Eggs and Chicks!!

By this time in the breeding season, most of the 12 species of seabirds nesting here on the Farallones have eggs or chicks. Below are some photos of adults, eggs and chicks taken on the Farallones. (There is plenty of debate over which species has the cutest chick. You can cast your vote by leaving a comment)
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Rhinoceros Auklet:












Common Murre:















Black Oystercatcher:









Brandt's Cormorant:












Cassin's Auklet:

Ashy Storm-petrel:

Pigeon Guillemot:

Western Gull:

What exactly is a Rhino-Cam?

"Rhino-Cam" is a video camera head attached to a 3-meter long stiff rubber cable, which plugs into a battery pack worn about the waist. Another cord comes out of the battery pack and connects to a visor with goggles which, when worn on the head, show a clear black-and-white image of anything the camera is pointed at.

Biologist Russ Bradley, ready to "Cam-it!"

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Every five days we push the camera head of this expensive piece of field equipment through long, windy dirt tunnels made by nesting Rhinoceros Auklets. With the camera, we are able to collect data on egg laying, chick hatching, and chick growth. Because we do not handle or touch the birds in any way, the camera method of monitoring nesting behavior is less obtrusive. It also provides valuable information on the timing differences between birds that lay eggs and hatch chicks in natural sites versus birds that use man made "nest boxes.".

Caroline Poli scopes out a burrow (above).

Rhinoceros Auklet (below left). View of auklet as seen in the burrow-cam (below right).

In theory, it’s very easy to just thread the camera down a burrow, see an image in the visor of an auklet on its egg, and back the camera out in the direction it came. In reality, Rhino-Cam is a sweaty, dirty business where only patience and just the right flip of the cord produces success. Burrows frequently have numerous branching tunnels, turn too sharply for the camera to follow or have a hump near the back that the camera can’t jump. Once the camera has been pushed, twisted and turned through the burrow until it "sees" a Rhino sitting on an egg or hits the very last empty chamber, it must come out again. (It is rumored that certain supervisors have gotten the camera stuck in a particularly long burrow for 45 minutes or more)
While operating the camera can be frustrating, it is extremely rewarding to locate a breeding auklet at the end of a tunnel. Sometimes the birds just glare at you, but other times they bite the camera. Arboreal Salamanders, Cave Crickets, Burrowing Owl and very young Western Gull chicks also frequent the burrows. When you turn the camera on, you can never be sure exactly what you will come face to face with.

A cartoon by 2006 Rhino-Cam operator Meghan Riley. (actual burrow shown)

The Observation Blind: A Farallon Biologist’s Home Away From Home

Here on Southeast Farallon Island, we have several blinds from which we can observe and monitor the breeding activities of various species. These small buildings allow us to observe the Farallon wildlife, conduct studies, and collect data without causing any disturbance to the birds. They hide us from the birds and shelter us from the weather (somewhat anyway). They also provide spectacular panoramas as well as the opportunity to get close up views of some very interesting animals. Come along for a tour of these blinds and have a peek out of their windows to see what’s going on out here during the seabird breeding season.

The Murre Blind
The Murre blind sits above Shubrick Point on the northeastern side of the island. Located 120 feet above the crashing surf, the blind is constantly buffeted by strong northwesterly winds and is often a very cold and windy place to work. During mid-summer, while most people are doning their shorts and tee shirts the biologists working in the Murre Blind are reaching for their long underwear, hats, gloves, and extra layers of fleece. The birds however prefer these conditions and this blind provides an excellent vantage point from which we are able to observe the breeding activities of approximately 15,000 Common Murres.

Our main study plot on Upper Shubrick Point contains about 300 breeding pairs of Murres. Many of these birds have been fitted with unique color band combinations so that individuals can be followed throughout their lives. This information allows biologists to study survival of individuals over time, determine site and mate fidelity from year to year, understand the roles each sex plays in rearing the chick, and determine chick feeding rates among other things. Farallon biologists will typically spend 4 to 6 hours a day observing this plot to determine breeding success and diet of murres.
View from the window of the Murre Blind looking out over Shubrick Point at the murre colony.

