on the ground, but they may be dummy nests. These cormorants have built them multiple times now, only to fail to lay eggs and to retreat from them at any disturbance.</span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><br /></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">Still, the cormorants are having a resurgent year. They may not yet be successfully nesting on their old colonial grounds, but they're nesting less visibly on cliffs all around the island. I don't envy the wildlife biologists in their task to count them and measure their output in such treacherous places. </span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><br /></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">Lastly, I authored a post last night on a western gull predating a snowy egret chick. I know this post has been a long one, but check that one out too, especially if you don't mind a gruesome image to go along with it.</span></div>Sweep Commanderhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10624059547111674301noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2323676698397506828.post-54084143159201106952010-06-25T17:43:00.000-07:002010-06-26T02:00:44.643-07:00Baby birds on Alcatraz are risky ventures indeed<div style="text-align: center;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#0000EE;"><u><br /></u></span></div><div><div style="text-align: center; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#FF0000;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">Warning: The following post contains a graphic image of a dead bird</span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><br /></span></div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">We've been over the </span><a href="http://maganrord.blogspot.com/2010/05/rehash-alcatraz-is-awful-place-for.html"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">challenges faced by breeding geese on Alcatraz</span></a><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"> many times now, and if you're a new gosling, they are formidable. </span><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><br /></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">Not every infant bird faces survival prospects of less than one percent, but as Darwin noted, there are always too many young for the resources at hand and inevitably attrition and competition do the dirty work of eliminating the excess.</span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><br /></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">In the world of humanity, the west has infant mortality figured out. In the United States the rate has dropped to just .64%. The highest rates of infant mortality in the United States are found in Washington DC and Mississippi, with 1.41% and 1.074% respectively. The lowest mortality rates are enjoyed by Minnesota and Massachusetts, with .478% and .489%.</span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><br /></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">Angola has the highest infant mortality rate in the world, where tragically, 18% don't make it to their first birthday.</span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><br /></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">As with human beings, mortality rates among many young birds on Alcatraz are tied to environmental factors, like the availability of food and fresh water. Our baby birds also have to deal with the presence of the hostile predators which place an additional strain on their prospects.</span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><br /></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">Let's talk about a curious difficulty faced recently by one of our most successful breeding species, the snowy egrets. </span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><br /></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">I've seen western gulls hovering low over the thicket where the egrets make their nests and </span><span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_0"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">fledge</span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"> their young: </span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><br /></span></div><div><a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/__w-4JLjnTj0/TCWCP-T8D1I/AAAAAAAAAM0/Drlye0HTTno/s1600/009.JPG"><img src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/__w-4JLjnTj0/TCWCP-T8D1I/AAAAAAAAAM0/Drlye0HTTno/s400/009.JPG" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5486934931957092178" style="display: block; margin-top: 0px; margin-right: auto; margin-bottom: 10px; margin-left: auto; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 400px; height: 239px; " /></a></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><br /></span></div><div><a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/__w-4JLjnTj0/TCWMMbBeBQI/AAAAAAAAANE/7-BC94MIje4/s1600/001.JPG"><img src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/__w-4JLjnTj0/TCWMMbBeBQI/AAAAAAAAANE/7-BC94MIje4/s400/001.JPG" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5486945866061055234" style="display: block; margin-top: 0px; margin-right: auto; margin-bottom: 10px; margin-left: auto; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 400px; height: 300px; " /></a></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><object width="480" height="385"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/3OESsv9dGqQ&hl=en_US&fs=1&"><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/3OESsv9dGqQ&hl=en_US&fs=1&" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true" width="480" height="385"></embed></object></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><br /></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">But I'd never seen one dip down and actually grab a vulnerable chick from an exposed branch. But this last week, that's exactly what happened and this was the unfortunate aftermath:</span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/__w-4JLjnTj0/TCXBpRhLANI/AAAAAAAAANc/7nZW_X2r1Vs/s1600/007.JPG"><img src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/__w-4JLjnTj0/TCXBpRhLANI/AAAAAAAAANc/7nZW_X2r1Vs/s400/007.JPG" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5487004635842150610" style="display: