4-October-2008

October 8, 2008

****FARALLONATHON DAY 6****
Absolutely no new birds arrived on the island, allowing us to delve deeply into the fun-filled world of data entry!!! Even though we were not socked in with fog today, the light westerly winds must have pushed the birds towards the mainland. Although there were no birds to look at today, the White Sharks put on quite a show for us with 3 attacks: 2 off Shubrick and one in Mirounga Bay. All three attacks appeared to be on California Sea Lions because they happened quickly with the carcass and shark disappearing under the water after a just a minute or two, and the blood and gulls dissipated rapidly. At five points a piece, these three shark attacks gave us 15 points for the day and brought our overall total up to118 points.

ebird list below:

Location: Southeast Farallon Island
Observation date: 10/4/08
Number of species: 34

Greater White-fronted Goose 6
Eared Grebe 13
Pink-footed Shearwater 26
Buller’s Shearwater 15
Sooty Shearwater 8
Short-tailed Shearwater 1
Ashy Storm-Petrel X
Brown Pelican 651
Brandt’s Cormorant X
Pelagic Cormorant X
Peregrine Falcon (Continental) 2
Black Oystercatcher X
Wandering Tattler 2
Greater Yellowlegs 1
Whimbrel 3
Black Turnstone 45
Western Sandpiper 1
Least Sandpiper 1
Pectoral Sandpiper 1
Heermann’s Gull 12
Western Gull X
California Gull 129
Pomarine Jaeger 3
Barn Owl 1
Burrowing Owl 1
Black Phoebe 3
Say’s Phoebe 3
House Wren 1
Magnolia Warbler 1
Yellow-rumped Warbler (Myrtle) 1
Palm Warbler (Western) 1
Chipping Sparrow 4
Clay-colored Sparrow 1
Savannah Sparrow 3