Gung ho fat choy (happy new year)

I decided to take my 4 day extended break while my friend Beth was out visiting me from NH. Our first day was rainy, but we did manage to get a short hike in the redwoods in while the rain temporarily stopped. We had big plans for the next day, so a low key day was just fine.

Saturday we got up bright and early, packed lots of snacks, packed a borrowed San Francisco guide, and drove into the city… Our first stop was Baker Beach in the Presidio. There was a sign placed by the path to the beach warning that people had drowned there while both swimming and just wading. I believed it when I saw the size and violence of the waves hitting that beach. At times the noise was so loud that we nearly had to shout to hear each other.



We made our way down the beach, all the while with the Golden Gate Bridge in our sights.



At the end of the beach there were some pilings… and I attempted to climb one and sit on top of it. I just ended up humping it kind of awkwardly and getting a few splinters. I even tried bringing over a piece of driftwood to stand on top of to give me a bit more leverage. I only gave up when that piece of wood nearly fell out from under me and left me dangling in the air. I think if I had my climbing shoes it would have been possible, but my chucks just didn’t quite cut it. (It was still fun though.)

After we had our fill of the beach we hopped into the car, consulted our directions, and headed for our planned parking garage for the rest of the day. We quickly got lost, despite all the best laid plans, and ended up driving down Lombard Street. The curviest (and arguably steepest) road in the city. (Don’t worry, I didn’t stall the slugmobile and roll into the car behind me at the stop sign on the 10% grade.) After some consulting of our city guide and maps we managed to work our way to the parking garage. After all that work we were hungry… so we ate sushi in Japantown.

We spent the afternoon exploring the area around the embarcadero. There were a bunch of local artists showing and selling their work under tents by the ferry building. We did some browsing, and Beth ended up buying some glass pendants from an artist originally from Londonderry… small world. We explored the fountain and the strange head sculptures. A nice lady with a French accent offered to take our picture goofing off and imitating the grimaces on the heads, but she failed multiple times to get us both in the picture without cutting half of one of our bodies off.




After that we made our way back towards Chinatown in order to stake out a spot on the sidewalk for optimal parade viewing. We waited for an hour for the parade to start, munching on snacks and chatting with the people around us. Kathleen showed up to join us in watching the parade just as it was starting.

The parade was definitely an experience. There were dancing lion troops, spinning teacup people, strange giants on stilts with fireworks at their feet, lots of drum beating, gong smashing, and cymbal crashing, bright glittering floats, multiple dragons a half a block in length carried by at least 20 people, and lots of the color red. The spinning people in teacup costumes wore triangular red sequined hats… and since their hands were trapped in their costumes it must have been hard enough to stay standing after jumping around and spinning, not to mention when your hat slips down over your eyes. I watched one teacup nearly careen into the crowd. His “handler” on the side had to catch and right him, then readjust his hat so he could see again.



My favorite part of the parade was definitely all the dancing lion troops. Two people make up one lion. One for the head, and one for the rear. Most lions had a permanent head and rear… but I watched as one young lion, from a local elementary school, flipped its head and rear when the rear grew tired and began sagging and lagging behind. The lions interacted with the crowds as they made their way down the street. When they came upon a particularly rambunctious section they became even more spirited. Their eyelids and mouths flapped open and shut, they stood up on their hind legs and shimmied their butts.



There were also lots of strange costumes of people, which I’m sure had significance, but what I don’t know. Kathleen said she thought it had something to do with ancestors… all I know is that this guy was kind of creepy.



The dragons were exciting anytime they appeared, and there were many to keep the crowd pleased.






After the parade we were extremely hungry… and cold. So we made our way to Chinatown where we explored some trinket shops, then made our way to a restaurant to eat some real Chinese cuisine in Chinatown. After dinner Kathleen and Beth were drawn into a bakery where they bought authentic pastries for cheap. While they were battling the crowd in the shop I wandered the street a bit and took in the architecture and art.





After wandering around a bit more we decided to call it a night, made our way back to the garage, and managed to find our way out of the city on the first try. (Definitely not Boston driving where the route you need to take changes nearly every week due to some construction project, most likely related to the Big Dig.)