The Cormorant Blind

Located on the west side of the island and perched atop the narrow ridge of Corm Blind Hill, this blind is primarily used for the study of ....yup, you guessed it, cormorants. Several studies require researchers to spend considerable amounts of time here monitoring Brandt’s and Pelagic Cormorants as well as a modest colony of approximately 800 Common Murres. Much like the Murres in the Upper Shubrick study plot, many of the Brandt’s Cormorants have been banded so that we can monitor the breeding success and survival of individuals over many years. However, since these birds are banded as chicks, it is possible to obtain information on survivorship and the role that the age of a bird plays in its reproductive efforts and success.

View from the window of the Corm Blind - looking down on a colony of Brandt's cormorants

Sea Lion Cove Blind
Leaving the Corm Blind and heading northward on the island we arrive at the brand new Sea Lion Cove Blind. Equal parts form and function, this blind is entirely clad in copper and is the culmination of a unique partnership between PRBO, USFWS, and Meadowsweet Dairy, a group of local artists who specialize in creating wildlife habitat through art. Once again, Brandt’s Cormorants are the main attraction at this spot located just across Seal Lion Cove from the Corm Blind. This blind is unique, not only for its appearance but for the fact that it also creates breeding habitat by providing ledges for Murres and shielding both Murres and Corms from our daily activities allowing them to colonize new areas.

An added benefit to the location of this blind is that it affords excellent photo opportunities such as this picture of two Brandt's cormorants displaying over a few scraps of nesting material. They are competing to attract a mate by fluttering their wings and showing off their bright blue throat.

These blinds provide us with the opportunity to get close enough to the breeding seabirds to observe their behavior and collect data about their reproduction, diet, and survival while also hiding us from view and protecting the seabirds from disturbance. During the summer months, we probably spend as much or more time in these blinds as we do living in the houses on the island and that is why we think of them as our home away from home.

Return of the Cassin's Auklets

If I asked you to name a sure sign that spring had arrived, egg laying by a krill eating seabird that nests underground likely wouldn't be your first choice. But on the Farallones, Cassin's Auklets mark the beginning of a wave of breeding at the largest seabird colony in the contiguous United States.

These diving birds are Alcids, related to Murres and Puffins, and while they can fly in the air, they are much more graceful "flying underwater" by pumping their wings in pursuit of their favorite prey: krill. The past 2 years were not good ones for Cassin's Auklets, they failed in breeding in both 2005 and 2006 - unprecedented in our over 35 years of continuous research on Farallon seabirds. While these birds normally lay eggs in underground burrows they dig with their feet- we follow their breeding activities in nest boxes which act as artificial burrows. Here we are checking some boxes for nesting auklets.

It seems that major changes in upwelling and ocean currents in the last 2 years meant very little krill available at the right time for breeding auklets. Fewer bred, later in the year, and most abandoned their eggs. But so far for 2007, there is good news! We are seeing auklets breeding in good numbers and incubating their eggs.

This year auklets are breeding in the majority of our study boxes. For the most part, both parents are regularly incubating - which was not the case last year. We have also noticed that birds appear to be heavier, and therefore in better condition, this year than the last 2 years. Here is a picture of an auklet being weighed by intern Caroline Poli. We hope that the return to a "normal spring", with many breeding Cassin's Auklets will signal the beginning of a productive seabird season. As krill feeders lower on the food chain than other seabird species, these birds often act as a "early warning system" for the ocean conditions we are likely to see this summer. So far things look good and once again nights on the Farallones are filled with the mysterious shrill cries of the auklets - think crickets on steroids. Ahh.. spring has sprung....

March Madness!

When most people hear the term March Madness, they automatically think of a popular college basketball tournament and start laying wagers on which teams will reach the Final Four or win the championship. On the Farallones however, March is a time of maintenance madness and the only wagers are over when the first eggs will get laid.

