If you like to read and you’re fortunate enough to stay on the island, this is my advice: don’t bring a book. I’m not necessarily encouraging you to spend your time on activities other than reading. Rather, I say this to encourage you to explore the Farallon Library. The library is distributed between both the
Month: May 2017
Los Farallones
Los Farallones
Eggs, eggs everywhere: Common Murre
The MURREacle of life! The Common Murre (Uria aalge): Since the beginning of the season we have been studying common murres every day. At first we looked for and recorded banded birds in two different plots: Upper Upper: and Shubrick Point: As it is very difficult to read the metal bands from the hides we
Eggs, eggs everywhere: The Gulls
The Western Gull (Larus occidentalis): Everyone who has worked with breeding Western Gulls can say one thing: These birds are loud. At the beginning of the seabird season (March-April) everything was good. We started sighting banded birds. Each bird has a color band and a metal band with a unique 5-digit number. Many birds have
Eggs, eggs everywhere: The Rhinos
The Rhinoceros Auklet (Cerorhinca monocerata): The second seabird study species to lay eggs were the Rhinoceros Auklets. On April 17th Viv found the first egg using the Rhino-Cam. This device is used to monitor natural breeding sites of this species (and to look a bit funky). Four days later, the first eggs were seen inside
Eggs, eggs everywhere: The Cassin's
So… things are starting to get real on the Farallon Islands. Nearly all our seabird study species have started laying their first eggs! First were the Cassin´s Auklets (Ptychoramphus aleuticus): There are 446 regular nest boxes distributed all over the island and 32 nest boxes in a study site called the Habitat Sculpture. These
Sign up for Point Blue News
Stay up-to-date on our science, get our quarterly newsletters directly to your inbox, and don't miss an opportunity to support critical conservation.