Showing posts with label pigeon guillemot. Show all posts
Showing posts with label pigeon guillemot. Show all posts
Friday, April 16, 2010
Odds, ends... (WE'RE BACK!)
Our snowy egrets have nests and they've laid eggs.
Canada goslings have hatched! While we're thrilled to behold these little balls of pure cuteness, there's really more tragedy to be had here than anything else. Canada goslings are a very popular food item on Alcatraz and the large, lumbering geese do not effectively protect their young from predation at the beaks of opportunistic gulls and ravens.
Cute while they last
A dead adult goose was found resting atop the rocky cliffs on the west side of the island.
Although we haven't seen them, the rangers tell us that there are now ducklings on the island! We'll be keeping our eyes peeled and our cameras ready.
We've been seeing many pigeon guillemots. The habits of these birds are beyond cryptic and are best left for educated experts to interpret, especially insofar as we go long stretches of time without seeing one, and then all of a sudden, wow, there's a hundred guillemots.
Arguably, the big news on the island is that the park's natural resources arm has elected to destroy most of the intricate stick nesting structures belonging to our pair of common ravens. Last Friday, the deed was done.
The only nesting structure left unharmed had freshly laid ravens' eggs inside. These eggs are soon to be oiled, a process that will prevent them from hatching.
The park service does this to benefit the other birds on the island. The ravens are deadly predators and doubly so when they have three or four extra mouths to feed. The folks at natural resources reason that taking these steps will allow a few extra black crowned night heron fledglings to survive into adulthood.
Though we're admitted amateurs, we intend to examine the raven management policies in the coming days.
These American crows had been inseparable, but recently we've been seeing just one.
Perhaps the other is incubating.
More soon to come.
Labels:
american crow,
canada goose,
common ravens,
mallard,
pigeon guillemot,
snowy egret
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Friday, January 29, 2010
Island's western gull males remind desirious females that Valentine's Day is a ways off
Thinking I might have the opportunity to document some early mating, I recorded this female, the smaller gull on the left, trying to entice her male. She positioned herself with her back to her partner and began the upward movement of the head seen in the video, along with the vocalization that accompanies it.This is how one western gull tells another that he or she wants food or sex.
However, just as I hit the record button, the male gull violently denied her, giving her instead a stern bite to the neck. This occurs in the video's opening moment.
We observed similar interactions among other western gull pairs, albeit without the violence.
Odds and ends
- Canada geese have arrived on Alcatraz. We can't be everywhere on the island at once, but our sense now that we're hosting around eight or so. The canada goose is divided into several subspecies and one of the next items on our amateur bird detective agenda is to find out what subspecies our geese belong to.
- The pigeon guillemots have also returned, seemingly going from invisible and absent to ubiquitous and loud in about a week.
- Brown pelicans now fly over the island with regularity. As recently as a year ago, pelicans not sick or injured avoided Alcatraz as if it were the center of evil and dishonor in the bird universe. While this isn't exactly a sensational observation, it's no less baffling for that. What has changed?
- Numerous brandt's cormorants have been seen on Alcatraz and in the waters around it. We can't wait to see if they return to breed.
- The common raven pair has been far less visible over the last week or two.
- The falcon had a bloody adventure recently. Stay tuned to MAGANRORD for BourbonHawk's upcoming post. Here's a little taste:
I wonder what she has there.
Friday, January 22, 2010
Looking toward the months ahead
This past week has been rainy and miserable out on the island and nearly entirely lacking in good bird activity. The weather is supposed to be like this for several days to come so in lieu of anything current, I thought I'd post a few pictures from last summer. After all, it's almost nesting season, and there will be nearly an entirely different host of players for the spring and summer.
These can serve to whet your appetites a bit for what we've got coming in just a couple of months.
Piegeon Guillemot
Fledgling Raven
Snowy Egret
Western Gull with Chicks
Two-Day Old Western Gull Chicks
Labels:
Alcatraz bird census,
breeding,
gallery,
gull,
nesting,
pigeon guillemot,
raven,
seasonal resident
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