Though we only have a few buildings and five people, the Farallon field station is effectively a self contained city with our own Department of Water and Power (the solar array and water catchment systems), Department of Transportation (boats and cranes), Department of Public Works (trail and blind maintenance) and of course Department of Housing and Urban Development (human houses and auklet boxes). There is a lot of work required to keep things functioning properly and to make it a comfortable place for the biologists to live and work. Boat motors must be serviced, cranes inspected, water heaters repaired, houses maintained, and nest boxes constructed. Every person who works on the island becomes an amateur mechanic, plumber, painter, electrician, drywaller, mason, and carpenter in addition to our regular careers as biologists.

The buildings we live in were originally constructed in the 1870’s to provide housing for the lighthouse keepers and their families. Though still structurally as sound as they day they were built, they require periodic work to keep them in good shape and to repair the damage caused during winter storms.

This year the major projects have been repairing water damage to the walls, repainting some of the bedrooms, and upgrading the electrical systems by installing grounded outlets and new energy efficient lighting.

But it’s not just our housing that needs upkeep. Cassin’s Auklets, Rhinoceros Auklets, and Pigeon Guillemots routinely breed in wooden nest boxes placed around the island. These boxes provide important habitat and aid our ability to study and monitor the birds. Of course, they eventually succumb to the forces of entropy (moisture, rockfalls, or the weight of an elephant seal to name a few) and must be replaced. The birds themselves also spend some of their time refurbishing their homes, cleaning out burrows, and building nests.

As the seabird breeding cranks up over the next few weeks, we will have less time to accomplish these tasks so March becomes a mad dash to get everything completed, repaired, or replaced before the first eggs get laid.

Changing Seasons

March is a period of transition on the Farallones. The typical southwesterly winds which bring in those impressive winter storms gradually shift around to the north, often blowing with a vengeance and driving the process of upwelling that makes the Gulf of the Farallones one of the most productive areas in the world. This change in the weather coincides with dramatic changes in the wildlife dominating the island. The elephant seal breeding season has come to a close. The last pups have weaned from their mothers and the cows and bulls have finally returned to the water after spending the last several months on land. There they will spend most of their time feeding and recuperating from the trials of the breeding season, regaining their energy reserves and putting on a nice thick layer of blubber.

March is also the time when the seabirds return to take over the island and set up for their own breeding efforts. Experienced birds will return to their former breeding territories, court mates, and begin nest building while younger birds will come back for the first time to try to fight for a spot of their own.

These changes of course also trigger a period of transition for the small human population on the island. On March 10th, the winter elephant seal research crew departed the island to be replaced by the seabird crew. Over the next six months we will dedicate ourselves to studying the population trends, survival, diet, and reproductive success of the 12 species of seabirds which call these rocky islands home. Western Gulls, Common Murres and Brandt’s Cormorants cover the surface of the island during the summer months.

Cassin’s Auklets, Rhinoceros Auklets, Pigeon Guillemots, Tufted Puffins, Ashy and Leach’s Storm-petrels rule the underworld. They make their nests underground in dirt burrows or rocky crevices. Pelagic Cormorants dot the cliff sides with their nests while Double-crested Cormorants prefer to stick together in one small colony on the very top of a particular hill called Maintop. Black Oystercatchers, our only breeding shorebird, fill the remaining space around the perimeter of the island.

More than a quarter million seabirds breed on the Farallones each year, including the world’s largest breeding colony of Western Gulls with almost 20,000 birds, and the largest colony of Common Murres in California with more than 210,000 birds last year!

Biologists from PRBO have been conducting research on the Farallones since 1967. The long-term datasets that we have compiled on seabird populations, reproductive success, phenology (timing of reproductive events such as egg laying) and diet has revealed some dramatic changes over the last 40 years and has allowed us to use seabirds to learn about both natural and human caused changes in the marine environment.