block; margin-top: 0px; margin-right: auto; margin-bottom: 10px; margin-left: auto; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 400px; height: 268px; " /></a></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: center;"><object width="480" height="385"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/ZjsWerW0irI&hl=en_US&fs=1&"><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/ZjsWerW0irI&hl=en_US&fs=1&" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true" width="480" height="385"></embed></object></div></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">The victorious western gull was defensive of his prize. Though he obviously destroyed the head of poor chick, he failed to open the body cavity, and his best apparent efforts were gentle tugs on the dispatched egret's wing. As far as anyone can tell, the effort yielded no food.</span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><object width="480" height="385"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/J-vcADaotUI&hl=en_US&fs=1&"><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/J-vcADaotUI&hl=en_US&fs=1&" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true" width="480" height="385"></embed></object></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">It reminds me of the time that BourbonHawk, LadyBird and I witnessed a western gull take a tiny gosling in Golden Gate Park. The gull lost interest and several gulls half heartedly fought over the gosling's body, before an immature individual finally and nonchalantly swallowed it. </span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">The egrets have it much better than our black crowned night heron eggs and chicks that our ravens mercilessly predate, but they're still vulnerable to this pointless and opportunistic predation.</span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">Here's a live, healthy snowy egret, on the road to fledging:</span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/__w-4JLjnTj0/TCWNe_vbWzI/AAAAAAAAANU/9ttMENTp9-s/s1600/012.JPG"><img src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/__w-4JLjnTj0/TCWNe_vbWzI/AAAAAAAAANU/9ttMENTp9-s/s400/012.JPG" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5486947284666768178" style="display: block; margin-top: 0px; margin-right: auto; margin-bottom: 10px; margin-left: auto; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 300px; height: 400px; " /></a></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><object width="480" height="385"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/sosoVgsTMcc&hl=en_US&fs=1&"><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/sosoVgsTMcc&hl=en_US&fs=1&" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true" width="480" height="385"></embed></object></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">The vocalization combined with the display has become known to Maganrord as "The Dinosaur Dance," for obvious reasons. So rad.</span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">And here are their curious shins:</span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/__w-4JLjnTj0/TCWMW0M8G7I/AAAAAAAAANM/m0uzC757U-k/s1600/005.JPG"><img src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/__w-4JLjnTj0/TCWMW0M8G7I/AAAAAAAAANM/m0uzC757U-k/s400/005.JPG" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5486946044618742706" style="display: block; margin-top: 0px; margin-right: auto; margin-bottom: 10px; margin-left: auto; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 400px; height: 300px; " /></a></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">They're almost scaly.</span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">Check back with us soon. We have so much to report, on subjects as diverse as ravens, falcons, and white crowned sparrows!</span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div>Sweep Commanderhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10624059547111674301noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2323676698397506828.post-73095333950628377012010-06-20T22:53:00.000-07:002010-06-21T08:37:02.834-07:00A Coda on the Falcons of Alcatraz<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/__w-4JLjnTj0/TB8RCpSWmCI/AAAAAAAAAMc/wtxBnG27TS4/s1600/080.JPG"></a><div style="text-align: center;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">Remember this guy?</span></b></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#551A8B;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></span></div><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4062/4478481186_0048334c6e.jpg"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 500px; height: 375px;" src="http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4062/4478481186_0048334c6e.jpg" border="0" alt="" /></a><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span><div><a href="http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4061/4423567419_5331473f5c.jpg"><img src="http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4061/4423567419_5331473f5c.jpg" border="0" alt="" style="display: block; margin-top: 0px; margin-right: auto; margin-bottom: 10px; margin-left: auto; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 500px; height: 375px; " /></a></div><div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></div><div><div><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"> </span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">No one's blaming you if you don't, as </span><a href="http://maganrord.blogspot.com/2010/05/update-on-our-brave-young-falcon.html"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">we last touched upon his status 40 days ago</span></a><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">.