The next day we slept in a little, did some research, and then headed to Sonoma for the afternoon to visit a combined vineyard and olive oil press. While there we did a wine tasting and explored the building, which was an exact replica of the Jacuzzi family home in Italy.



The place was rather fancy. It even had a huge open room with barrels stacked along the walls, candles burning, stained glass windows, and a 3 piece mural from a cathedral in France. This may have been my favorite place on the “estate.” The room smelled sweet, like wine saturated wood, from the barrels along the walls. Nora and I did ballet jumps, cartwheels, and round-offs with our shoes off in the open space.




The back courtyard was complete with a fountain and benches where you could sit and look out over part of the vineyard. We naturally identified any birds we saw.



We felt a little out of place, being the non-classy field biologists that we are. (much more comfortable drinking whiskey and sitting in carharts and flannel) That and we butchered the pronunciation of nearly every wine we wanted to try. Our “bartender” was extremely nice though, and gave us all a lesson on the history of the Jacuzzi wine and family, and educated our fledgling wine connoiseuring skills. We left a little wiser, a little happier, and with 2 bottles of very classy wine.

Winter at Palo

Another job of the winter intern at Palo is called “The Winter Bird Census.” This is essentially like spot mapping during the breeding season… except it’s not the breeding season. Each of the interns chose a “grid,” and once a week, for 8 weeks, we visit that grid and map all the birds we see and hear, (or both.) I chose a historically grazed plot. Very different from the coastal scrub with poison oak growing up in forests of despair that the other interns muck through weekly. I also get some different birds than the typical coastal scrub, which was part of the reason I chose that grid. Pretty much every week I see the same white-tailed kite hanging out on top of a Douglass Fir. Even though it is easier to get around on, my plot it isn’t a cake walk. I’ve gotten stuck it my very own pit of despair a few weeks ago… slipped down an embankment in a riparian area and came to rest up to my eyeballs in blackberry vines. A very painful 10 or 15 minutes followed during which I extracted myself from that spot… and then another 10 or 15 minutes were spent trying to find my way out of the brambly, thorny riparian area. (I got great data though.) I now know my way much better around the plot, and can avoid falling into the pit of despair, while still getting good detections. I’m thankful that the worst I now get from my plot is dried up thistle thorns stuck in my pants and socks. These only hurt until I change my clothes and dump out my boots. Nora has had a mild case of poison oak for 4 weeks. And probably won’t be rid of it until the end of the Winter Bird Census.

Winter interns at Palo also have the opportunity to help with a wintering shorebird survey on Bolinas Lagoon. Basically we go out there to ID and count all the shorebirds that we see in a given area. This data is being used to look at trends over time in which species of birds are using the lagoon. I’m definitely learning my ducks… and large shorebirds… and even getting better at sandpipers, thanks to a lesson from Steve Howell. Last census I spotted the Eurasian Widgeon in our plot. (By standing in the bed of a truck, and scanning a group of American Widgeon partially hidden by vegetation. He was asleep.)

Don’t forget to do something special for Darwin’s birthday this upcoming February 12th. It’s his 200th after all! I’ve organized an informal interns vs. staff ultimate frisbee game… and the trash talking has already begun. We’ll see who comes out victorious…

a covey of quail, a flock of bushtit, a pod of orca, a confusion of warblers. (and a party of jays)

California quail are chubby and I like imitating their calls.



When you poke sea anemones they close up… and maybe squirt you.



Black oystercatchers are rather skittish.






And you can never outgrow tidepooling.

An (11) hour tour

So besides banding at Palomarin, penguin research in Antarctica, shrubsteppe work all over the Great Basin and points East, among other places, PRBO has field biologists stationed on the South East Farallon Island. Depending on the season you can find those biologists gathering data on elephant seals, migratory birds, resident burrowing owls, nesting gulls, and even watching for great white shark attacks from the top of “the rock” that is the island. The Farallon Islands are a national wildlife refuge that are incredibly rough. The only way to get onto SE Farallon (or SEFI) is by a safe boat (basically a zodiac) with cables that attach to a crane permanently fixed to the rocks overlooking a small inlet.