Underwater World

The past few days have been unseasonably calm in the Gulf of the Farallones, with almost no swell and a slight breeze, so we decided to take the opportunity to do some snorkeling around the island. Seeing the watery world beneath the surface of the sea reminded us of why the Farallon Islands are so biologically important. The Farallones are perched on the edge of the continental shelf, where cold waters upwelling from the deep ocean bring nutrients that support a remarkable web of life, from plants, plankton, and fish to seabirds, seals, sharks, and whales.

Near East Landing, Dungeness crabs munched on iridescent maroon kelp. Schools of larval fish swarmed among rose-colored coralina against a backdrop of bright orange sponges. Here and there a greenling or a China cod darted into the safety of a sea cave. In Fisherman’s Bay, we saw green anemone as big as a human head, abalone the size of hubcaps, and a wide variety of colorful sea stars, from giant pisasters to bat stars, and a spectacular purple sunflower star. Occasionally a harbor seal would swim over to investigate us – a welcome change from their wariness of humans on land. Typically we have to stay hidden from the seals so we don’t scare them into the water, but underwater they are in their element.

A healthy ocean ecosystem offers so much to humans, from providing food to absorbing carbon dioxide, and is critical to our survival as a species. It is easy to forget that 80% of the world exists beneath the sea surface and is vulnerable to harm if we fail to protect it. Future generations will thank us for our foresight in conserving the biological resources of the Gulf of the Farallones.

Weanerville

As the month of February comes to a close, the winds are howling, massive waves are crashing against the beach, rain and hail pound the Farallones, and the thermometer has dropped to 8 degrees Celsius. But the chilly weather is no problem for an elephant seal weaner, wrapped in its thick layer of blubber. Some of the heftier pups are made up of 50 percent fat just after weaning, “much like the consistency of a fine camembert” as noted by one biologist with a sense of humor. Elephant seals are built to withstand extremely cold conditions deep below the surface of the sea, and in fact it is the warm rather than cold weather that makes them uncomfortable.

Most of the cows on SEFI have finished nursing their pups, mated with the harem bull, navigated through the minefield of additional adult males hoping for a chance to mate, and headed back out to sea to eat for the first time in over a month, leaving their pups to fend for themselves. The beaches and gulches of the Farallones have been turned over to the elephant seal weaners. The 2007 crop of over 100 weaners is scattered all over the marine terrace, Sand Flat, Mirounga Beach, and West End. They far outnumber the handful of cows still nursing their pups – only 11 left as of February 27 – and the 20 or so males still relentlessly fighting for the few remaining females. These males include Don Francisco and Bob Bond, who still reign over the Sand Flat and Mirounga Beach, respectively, and Bedlam Boy, Brendan, Salvatore, DMX, Frazier, Caramba, Gimli, Rumpelstiltskin, Jiggy, Humpback, and a few others still hanging around the periphery of the harems.

The weaners will stay on land for about a month after their mothers leave, to molt their lanugo (pup hair), splash in the puddles, play-fight with each other, sleep hard, and provide a constant source of entertainment for delighted biologists. When they are ready, they will enter the sea for the first time. On their very first dive, the weaners will swim deeper than most adults of other pinniped species. After gaining hunting experience, they will begin to conduct long, biannual migrations of thousands of miles to catch and eat cephalopods and fish in the deep ocean waters.

A rocky laboratory of ecosystem science

from the

FARALLON ISLANDS: Researchers study how warmer waters impact marine life habits

Peter Fimrite, Chronicle Staff Writer

Monday, February 19, 2007

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The whale-watching boat Superfish drifted up and down with the surging waves that crashed over the rocky shore of the Farallon Islands, an ancient archipelago 27 miles off San Francisco's coast.

Derek Lee, a 35-year-old biologist who has spent the past five winters on the islands, puttered up in a small motorized raft the other day, tied up to the side of the boat and grabbed baggage handed down from the vessel.

Lee's little raft is the only way for people to get onto Southeast Farallon Island in this 211-acre chain of craggy rocks that is part of the Farallon National Wildlife Refuge. Storms and rough waters have consistently destroyed all landing docks that were built, so Lee has to ferry passengers over to a diesel-fueled crane that lifts them on, or off, the island.