</span></div></div></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></div><div><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"> </span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">His story is short and it bears repeating, so here we go:</span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></div><div><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"> </span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">On November 22nd 2009, BourbonHawk and I discovered a large adult female peregrine roosting atop one of our cypress trees:</span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></div><div><a href="http://lh4.ggpht.com/_HrqO1cKcYmY/S1QD0CmzlWI/AAAAAAAAACU/0A7g7UoPfyE/s576/IMG_8634.JPG"><img src="http://lh4.ggpht.com/_HrqO1cKcYmY/S1QD0CmzlWI/AAAAAAAAACU/0A7g7UoPfyE/s576/IMG_8634.JPG" border="0" alt="" style="display: block; margin-top: 0px; margin-right: auto; margin-bottom: 10px; margin-left: auto; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 576px; height: 484px; " /></a></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></div><div><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"> </span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">As the days and months went on, sightings were as regular as the rising sun. We determined that she was residing on Alcatraz, either for the winter or longer. More pictures and videos of her and her bloody quarries are available in our back posts.</span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></div><div><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"> </span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">On February 6th, 2010, </span><a href="http://maganrord.blogspot.com/2010/02/where-to-begin.html"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">we found a second falcon</span></a><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">, a male, albeit an immature male, perhaps unable to breed. None the less, the two engaged in fantastic displays of aerial courting, darting, spiraling, sparring with each other. </span><a href="http://maganrord.blogspot.com/2010/02/happy-valentines-day-from-birds-of.html"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">Finally, they perched together, and on Valentine's Day, no less.</span></a><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"> All who saw them were touched by the romantic spectacle.</span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></div><div><a href="http://maganrord.blogspot.com/2010/03/falcon-dines-again-also-comments-fixed.html"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"> </span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">On Sunday, March 14th, our female gave us one more majestic and bloody display, filled her crop and spread her wings</span></a><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">. She hasn't been seen on Alcatraz since.</span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></div><div><object width="480" height="385"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/q8SMaAy-5gk&hl=en_US&fs=1&"><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/q8SMaAy-5gk&hl=en_US&fs=1&" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true" width="480" height="385"></embed></object></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></div><div><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"> </span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">The male (or tiercel, as male falcons are called) remained, but since our last report, the frequency of observation of our baby bird-killing-machine has declined steadily. He's become so scarce that I had fully intended to publish a report declaring that the Alcatraz tiercel had departed completely...</span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">...which shows how bad I am at this. During Alcatraz's magic inbetween-hour, separating Alcatraz day tours from our rad night tour program, there are no visitors and there are far fewer staff. The animals behave differently and often, it's the time of day that the bird you're looking for rears its helmeted head.</span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></div><div><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"> </span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">This is the Alcatraz tiercel as we had last seen him, the brown plumage betraying the youth that may have pushed the female to abandon him:</span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></div><div><a href="http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4034/4658232513_9a0815d2bd.jpg"><img src="http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4034/4658232513_9a0815d2bd.jpg" border="0" alt="" style="display: block; margin-top: 0px; margin-right: auto; margin-bottom: 10px; margin-left: auto; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 500px; height: 375px; " /></a></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">Today, we saw the following: </span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/__w-4JLjnTj0/TB8RCpSWmCI/AAAAAAAAAMc/wtxBnG27TS4/s1600/080.JPG"><img src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/__w-4JLjnTj0/TB8RCpSWmCI/AAAAAAAAAMc/wtxBnG27TS4/s320/080.JPG" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5485121608300795938" style="display: block; margin-top: 0px; margin-right: auto; margin-bottom: 10px; margin-left: auto; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 320px; height: 259px; " /></a><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span><a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/__w-4JLjnTj0/TB8Q5qTLTQI/AAAAAAAAAMU/oll2oCR1sbo/s1600/081.JPG"><img src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/__w-4JLjnTj0/TB8Q5qTLTQI/AAAAAAAAAMU/oll2oCR1sbo/s320/081.JPG" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5485121453953862914" style="display: block; margin-top: 0px; margin-right: auto; margin-bottom: 10px; margin-left: auto; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 320px; height: 276px; " /></a></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">The brown is giving way to blue and Alcatraz's baby boy peregrine is growing up!</span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"> </span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">I pessimistically called this 'a coda' on the presence of falcons on Alcatraz because one sighting every few weeks just doesn't mean very much.