Nora and I had the opportunity to make the “food run” out to the biologists on SEFI this past weekend. We drove to the Petaluma PRBO headquarters on Friday, picked up our 2 page, single spaced, doubled sided shopping list, then headed for the nearest Safeway. We were shopping for the four people out living on the island. We were picking up 2-3 weeks worth of food for them. (It’s longer if the weather is so bad that the next re-supply boat is delayed.) By the end of the approximately 3 hours that we were in there we had 4 full shopping carts, and spent 911 dollars at the checkout. I do have a bone to pick with Dane Cook though. It is not true that if you leave your cart unattended it will be left alone. There was no way Nora and I could get around the store efficiently with 4 carts, so we left two, out of the way, and continued on with our shopping, to come back to them later. When we had crossed off everything on our list we made our way back to the left carts… only to find them missing. Some scrambling around ensued, and we soon found out that the Safeway employees had started replacing our perishables back on the shelves… mainly all the produce we had picked up (10 avocados, 7 heads of lettuce, a bag of brussel sprouts, 6 eggplants, 10 portabella mushrooms, 5 red beets, 2 heads of kale, 1 of chard, 6 zucchini, blueberries, grapes, clementines, 18 pounds of various kinds of onions, etc.) So we re-grouped, thanked the fact that we’re used to proofing lists of data, and began re-collecting what we had lost. When we had it all, we made our way to the checkout, I called off the items as I placed them on the belt, and Nora checked the list. We were the celebrities of the store. Everyone stared and the Safeway employees thought we were hilarious.

We drove back to HQs and removed everthing from the bags, and tetris-style packed them in 5 crates for the trip the next day.



After all that we were tired. And hungry. So we took the extra cash I had made for the Visitors Eye View chore, and went out to get some Mexican food.

The next morning we woke up, loaded up the truck, and drove to Sausalito, where we would be sailing out of. We met up with our skipper, Jeff, and loaded up the boat, “True North,” a 42 foot sailboat. We were underway at 1020 and passing under the Golden Gate at about 1100 hours.



Our crew was very competent. Alan, Steve, and Andrew did whatever it is that sailors do (I sure didn’t understand all the lingo, although, by the end of the trip I was beginning to pick things up.) The way they were talking about who was who in their sailing world, talking about races they had done, and speculating on the next international trips they would make, I felt like I was surrounded by a group of climbers. The enthusiasm was the same, just the vocabulary was different. There was no seasickness with the wind at our backs, and we saw about 8 grey whales and countless dolphins. We arrived at SEFI at 1500 hours according to plan, and began the process of getting onshore.



See the island in the distance? Getting closer…

When we got near enough we contacted the island via radio, and they informed us that they already had a safe boat in the water. We tied the “True North” to a large buoy, and then loaded all the supplies that we had brought out on the sailboat onto the safe boat. Derek, the PRBO biologist piloting the safe boat, would come back for passengers after the supply load.



Nora and I jumped on the first passenger run, and after being lifted by the crane out of the water, and carefully placed on the island, we hopped off the boat. Or, in my case, got my boot heel stuck in the last metal ladder rung, and fell onto the island. (Oops.)

We got the 25 cent tour of the island, which took only about 30 minutes total. (It’s a small island.)



We saw elephant seals on the rocks, including a few massive males. Saw an inlet completely covered in groaning and barking sea lions. Walked among hundreds of Western Gulls. Spotted one of the resident burrowing owls hanging in the shade of a rock positioned above his/ her burrow. Peered over cliff edges at hundreds of Common Murres, and laughed at the Black Phoebe we saw. (They’re everywhere Nora goes.) We made the short hike up to the lighthouse on top of the island and surveyed the landscape. It was golden in the late afternoon sun.





Our time on the island was short lived. We had a long trip ahead of us and the sun was soon setting. Back onto the safe boat and lowered by the crane into the water. We untied from the buoy, and made the circle around the western side of the island as the sun sank into the Pacific and the full moon rose in the East. A few sea lions put on a show for us, porpoising out of the waves, silhouetted by the sun, while groups of birds made their way to the island for the night.









We sailed into the night, headed towards the moon which lit up the sky like a headlight.



