Lots ‘o stuff happened today!
The first of the Cassin’s chicks in the PRBO study fledged today!
I did my laundry today, which is kind of a gamble because you have to hang it up outside to dry, where the gulls might poop on it, but it’s windy enough that it dries pretty quickly.
I also found a new breeding site for the Ashy Storm Petrels today. I did my site search around the helicopter pad (helo pad), pictured below: 
it’s mostly taken over by gulls now. I carried around the boom box playing the call of the Ashy Storm Petrel (ASSP) and listened for them to call back, and once I found one, I marked the rocks surrounding the site with 3 dots of orange spray paint for Jessie to confirm with her flexible neck camera, and it gets documented for future ASSP studies. Here were my tools:
There is electric tape holding the cassette player because a few years ago someone dropped this boom box down either lighthouse hill or a gulch (about 250 feet) and its a little janky now. Occasionally I have to open it up and wiggle the tape around so it works. But today was a success! I found a new site!
I also did the elephant seal watch today, which was productive. The gulls nearby enjoyed using me for target practice. It was harmless, though smelly. I’m starting to warm up to them. Did you know only up to about 1 chick in 3 nests (each nest 1-3 eggs laid) will survive to fledge (on a really good year)?
Here is a Western Gull (WEGU) with its 3 chicks. The carnage that occurs concurrently with the hatching of chicks is kind of sad… most of these chicks will get gobbled up by neighbors, or even their own parents if mom and dad are hungry enough… or have bad memory. As the chicks multiply, so do their carcasses.
Anyway, on a cheery note,
I saw an American Lady today!
The American Lady is native to Marin County, I’m pretty sure. There are no butterflies actually from the Farallon Island, they just wander out here occasinally. I miss seeing flowers, as there are none here. Will someone out there take a picture of neat flower nearby and send that picture to me? I really do miss flowas.
Also, exciting development: We have visitors on the island!
Zach, of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, and his girlfriend Zoe, are staying for the next week to do some work on the island getting rid of the Spinach that grows here (it’s an invasive species that is wreaking havoc on some of the native vegetation, see Eleanor’s post from last year here). They’ve been here before so most of Farallon life is not new for them. Our species population has grown from 5 to 7. They’re staying in the Coast Guard House but we do dinner together, which meant I cooked for 7 tonight (which means I cooked for more than 7, as field biologists tend to eat more than normal people after a day’s work)
So, I made dinner today!
The menu: breaded potatote wedges, asparagus with a secret family sauce, and a pumpkin pie with whipped cream! All of these were first-time creations, so I was pretty pleased that nothing exploded and everything was rather tasty. The pumpkin pie was a little confusing, because I made the pie crust from scratch and fumbled the execution, so there was no actual side crust to the pie, but it did have a bottom! And for some reason the pie kept staying jiggly after it was in the oven for more than the right amount of time at more than the right temperature – the dang recipe didn’t SAY to let it cool to firm, but we eventually figured it out =)
also, here’s a picture of a Tufted Puffin (TUPU) that I took yesterday:
They’re one of the 13 breeding seabirds on the island, but their breeding grounds are really inaccessible and it would cause too much disturbance to a number of species in order to do any hands-on studies with the puffins, so they’re not studied as much.
I didn’t do much yesterday, but since it was such a beautiful day, I could see the entire coastline! I saw the Golden Gate Bridge and Mt. Diablo from the Murre Blind! I think that’s noteworthy. Also, since the weather was so nice, a ton of people came to the island to fish – illegally. There’s not much we can do except to call the violations in and report them, and let enforcement handle the situation back on the mainland, but it’s really frustrating to see so many people coming to a wildlife refuge and recreationally take away a food source that almost the entirety of a species is feeding upon, especially when it’s specifically illegal to fish around the Southeast and North Farallon Islands.
STOP FISHING ROUND HERE PLZ K THANKS!!! The murre chicks are about to hatch and they’re in a lot bigger need of those fish than us stinky humans are.
K I just finished doing the dishes and today’s my shower day so I’m going to go celebrate that.
Love, Kristina