</span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"> </span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">It is our familiar tiercel. He has the same robust helmet, is molting on schedule and he's occupying his habitual roost. But I don't think he lives on Alcatraz anymore. </span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"> </span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">Whether this is due to pressure from Alcatraz's larger ravens and gulls is unknown, although conflicts with both were common when the tiercel was an everyday sight on Alctraz. Earlier in the year, we posted the following video. The tiercel is the tiny bird diving and pursuing the larger ones before being pursued himself by a western gull. If you don't blink, you can see a few of San Francisco's landmarks in the background:</span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><object width="480" height="385"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/ua0562qAHFw&hl=en_US&fs=1&"><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/ua0562qAHFw&hl=en_US&fs=1&" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true" width="480" height="385"></embed></object></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"> </span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">The shameless romantic birder in me would like to think that this falcon, which had been so significant to us for such a long period of time, had graced our island this evening share with us its progress on its maturing plumage, though my prevailing non anthropomorphic brain knew it was just a brief and aimless layover on the way to somewhere else.</span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"> </span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">Sure enough, when I checked for him 20 minutes later, he was gone.</span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span class="Apple-style-span"><span class="Apple-style-span"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"> </span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">Hopefully my hunches are wrong and Alcatraz becomes a yearly site for falcon breeding. B</span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">ut I'm not holding my breath.</span></span></div>Sweep Commanderhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10624059547111674301noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2323676698397506828.post-8820527964722340912010-06-16T23:25:00.000-07:002010-06-17T00:25:49.571-07:00Nesting season update on Alcatraz's newest western gulls!<div style="text-align: center;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#0000EE;"><u><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#551A8B;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><br /></span></span></u></span></div><b><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:large;">Let's start with some cuteness</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-weight: normal;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"> as this baby western gull falls over, then dances and twirls around like a tiny ballerina, enthusiastic for days but lacking of any physical coordination. Please don't write us to tell us you aren't touched. We can't take that very seriously:</span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-weight: normal; "><b><div style="display: inline !important; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-weight: normal; "><b><div style="display: inline !important; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-weight: normal;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><br /></span></span></div></b></span></div></b></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-weight: normal;"></span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-weight: normal; "><b><div style="display: inline !important; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-weight: normal; "><b><div style="display: inline !important; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-weight: normal;"><object width="480" height="385"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/gJxDPUD3RM4&hl=en_US&fs=1&"><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/gJxDPUD3RM4&hl=en_US&fs=1&" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true" width="480" height="385"></embed></object><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"> </span></span></div></b></span></div></b></span></div><div><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><br /></span></b></div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:large;">If there had been much to report</span></b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:large;">,</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"> we'd apologize for the lapse in posting but we've made a decision to avoid bombarding you with posts with titles like 'OMG, the baby gulls are collectively 1% bigger today and here are a hundred pictures and videos documenting the milestone!' Both the readers and writers of this blog have better things to do.</span><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><br /></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">At any rate, here's what we're up to in the coming week: a set of posts, one each on the island's larger breeding birds. Today, it's the avian face of the island, the western gull.</span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">-</span></b></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><br /></span></div><div><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:large;">Ahhh, nesting season...</span></b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"> that lovely time of year when each utterance I hear of the word "baby" is less likely to conclude a mysoginistic quip than it is to refer to a fuzzy ball of serious cuteness... Oh, the novelty.</span><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><br /></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">Our baby gulls have hatched en masse.</span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><br /></span></div><div><a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/__w-4JLjnTj0/TBhA2hnCzEI/AAAAAAAAALs/8hWjJgNLHBs/s1600/babygullsleepingbybay.jpg"><img src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/__w-4JLjnTj0/TBhA2hnCzEI/AAAAAAAAALs/8hWjJgNLHBs/s400/babygullsleepingbybay.jpg" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5483203851802823746" style="display: block; margin-top: 0px; margin-right: auto; margin-bottom: 10px; margin-left: auto; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 400px; height: 358px; " /></a></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><br /></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">And some of them are very, very sleepy.