Along the way we scared up whole flocks of Common Murre, Cormorant, a few Brown Pelican, and one Ancient Murrelet. We sailed back under the Golden Gate at 2100 hours, the whole San Francisco sky line lighting up the southern shore like blinking fireflies. We docked at 2130, unloaded the “True North,” bid the sailors adieu, loaded up the truck, and drove back to HQs. Unloaded the truck, jumped into Carlos, Nora’s car, and drove back to Palo. We arrived at 2430. And I was up at 0600 the next morning to band at Pine Gulch…

Nora and I both agreed that the hours spent in the grocery store, the less than ideal nights sleep on a couch in the office, the hours on the boat (really not bad at all), and the exhaustion the next day, were well worth the awesome experience.

So this is the new year

On the evening of the 28th all the current winter banding interns, plus Kathleen, the fall education and outreach intern, got together to make gingerbread houses. I was housesitting over the holidays, so we had a great set up for spreading out and enjoying ourselves. We made the batter, let it chill, ate an excellent meal, and then came back to bake and construct our houses. I’d say that the results were satisfactory… and even better than we were all expecting. There was definitely something in that frosting mixture. It worked like tacky glue. I kept the recipe for future construction projects.

This is the view in the morning from where we band birds at Pine Gulch. Pine Gulch is a Bolinas town park that sits on the lagoon.



While there this past week I extracted and processed an adult male Anna’s Hummingbird. Holding him in my hand took a little getting used to. He was only slightly thicker around than a cigar would be. And he squirmed. You can’t hold hummingbirds in the usual “bander’s grip” with two fingers around the neck because they’re too small. And they’ll flap their wings like mad. So instead, you hold them by placing a thumb over one wing, and a finger (or two) over the other. Getting one of those wings out to measure its length was another trick. This male was not happy with me. He was scolding me while I was processing him.



The last net run of the day at Pine Gulch I had no birds, until I got to the last net… where as I approached I saw three birds. Those three quickly multipled to 11 as a large group of birds foraging on the ground near the net suddenly spotted me approaching and took off. I watched as countless birds flew straight into the net. Some bounced out, but a large number were caught. I called Nora for backup to help get the birds out faster. We worked quickly extracting them, then carried them all back to the banding station…



About 8 of the birds were Oregon Juncos that had never been caught and banded before. A few were young White Crowned Sparrows, and two were Ruby-crowned Kinglets. We had our work cut out for us. It was a busy winter day at Pine Gulch. We processed 33 birds throughout the banding hours.

New Year’s Eve Colin and I banded at Palo… and had 5 times as many visitors as birds… Luckily the majority of the visitors seemed to show up when we had caught a bird and could show them what we do. (Besides just tossing a knotted up bird bag into a mist net to demonstrate how they work.)

New Year’s Eve at night we celebrated the birds’ “birthdays.” From now on there will be no more birds classified as “Hatch Years” when we age them… At least until the breeding season is underway and there are new fledglings. We made wishes and blew out candles on our cupcakes. We also had a ping pong tournament in the library… and Nora kicked all our butts.



At midnight we went for a dip in the Pacific. It was cold. But it was so worth it…

I enjoyed the water and waves so much I went back for more in my rubber boots shortly after putting some warm clothes back on.

Blue Jay Way

We have finally caught (and not just had it momentarily stuck in the net) a Jay. A Western Scrub Jay.

I was banding with Colin at one of our "offsites," Muddy Hollow, sometime last week, when we caught it. I was the lucky one to be on the net run that discovered the bird in the net. We don't catch them very often, even though there's lots around due to them being too smart, and the fact that the nets we use are more like a hammock to them, than something they get tangled in. This bird had it's feet wrapped up pretty well though, which took some doing on my part to get it to let go. Definitely much bigger in the hand than a Florida Scrub Jay. I can't imagine how much bigger the Island Scrub Jays are going to be that I'll be handling in April. Catching that Scrub Jay at Muddy Hollow made up for the kind of crappy morning it had been shaping up to be... a tangled net and snapped rope made opening less than a smooth operation. And the rain that would start, soak us, then stop just as we were about to close nets, was also an annoyance. After the Jay it was all better. And it stopped raining.