It can be rough going for the small band of biologists who live in a 120-year-old Victorian house on the cold, weather-beaten rocks. But this isolated outcropping jutting out of the often stormy sea is where some of the world's most important marine wildlife research is now taking place.

"It definitely is a laboratory of ecosystem science," said Lee, a specialist in species demography for the Point Reyes Bird Observatory, now called PRBO Conservation Science. "Absolutely we are reaping a huge harvest of information about the ecosystem and about the Pacific Ocean, which is the single largest factor in global climate after the sun."

The studies on marine mammals, birds and the ocean ecosystem at the Farallon Islands are as important as any research going on anywhere in the world, especially given the recent findings of the United Nations' Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, which predicts lasting ecological impacts from an ocean that is heating up and rising fast.

Data from Farallones researchers are already showing how changing ocean climate conditions are devastating the Cassin's auklet, a small North American seabird that feeds on krill. Lee said the species' population has declined about 80 percent over the past three decades, and disaster has struck in the past two years.

"The species has had an absolute and complete breeding failure," he said. "Not a single egg has hatched for the last two years. That's unprecedented in the last 35 years of our data."

Studies on the islands are showing that the reproductive and dietary habits of other seabirds are also changing with ocean temperatures.

Lee's team established a connection between El Niño weather conditions and the migration of California sea lions from their usual home on the Channel Islands to the Farallones. Climate also has a mysterious effect on marine mammal reproduction, he said.

"We just started analyzing the elephant seal population and how climate affects how many males and females are born," Lee said. "We've determined that El Niño causes more males to be born. We don't know why, but we are trying to figure it out."

Even during these changing times, the archipelago and the water surrounding it are teeming with life, including five species of seals and sea lions, 13 species of seabirds and one of the largest concentrations of great white sharks in the world. Dolphins, humpback whales and blue whales are regular visitors, and fur and elephant seals are beginning to thrive on the islands after being absent for nearly two centuries.

The common murre is also making a big comeback after egg collectors nearly wiped them out a century ago. A pod of killer whales from Washington state was recently spotted near the Farallones, and a prominent computer scientist and his sailboat vanished, adding a touch of mystery to the place.

All of which contributes to a bounty of information about the health of what researchers call the California Current, the band of coastal water from Baja California to British Columbia that flows past the islands. In fact, this forlorn-looking collection of rock is one of the richest marine environments on the globe, thanks to its proximity to the continental shelf, which provides deep upwellings of cold, nutrient-rich water.

"The ocean provides a huge portion of the protein humans eat, and the California current is a big part of that productivity," Lee said. "We're talking about the food on our plate and how global climate change may affect that. The ecosystem knowledge that we provide from this natural laboratory definitely has fisheries management implications."

The current status of the Farallones as a weathervane for global climate change represents a historic new era for a place that 19th century sailors dubbed "the devil's teeth." For hundreds of years, the archipelago was used to harvest food, not information.

American Indians called these rocks the "Islands of the Dead," an earthly hell where bad spirits lived, according to historians. The Portuguese explorer Juan Rodriguez Cabrillo was said to be the first European to see them in 1542, but he never went ashore. Sir Francis Drake was the first to do that, gathering seabird eggs and killing sea lions for meat in 1579, after his five-week stay on the Point Reyes peninsula. The islands were a source of food for passing seafarers and egg hunters for the next three centuries.

Drake named the archipelago the Islands of St. James. Although the name didn't stick, one tiny island six miles north is still called the Isle of St. James.

In 1769, the explorer Juan Francisco de la Bodega renamed the islands Los Farallones de los Frailes, in honor of the Franciscan friars who were busy at the time enslaving California's natives. The islands fared better than the Indians until 1810, when a New England vessel called the O'Kain arrived with four sealing boats.

During the next 22 months, between 75,000 and 150,000 Northern fur seals and Northern elephant seals were slaughtered, their pelts sold as far away as China. When the New Englanders left, Russians from Fort Ross moved in, using Aleuts and Pomo Indians to help collect bird down, eggs, sea lions, fur seals and otters, according to various accounts.