</span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><br /></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">Their salt-and-peppery down, however, doesn't protect them from the predatory animals that see ample opportunity in their helplessness. Often, the worst enemy of a western gull chick is an adult gull that is not their parent. These birds kill and eat the young of their own species, usually whole and head first, and they often vomit up a pellet of bones and the remains of downy fibers. Fun.</span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><br /></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">The raven pair and its current brood will also predate gull chicks and eggs. Recently, Maganrord took a video of our juvenile raven consuming a WEGU chick (the video is available </span><a href="http://maganrord.blogspot.com/2010/06/juvenile-raven-found-but-strange.html"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">two posts prior</span></a><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">).</span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><br /></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">Yesterday, we observed a dangerous game of cat and mouse between two large gulls, their young and two large ravens. More on that in an upcoming post.</span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><br /></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">Today, I found what is very likely the dried, regurgitated head of an unfortunate western gull chick. We'll post pictures of that soon. Today's post is about the appreciation of live baby gulls, available for viewing now but for a very limited time:</span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><br /></span></div><div><a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/__w-4JLjnTj0/TBmpD17fTfI/AAAAAAAAAME/3DadgbS6aW4/s1600/021.JPG"><img src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/__w-4JLjnTj0/TBmpD17fTfI/AAAAAAAAAME/3DadgbS6aW4/s320/021.JPG" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5483599904781585906" style="display: block; margin-top: 0px; margin-right: auto; margin-bottom: 10px; margin-left: auto; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 320px; height: 240px; " /></a></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><br /></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">They just get uglier from here. Stay tuned to Maganrord for full coverage of that process, including a special post on a baby western gull from last summer, affectionately referred to as "runty", for whom BourbonHawk has uncharacteristically expressed an undying love.</span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><br /></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">Focusing back upon cuteness, here's one little fluffball stretching its little wings and then running too fast and falling over...: </span></div></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><object style="background-image:url(http://i3.ytimg.com/vi/bQvduSGM8ZI/hqdefault.jpg)" width="425" height="344"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/bQvduSGM8ZI&hl=en_US&fs=1"><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/bQvduSGM8ZI&hl=en_US&fs=1" width="425" height="344" allowscriptaccess="never" allowfullscreen="true" wmode="transparent" type="application/x-shockwave-flash"></embed></object></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:large;">The feeding process:</span></b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"> western gull beaks have what nerds call a "red subterminal dot". It's a bit of red pigment near the end of a gull's beak. The chicks instinctively poke at it and somehow, the adult gull regurgitates the contents of its stomach, providing food for its young:</span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><object width="480" height="385"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/R36B4kY741M&hl=en_US&fs=1&"><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/R36B4kY741M&hl=en_US&fs=1&" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true" width="480" height="385"></embed></object></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">Studies have found that large gull chicks will instinctively peck at any red dot, no matter what bears it. </span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">-</span></b></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:large;">Although we find gull parenting absolutely abhorrent, due to rampant cannibalism and infanticide, there is one aspect of good parenting at which humans largely fail but at which gulls positively excel: providing nutrition to their young:</span></b></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><a href="http://www.jstor.org/pss/1521306"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">One study, performed locally on Alcatraz western gulls,</span></a><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"> found that the diet of our local WEGUs consists almost entirely of salvaged garbage (surprise!), more than 90% of which is some form of discarded chicken.