But when it does rain, it pours so they say. The next day banding at Palo I went on a net run that turned out to be rather ridiculous. 9 birds in one run... which is a lot for the winter. And two of those birds were Stellar's Jays. I banded and processed them both, (after taking care of the numerous little birds that should be processed first... the bigger birds can handle being captured for longer). I still have little scrapes on my right hand where the Jays liked to grab onto my thumb, or any fingers within their grasp, while I took a look at them. When I released them out behind the banding lab they each yelled at me as they flew off. There was a Stellar's Jay the next day who was hanging around the banding lab who would yell at me every time I stepped out for a net run. I wouldn't be surprised if it was one of the two I banded the day before. I've known Jays to remember individuals.



On a topic other than my obsession with Corvids... I went for a short hike today in Samuel P. Taylor state park to see some Redwoods. It was very peaceful in the trees. I could hear a creek running down below, and flushed up 4 Varied Thrush along the way. (They were interested, but not convinced by my imitation of their call...) Where the sun could actually work its way through the dense trees you could see long strands of spider webs, lit up like filaments of gold from branch to branch. The trees were pretty much all second growth Redwoods, so none as big as what I'd see if I actually went to the Redwood National Park or Forest, or whatever, but there was one big one. It was called "the pioneer tree." (Which explains why the trail was the Pioneer Tree Trail. Which I failed to realize until I got to said tree.) The Pioneer Tree had a nice little sign in front of it talking about how old it probably was, etc... and at the end it said "go on in and check it out." Which took me by surprise. The tree had been hollowed out at the bottom by fire, so there was a huge cave you could walk right into. I of course checked it out. It felt a bit creepy at first. It was awfully dark in there. But once my eyes adjusted it was interesting to see the patterns in the wood, and how the tree had healed itself from its fire wounds. (Redwoods can do that apparently.)



Tomorrow is back to banding at Palo after a short Christmas break.

Here's a nice view of the Farallon Islands seen from a bike ride back from Bolinas one evening...

A Day in the Life, and the Wintern Wrens

0640- My cell phone begins chiming. I groggily reach out from under the warm covers, grab the phone, hit snooze, glance at the time, and curl up back under the covers with the phone under the pillow.

0645- The phone begins chiming again. I can hear Nora’s phone now ringing and vibrating across the room. Stretch. Sigh. Roll out of bed, stumble over to where my favorite hoodie is hanging, pull over head, push hair out of face, slide slippers on, shuffle to the kitchen. Turn on the lights and blink until my eyes have adjusted to the sudden change. Shuffle to the fridge, contemplate what I want to eat while staring inside. (This morning it was a piece of pumpkin pie that I made the night before… It’s good breakfast food… has pumpkin, honey, yogurt and almond in it, and most importantly, tastes good.) Nora wanders in, probably hits a limb on some random corner of a counter or table, moans/ laughs. Not much is said while breakfast is being eaten (This is how I best function, like some people need their coffee, I need some food in my belly.) Step out of the kitchen, into the bathroom, brush teeth, etc. Back into the room to put on some clothes, socks and shoes. Grab my binoculars and camera, head up to the library. Dump my stuff on the table, change the message on the hotline (“Today is Wednesday, December seventeenth, and the Palomarin nets are open.”) Start filling out the weather for net opening (temp., wind speed and direction, barometer). Walk outside to a good vantage point and estimate cloud cover, type and visibility. Admire the pink underbellies of the clouds if it’s a nice day. Glance with apprehension at the gray blanket if it’s an iffy weather day. Walk back into the library, finish writing the weather in. Meet up with Nora in the banding lab, who is removing all the tools we’ll need for the day from the drawers behind the counter. While she places all the bands on their respective size pegs I pull out the banding laptop and boot it up. Nora organizes the banding pliers and rulers while I plug in the scale. Erase the previous banding day’s data from the white board behind us. Decide what our “Most wanted” bird for the day will be. (Today it was White-crowned Sparrow. It can’t always be Western Scrub Jay…)

0735- Step out of the banding lab, radios in pockets, bird bags hanging from our belt loops, binoculars slung over our shoulders, open the nets. All 20 nets in 14 locations over the 3/8th mile long net trail, which winds around, up and down, a section of the Palomarin property.

