Migratory Bats on the Farallon Islands
September 24, 2015
During the fall, we study many species of animals as they stopover at Southeast Farallon Island to find food and shelter to help them prepare for their migrations. For example, several aquatic migrants stopover at the Farallon Islands to take advantage of the nutrient rich waters, such as white sharks, blue whales, humpback whales, gray whales,
The Value of Dead Birds
September 16, 2015
Many people have come to know Southeast Farallon Island by the vast amount of life that graces its waters, shores and rocky outcroppings. Abundance of life is often the first thing visitors notice when nearing the island. Another feature that many notice is the conspicuous number of dead birds. Indeed, this second observation is quite
Brandt's Cormorant Diet Studies
September 4, 2015
My internship at the Farallones involved many different fascinating studies, but one of my favorite studies were the seabird diets, as they really tie in the oceanographic aspect of marine ornithology. We are lucky to be able to live on this incredible, rugged island surrounded by the Pacific ocean and work with the birds that
Changing of the Guard: Week One of the Fall Season
August 23, 2015
Breeding seabird numbers are declining on Southeast Farallon Island (SEFI) as fledgling cormorants, guillemots, and puffins head to sea to ply their trades. Western Gull chicks are still numerous, but many have fledged and total numbers are slowly decreasing. As seabirds depart, landbird migrants are arriving in greater numbers as we move into peak
Whales galore!
July 15, 2015
As an intern working for Point Blue Conservation Science, I spend the majority of my time focused on the seabirds of the Farallones, but cetaceans are also an important part of the research undertaken here. Over the past two months, I have spent many hours cataloging the numbers of whales and dolphins around the islands.
Reposting an oldie but a goodie – Murre chicks fledging
July 2, 2015
//www.youtube.com/get_player In response to some requests, and considering the time of year – when murre chicks will soon start fledging from the island with their dads, here’s some great fledging video former intern Meghan Riley shot several years back. For more about the amazing event that is murre fledging check out this post from 2007
I feel the need, the need to breed…..
June 6, 2015
After celebrating it’s third year “Ganniversary” on the island – commemorated in the great wooden plaque in our kitchen, our male Northern Gannet has changed it’s behavior radically. Even though this Atlantic bird, the only of it’s kind in the Pacific that likely traveled through an ice free Northwest Passage, can’t find a mate here
Goodbye Elephant Seals, Hello Seabirds!
March 24, 2015
March 11thmarked the end of the 2014-2015 SEFI elephant seal breeding season. Pup -91 was the last to wean. This year we had 93 cows, 67 of which pupped. Of those 67, 42 successfully weaned. When going through our data, we noticed that there was higher pup mortality this winter season. One reason for this
Tristram's Storm-Petrel back on the Farallones!
March 19, 2015
Today our 2 new interns (Sean and Eva) found this fresh storm-petrel carcass (killed by a Burrowing Owl) on our first storm-petrel predation survey of the seabird season. Upon seeing the bird, I did a double take at it’s massive size and knew immediately that this was not one of the Ashy or Leach’s Storm-petrels
Cetacean Watch with Spotter Pro App and ORCAS!
March 11, 2015
Whilst we focus on researching the breeding elephant seals during the winter season, there are many other aspects to our daily data collection. One of which is looking for whales and dolphins from the lighthouse. We try to carry out at least two cetacean surveys a day, although this depends on weather conditions, especially sea