</span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">But when their eggs hatch, the diet changes. The junk food is absolutely forbidden and fresh fish from the bay is the only acceptable food item. Here is Maganrord's tiny contribution to the body of evidence:</span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><object width="480" height="385"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/dspMn86pYGQ&hl=en_US&fs=1&"></param><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"></param><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"></param><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/dspMn86pYGQ&hl=en_US&fs=1&" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true" width="480" height="385"></embed></object></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">Why don't human beings take the birth of their children as a cue to embrace what is healthy and sustainable? McDonald's advertising may have us all figured out, but you'll never convince a WEGU to feed its baby a French fry, let alone a double cheeseburger or a sausage breakfast burrito from the dollar menu:</span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><a href="http://i67.photobucket.com/albums/h298/sanctusreeaal/dollar_menu_04.gif"><img src="http://i67.photobucket.com/albums/h298/sanctusreeaal/dollar_menu_04.gif" border="0" alt="" style="display: block; margin-top: 0px; margin-right: auto; margin-bottom: 10px; margin-left: auto; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 349px; height: 364px; " /></a></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:large;">Sorry, human parents:</span></b> In one important way, infanticidal, trash eating gulls are better parents than you are.</span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">To close, here's a video of a baby WEGU that surprised me on the west side of the island:</span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><object width="480" height="385"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/ZJi-qQoOBbA&hl=en_US&fs=1&"><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/ZJi-qQoOBbA&hl=en_US&fs=1&" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true" width="480" height="385"></embed></object></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">It hung out, peeped, scratched its face and wandered into the bush. What more do I want from a baby WEGU around hatching time? </span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><b>-</b></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:large;">As a postscript, I would only add</span></b> that the anecdotal evidence from employees working on Alcatraz for both the National Park Service and the Golden Gate National Parks Conservancy has been that there are fewer WEGU nests in view and fewer large broods than in years past. Instead of three and four chicks per nest, we've been seeing one, two and only sometimes three.</span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">This year, we've had massive construction projects as well as aggressive management of gulls in areas accessible to island visitors, which may be contributing to these observations.</span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">At the end of the summer, we'll ask our professional biologists what happened this year, and how normal 2010 was for WEGU breeding on Alcatraz.</span></div>Sweep Commanderhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10624059547111674301noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2323676698397506828.post-71233118746406657802010-06-15T22:22:00.001-07:002010-06-15T23:03:48.457-07:00New post!<div style="text-align: left;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">I know it's been a while, but you have to admit, the news to follow is good:</span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">Our graphics are back up! Thanks a bunch to our shady host! We've got a number of exciting posts coming up:</span></div><div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><br /></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">Coming from Maganrord in the near future: </span></div><div><ul><li><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">Why should you give a rat's calf about gulls?</span></li></ul><div><a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/__w-4JLjnTj0/TBhhPey28-I/AAAAAAAAAL0/aXCKjohr-hM/s1600/babygullsleepingbay2.jpg"><img src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/__w-4JLjnTj0/TBhhPey28-I/AAAAAAAAAL0/aXCKjohr-hM/s400/babygullsleepingbay2.jpg" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5483239464915891170" style="display: block; margin-top: 0px; margin-right: auto; margin-bottom: 10px; margin-left: auto; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 400px; height: 284px; " /></a></div><div style="text-align: center;"><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">Sometimes it's a cuteness game, but there's more to be had, even when the bird banding laboratory loses all data on the gull you've been painstakingly photographing! C'mon!</span></i></div><ul><li><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">What is unique or interesting about the genetics of Alcatraz's ravens?</span></li></ul><div><a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/__w-4JLjnTj0/TBhie54EWII/AAAAAAAAAL8/ryBI0ZKFtU8/s1600/raventree.jpg"><img src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/__w-4JLjnTj0/TBhie54EWII/AAAAAAAAAL8/ryBI0ZKFtU8/s400/raventree.jpg" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5483240829395163266" style="display: block; margin-top: 0px; margin-right: auto; margin-bottom: 10px; margin-left: auto; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 362px; height: 400px; " /></a></div></div></div><div style="text-align: center;"><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">Hint: There is no hint! Ravens are cryptic! Duh! Read the upcoming post!</span></i></div><div style="text-align: center;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;"><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"></span></i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">At Maganrord, we're geared up to report on babies of every type. It's not just ravens and gulls. It's sparrows, egrets, herons, a certain falcon, a certain goose, and it's a certain theatrical hunger display that we've come to call </span><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">The Dinosaur Dance</span></i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">! Yay!</span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">And there will be videos, videos, videos!</span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><br /></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">Thanks to you, our readership for tolerating a slow posting schedule of late. We fully intend to make it up to you in the coming days.