By the time the Russians left in 1841, fur seals and elephant seals had been wiped out on the California coast, including the Farallones.

The common murre was the next victim of human gluttony. A shortage of eggs in San Francisco during the Gold Rush prompted entrepreneurs to begin collecting murre eggs on the islands. The eggs reportedly sold for $1.75 a dozen, prompting the formation of the Farallon Egg Co. and later the Pacific Egg Co.

The business was so profitable that rival gangs of eggers were formed and pirates began to ply the waters, hijacking egging vessels. A gunbattle reportedly broke out on the islands between rival eggers in 1863, leaving one man dead.

One tactic of the egg collectors, according to historians, was to break all the existing eggs, forcing the birds to lay new ones, ensuring fresh eggs for the trip back to the mainland.

As many as 600,000 eggs were taken annually from the islands. In all, an estimated 14 million eggs were removed from nests before the California Academy of Sciences and the American Ornithological Union halted commercial egg collecting some 40 years after it began. By 1900, the Farallon murre population, which was once well over a half million, had been reduced to only a few thousand.

By 1909, the North and Middle Farallon Islands had been declared a national wildlife refuge, but that wasn't the end of the trouble. Human habitation on the southeast island, which began with a lighthouse in 1855, meant the introduction of non-native animals like rabbits, mules, cats, turkeys, goats, chickens, house mice and children.

The invaders trampled nests and preyed on wildlife; ships regularly pumped out their bilges near the Farallones before entering San Francisco Bay.

The government, at various times, considered building military air strips, a harbor, a prison and a gas station for passing oil tankers on the islands. During World War II, more than 70 people lived in some 20 homes on the southeast island, which the residents referred to as Farallon City. There were movie nights, dances and even an island newspaper.

In 1969, South Farallon was declared a national wildlife refuge. The lighthouse was automated in 1972, ending 117 years of continuous occupation. The last rabbit and cat were removed from the islands in 1974. Mice, however, still scurry around the two houses.

The government established the Gulf of the Farallones National Marine Sanctuary in 1981, protecting the surrounding waters. Elephant seals returned to the islands to breed for the first time in 1972. In 1996, the first Northern fur seal pup was born on the islands, ending an absence of more than 150 years.

Monica Bond, a volunteer biologist, climbed from the Superfish into Lee's skiff. She would spend the next five weeks on the island monitoring elephant and fur seals.

The 36-year-old biologist, who has had two previous stints on the archipelago, said elephant seals have the longest migration and can dive deeper than any other mammal. The females have the richest milk, she said.

"Now's the time to study them," she said. "The females are giving birth and will be sexually receptive after a few weeks of nursing. The males are fighting."

In early January, the last time she was on the island, Nero, the alpha elephant seal, was killed in a fearsome battle with another bull named Don Francisco, throwing the seal hierarchy into chaos. She said fur seals are even more aggressive toward people than their bigger cousins.

"The reappearance of fur seals will definitely change how we do business out here, because they are so aggressive," said Bond, the only Farallon worker since seal hunters left the islands to contract "seal finger," a rare bacteria that infects the digits of people who handle the pinnipeds. "We stay really far away from them."

The work is done amid constant noise and bombardment from the 300,000 seabirds flying overhead, prompting some biologists to wear ear plugs and hardhats. Bond said elephant seals make a metallic drumming sound at night, while the endangered stellar sea lions growl like bears, a combined cacophony that can make sleep difficult.

"I love it," Lee said after another long day counting and monitoring animals. "It's a living spectacle of nature every day."

E-mail Peter Fimrite at pfimrite@sfchronicle.com.

This article appeared on page B - 1 of the San Francisco Chronicle

Don Francisco defeats BobBond

Click here or on the picture for a video of the battle.

A huge battle today established Don Francisco as the ultimate alpha male elephant seal of Southeast Farallon Island. Don defeated BobBond on Mirounga Beach and he has now beat every male on the island.