0755- finish opening the nets, decide who’s going to go on the first few “net runs” to check for birds, and who will conduct the “area search.” Nora takes the first few net runs, I head back to the banding lab to pick up a clipboard and blank area search form. Head back out to the net trail, check my watch and record the time. I now have 30 minutes to bird the net trail. First bird of the morning… a screaming Stellar’s Jay. A Western Scrub Jay yells back. A Wrentit scolds from the Coyote Brush as I tiptoe past. Two Anna’s Hummingbirds scream by overhead, one chasing the other, all while yelling its little head off. 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8 Bushtits chipping and flitting from one section of Scrub to another. A Song Sparrow barks at me. A few Ruby-crowned Kinglets type away on their typewriters. I continue on and a Red Shafted Flicker pops up from the ground, flies to the nearest Douglass Fir, then takes off, heading further away. A gang of Chestnut-backed Chickadees is foraging overhead, chatting all the while. A Red-breasted Nuthatch pipes up. Another replies. Then another. Pretty soon they’re all whining their “yank yank yank yanks” at each other, nearly in unison. A Hutton’s Vireo wheezes. I hear some scratching on the ground, move to a better vantage point, spot a group of Fox Sparrows all scratching in the dirt together, leaves are flying. A Robin laughs in the forest above me. A few Oregon Juncos call to each other from in the branches as well. A funny wheezy, whirry call… a Varied Thrush. I hope we catch it. The characteristic chipping of Warblers… but which ones? I stalk the sounds, and find a group of 4 Townsends Warblers all bouncing from branch to branch together. Golden-crowned Kinglets overhead. Sharp calls point my binoculars in the direction of the Winter Wren that I see nearly every Palo banding day in his usual spot. Emerging from the forest, back into the scrub I startle 3 Golden-crowned Sparrows foraging in the trail. A Common Raven calls overhead. I check my watch, only a few more minutes. Make a few more tallies, head back to the banding lab. Check out the awesome Varied Thrush that stumbled into one of our nets that Nora is processing. Check the time. Time for a net run.

0905- Net run #1 of many for the day. (Between the two of us we will walk the net trail once every half hour from 15 minutes after sunrise, until 6 hours later.) No birds this run…

1035- I’m on a net run. I come up a little rise and see net 8.4. There’s something big in it. Bigger than what we usually catch. My heart skips when I realize it’s a raptor of some sort. A Sharp-shinned Hawk. I dash up to the net and pinch two trammels together, trapping the bird, before it can flap its way out. He’s not tangled at all… too big for the holes in the net. He’s just a little confused, on his back, in a pocket. I cautiously open the trammels. The Sharpie eyes me. I toss in a cloth bag. He latches onto it with his talons. I cautiously reach into the net and place another bag over the Sharpie’s head. (Helps them remain calm.) I carefully reach in, grasp the hawk around the upper legs and lower body, pinning his wings to his side, lift him out of the net, and head back to the banding lab. Nora and I work together to process the bird, Part Two of the Pyle Guide is our bible. It looks like an after hatch year male. Plumage and wing measurement confirm this. When done we take a few pictures, then I head over away from the nearest net, which has trapped a Hermit Thrush while we were working, and throw the Sharpie into the wind. It doesn’t take long for him to realize he’s free, and he wheels away in a long arc, headed back up the hill, towards the forest again. No doubt to stalk the small songbirds that he likes to eat. Nora hands me the Hermit Thrush to process and heads off to finish the next net run.





1335- The end of the banding day. Nora and I head out together to do one last check on the nets, and when empty, furl them up, and tie them off until another morning. Today was a beautiful day we agree as we furl net 1.4 and look out on the Pacific Ocean and the Farralon Islands on the horizon. We finish entering our banding data for the day, check out our “recap report” (Look at past records of birds already banded we caught that day.) Then we proof our data and make any needed corrections.

1445- Lunch! Change into more comfortable shoes, if it wasn’t warm enough for me to be wearing sandals all day... (note: I wear sandals when most would think is inappropriate, so before you make comments about it must be so warm... it's not really. I just like a breeze for my toes.)

Relax. Band practice tonight. Colin on guitar, Nora on Penny Whistle, and of course, myself on the flute. “The Wintern Wrens.”