</span></div></div>Sweep Commanderhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10624059547111674301noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2323676698397506828.post-20074020400363609082010-06-07T23:10:00.001-07:002010-06-08T14:01:08.642-07:00Juvenile raven found but strange question remains...<div><br /></div><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/__w-4JLjnTj0/TA6iz96pYII/AAAAAAAAALc/i1SStgA23yg/s1600/ravensoar.jpg"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 400px; height: 179px;" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/__w-4JLjnTj0/TA6iz96pYII/AAAAAAAAALc/i1SStgA23yg/s400/ravensoar.jpg" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5480496810234044546" /></a><div style="text-align: left;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#0000EE;"><u><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#000000;"><br /></span></u></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">To rehash, our raven pair bred this year but only one juvenile left the nest alive. </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><a href="http://maganrord.blogspot.com/2010/05/oh-bloody-murder.html">After a brush with death, it was on the road to fledging</a>, but t</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">hen it </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><a href="http://maganrord.blogspot.com/2010/06/juvenile-raven-vanishes-breeding.html">disappeared</a></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">. </span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><br /></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">BourbonHawk pointed out that the juvenile could no longer be easily told from an adult and that it was therefore a possibility that the young raven could be hiding in plain sight.</span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><br /></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">BH also noticed something strange in the video we took of one of our ravens consuming a gull chick:</span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><object width="640" height="385"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/iqBE31oTGnc&color1=0xb1b1b1&color2=0xd0d0d0&hl=en_US&feature=player_embedded&fs=1"><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"><param name="allowScriptAccess" value="always"><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/iqBE31oTGnc&color1=0xb1b1b1&color2=0xd0d0d0&hl=en_US&feature=player_embedded&fs=1" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowfullscreen="true" allowscriptaccess="always" width="640" height="385"></embed></object></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><br /></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">This raven has white spots here and there, like a juvenile would. Still, it's consuming a downy prey item, and the scattered fuzzy white debris could be sticking to the raven's feathers, deceiving us.</span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><br /></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">I began to suspect that the junior raven was dead.</span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><br /></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">Ravens stay with their parents for six months before departing. Obviously this juvenile didn't hatch in the middle of winter, so it didn't leave voluntarily. It was either dead or still alive and with us on Alcatraz.</span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><br /></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">While no remains were found, the two ravens we did observe were spending their days gathering nesting materials. If they still had a young one to provide for and protect, they wouldn't have focused on keeping house.</span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><br /></span></div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:large;">So, we had a mystery to solve:</span></b></span><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><br /></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">In retrospect, this one was pretty easy.</span><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><br /></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">On Sunday, BourbonHawk and I had the pleasure of exploring the island for the quiet hour between Alcatraz day tours and our acclaimed night program. We had the island to ourselves. There were no visitors and our comrades were hunkered down in our break room facilities enjoying their dinners or standing on the dock while they smoked and chatted.</span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><br /></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">We were on a mission to use this time to examine any raven we find for clues in form, plumage or behavior that might expose it as the missing juvenile. </span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><br /></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">The moment we stepped outside, we saw this guy: </span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><br /></span></div><div><a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/__w-4JLjnTj0/TA303IprgKI/AAAAAAAAALM/8fOKYmHJlJk/s1600/017.JPG"><img src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/__w-4JLjnTj0/TA303IprgKI/AAAAAAAAALM/8fOKYmHJlJk/s320/017.JPG" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5480305549632045218" style="display: block; margin-top: 0px; margin-right: auto; margin-bottom: 10px; margin-left: auto; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 320px; height: 240px; " /></a></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><br /></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">This one had an adult appearance and our breeding pair often hangs out in front of the cell house during our in-between-hour, so we didn't think much of it. </span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><br /></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">Then, it began to vocalize. The first couple of calls sounded normal enough, but soon it veered badly away from our breeding pair's established lexicon:</span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><object style="background-image:url(http://i4.ytimg.com/vi/w32g0Yx64dA/hqdefault.jpg)" width="425" height="344"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/w32g0Yx64dA&hl=en_US&fs=1"><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/w32g0Yx64dA&hl=en_US&fs=1" width="425" height="344" allowscriptaccess="never" allowfullscreen="true" wmode="transparent" type="application/x-shockwave-flash"></embed></object></span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">We're very conscious of the high variability in raven vocalizations but these hoarsely whispered parodies of familiar vocalizations were unexpected. We immediately suspected that it was the missing juvenile.