Showing posts with label gull. Show all posts
Showing posts with label gull. Show all posts
Sunday, January 31, 2010
The gulls return
click on the image to view it in a larger size
We'll see if they brought their dancing shoes. The gull population is swelling rapidly with courtship and territorial marking behavior now common among them.
Odds, ends
- There are several hundred cormorants in the waters to the west and north-west. Some of them were clearly of the double-crested variety. We saw western grebes and western gulls in their midst, and we're very interested in identifying members of other cormorant species in the mob.
click on the image to view it in a larger size
- Several porpoises were seen surfacing east of the island today.
- Last week, a heermann's gull was spotted on the dock. Though I missed it, I was able to positively identify it because one conservancy employee, thinking the gull was "funny looking", took a cellphone photo.
- For only the second time in two years, I observed a black oystercatcher on Alcatraz. Early last year, I spotted one near the dock. This time, I saw one flying over the bay near the island's east side.
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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