Peregrines

31 August

  Peregrines are regulars on the Farallones, both residents and migrants.  They eat whatever birds they can catch, including stuff that we want to see--great photos were taken last year of an Acorn Woodpecker (a rare bird here!) in the talons of a Peregrine.

Peregrine Falcon below North Chute on the north side of Lighthouse Hill.  "Oh look, an ape."

Sometimes Peregrines go after Tufted Puffins--a very difficult target.  We almost never find Puffin pieces that show signs of Peregrine depredation.  This puffin escaped--barely.

eBird checklist for the 31st...26 species...ugh

Ahhh!  We've been surpassed!
SCI:   67
SEFI: 63

"The murre's shrill pipe, the puffin's low bassoon..."

Saturday, 29th August

And now a flashing, jeweled tower crowned

These lofty, time-worn granite locks,

Across the circling waters wide

The ever-coming fleet to guide.

And exiles, lone, a loyal band

(Fate wills for every task a crew be found)

Made their abode on this lonely strand,

Alone 'mid jagged, towering rocks,

Wild haunts of screaming sea-bird flocks,

Beside bold seas of restless mood,

In bleak, sea-island solitude.

-Milton S. Ray, Farallon Light, 1855

  SEFI is home to many breeding birds:  Western Gulls are abundant and are joined by a handful of California Gulls which attempt to breed each year (nearly always failing due to Western Gull hostility, hunger, and heinousness). They are joined by Canada Geese (weird), Black Oystercatchers, Brandt's, Pelagic, and Double-crested Cormorants, Common Murres, Pigeon Guillemots, Cassin's and Rhinoceros Auklets, Tufted Puffins, and Ashy and Leach's Storm-Petrels. This makes The Farallones one of California's most diverse seabird breeding colonies approached in diversity only by Prince Island off of San Miguel in Santa Barbara County (pictured below as a guest portrait)--and the largest seabird colony in the coterminous United States.  Common Murres and possibly Tufted Puffins have re-colonized Prince Island in recent years--possibly as a result of their protected refuge on the Farallones NWR.  

  Are piping Murres and bassooning Puffins coming to an island near you?  You should certainly hope so.

Prince Island from San Miguel Island during inclement weather in 2013.  Go here if you can.

  It's always a pleasure to see these birds on land, as my views of most of them (save gulls) are normally distant via scope or at sea on a rocking boat, such as in the below (not distant) photographs taken at sea near the island.

  Below is a portrait of one of Milton Ray's 'sea clowns', at sea; will they successfully and permanently re-colonize Prince Island?  With high counts of adults reaching 190-200 birds this year on SEFI, perhaps the answer is yes.

  Here's a Northern Fulmar, several of which have graced us with their tubular presences.  These are seabirds that breed far to the north (British Columbia and Alaska) but visit the rich waters of the Gulf of the Farallones:

The dwindling eBird checklist

SEFI: 63
SCI:   54

Who needs enemies...

   Good evening dear readers--and welcome back to the land of TPAD.

   Rob Rockly has arrived safely on Southeast Farallon Island (hereafter, SEFI) after an uneventful trip under the Golden Gate and a much-better-than-expected sail (forecast 7-9 feet at 8 seconds and 20-30 knot winds...less-than-pleasant).  He is accompanied by the inimitable James "El Jefe" Tietz, Laurel Ann "Boo" Curry, Jonathan "The Shoe" Shore and Coulter "Coltrane" Cook.  They were met on the island by the outgoing seabird crew and will be joined for the first three weeks by Eva "The Pollard" Gruber.

This is a Tufted Puffin.  The first few weeks of the Fall crew are blessed by the constant presence of these wonderful creatures--and the population on SEFI is increasing.  This is objectively good news as no one wants fewer Puffins.  No one.

   Day 0.5 and 1.0 are now over (I'm writing this on day 2.5, don't tell, thanks) and have been busy getting things ordered, organized, and ready for the waves of migrants which are surely in our future. The species list is low but is slowly crawling upwards and onwards--the first land-bird spotted was a Blue-gray Gnatcatcher (not a common bird on the island, ~60th record) followed by Bullock's Oriole and Lark Sparrow.  The slow trickle, God willing, will burst forth into a deluge over the coming weeks.

"I want a mustache."

   WHICH BRINGS US TO: The Battle of 2015.  An unexpected declaration of war was made by various inhabitants of an island to the south.  Emperor Stahl of San Clemente Island sent a carefully worded diplomatic dispatch that read, more or less,

"San Clemente Island will rise to claim the Crown of Fall Migration.  Let the battle begin!"

What does this mean?  It means that the two island crews will tally their respective daily lists and see who comes out on top.  Updates will be posted (along with the usual eBird checklists) on each blog post (Current score: 31:32, SEFI in the lead).

A final note: the posts this year might come out the day after actual events.  It is too difficult (usually) to get posts out at a reasonable hour at the end of a long day.  All of this is done with The Readership's best interests at heart.

I will leave you with further Puffin.  Things could be worse. Much worse.