</span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">It flew towards the gardens on Officer's Row, and I observed it there, apparently calling for mom and dad:</span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><object style="background-image:url(http://i3.ytimg.com/vi/fYa8OEh9HMk/hqdefault.jpg)" width="425" height="344"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/fYa8OEh9HMk&hl=en_US&fs=1"><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/fYa8OEh9HMk&hl=en_US&fs=1" width="425" height="344" allowscriptaccess="never" allowfullscreen="true" wmode="transparent" type="application/x-shockwave-flash"></embed></object></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">It dug a few holes, carried a stick around, and then, as if to say "here you go!", the adult male swooped in and threw a few chunks of white bread in front of his little one. The juvenile ate a bit, and then cached small bits of bread around the garden:</span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><object style="background-image:url(http://i2.ytimg.com/vi/Yn_rc2goZds/hqdefault.jpg)" width="425" height="344"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/Yn_rc2goZds&hl=en_US&fs=1"><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/Yn_rc2goZds&hl=en_US&fs=1" width="425" height="344" allowscriptaccess="never" allowfullscreen="true" wmode="transparent" type="application/x-shockwave-flash"></embed></object></span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">Our ravens are known to have food caches in some of the island's cypress trees but as far as I know, no one has yet observed ravens burying food in the gardens.</span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">At around 1:10 of the following video, the juvenile falls in the dirt in front of its father and begins what I'm assuming is some type of begging behavior. For anyone interested in raven social behavior, it's an interesting display:</span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><object style="background-image:url(http://i4.ytimg.com/vi/sV5RJJmAqVM/hqdefault.jpg)" width="425" height="344"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/sV5RJJmAqVM&hl=en_US&fs=1"><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/sV5RJJmAqVM&hl=en_US&fs=1" width="425" height="344" allowscriptaccess="never" allowfullscreen="true" wmode="transparent" type="application/x-shockwave-flash"></embed></object></div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:large;"><b>Dining on a gull chick, revisited:</b></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:large;"><b><br /></b></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">After we had confirmed to our satisfaction that our juvenile raven was still with us, I decided to go back again to <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iqBE31oTGnc">the video</a> that BourbonHawk had earlier pegged as possible evidence that this was the case.</span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">Beginning at around 15 seconds in, sticking out of the raven's white wing, is the hollow shaft of a feather and it's white as a bone. </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">Subtly lighter-than-black neck feathers are apparent throughout the video as well, also indicating a juvenile.</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"> These are the well known field markings of juvenile ravens.</span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">Good eye, BourbonHawk. Our juvenile raven ate a gull chick.</span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:large;"><b>One mystery behind us, but...</b></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:large;"><b><br /></b></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">We're still missing a raven.</span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">Where is it?</span></div></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">Is the failure to observe three ravens at once just a matter of bad luck? It's been quite some time now since we've witnessed what should be a very common occurrence.</span></div>Sweep Commanderhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10624059547111674301noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2323676698397506828.post-49663789176121101772010-06-06T23:32:00.000-07:002010-06-06T23:57:02.453-07:00Mystery solved...<div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><br /></span></div><a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/__w-4JLjnTj0/TAyTbmIXehI/AAAAAAAAALE/nNLYM5850RQ/s1600/011.JPG"><img src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/__w-4JLjnTj0/TAyTbmIXehI/AAAAAAAAALE/nNLYM5850RQ/s320/011.JPG" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5479916948904442386" style="display: block; margin-top: 0px; margin-right: auto; margin-bottom: 10px; margin-left: auto; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 320px; height: 240px; " /></a><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><br /></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">We believe we've discovered the fate of the island's young raven, though our findings have birthed to us a strange new mystery to consider.</span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><br /></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">I'll compose a post on the subject tomorrow, and since it'll probably take me all night to do it, check back with us on Tuesday to get the latest.</span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><br /></span></div><div><br /></div>Sweep Commanderhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10624059547111674301noreply@blogger.com0