Elkhorn Slough

Back in June I went down south toward Monterey. I was dreaming that I'd perhaps spot a condor from Hwy 1 (there are sightings on ebird all along that area) but as it turns out during the summer, all the condors hang out inland. Even though I didn't find any condors, it was a nice drive along the rocky cliffs.

And there were plenty of other birds to spot. These black specks on the rocks turned out to be a bunch of murres and cormorants, nesting:

Murres are kind of like the penguins of the northern hemisphere. They're black and white, they swim after fish, they hold themselves upright... also, they can fly, so they'd probably win against penguins in a fight.
If you zoom in on the cormorants, you can just baaaaarely see that they have some purple and gold on their throats. That's how you know these are Brandt's cormorants and not your standard old double crested cormorants. Finally, a sea creature named after someone other than Steller!

Evidently these cormorants like to live near kelp beds... so seeing them around might mean that there's a good chance of seeing other kelp-loving things, such as floating logs:

Just kidding, those are totally sea otters.


While photographing them from some sand dunes near Elkhorn slough, we ran into a researcher who was collecting data on the otters' reactions to passing boats. Apparently there is a recommended approach distance (200 yards) but that number hasn't been actually been well-confirmed. So, whenever a boat passed, she had to record its distance from the otters (in otter-lengths) and the otters' reaction. Mostly their reaction was "continue being adorable."


We kayaked a bit and also spotted a pigeon guillemot. I didn't get a picture, but as one would expect from something with "pigeon" in the name, it had red feet and it was hanging out under a bridge that smelled like guano.

And, finally, here's a raven, familiar friend of cold, foggy lands.

Aaaaand, some rattlesnake grass.

Things I saw just walking around.

Lots of friends spotted at the lake today.

Lady ruddy duck, resting tidily on a small rock, probably on her way to breed somewhere cool:

When she saw me photographing her, she looked a bit indignant, then waddled off.

Resident pelican is getting all decked out in bright orange, head tuft, and the beginning of a beak bump poking out from behind the wing...

Eared grebes still going strong, but they'll be gone any time now...

I think I bore them: they're always yawning when I approach. Right before they dive underwater to show just how jaded they are.

A rare sighting of a land cormorant. It was pulling at some frayed string at the edge of the rowing dock. Nest materials perhaps?

Night heron with green and gray stripe background.

Some cheerful humans who got excited when they saw me pointing my camera into trees. So I took their picture too. They waved (not pictured).


And another in the series of "animals sniffing the camera."

Friends!

Double Crested Cormorant

Cormorants are shy and prefer to have their pictures taken underwater. Sometimes I can catch them when they are sunning themselves on the trash-catching buoy things. This one looks like it is wearing fake eyelashes to go with its beautiful blue eyes... but that's just the double-crest it's named for.

One thing I like about cormorants is the texture of their feathers. At a distance they look plain black, but up close, they are beautifully scaly. Each one of the edges you can see here is the result of a thin black border to the individual feathers. And see how the back feathers don't have that scaliness?

I love the shy-looking cormorant. Another subtle detail is the stripy beak.

Here's another cormorant that has a much more impressive crest. Maybe that's a triple crest?

You know it's spring when the pink flowers are blooming, and the cormorants are perching in dead trees, grunting like pigs.

The birds, man, of Alcatraz

Alcatraz isn't really known for having birds on it. It's more of a history and architecture thing.

Architecture with some jungle let into it.

You probably wouldn't be that surprised to see a gull on it...


But what about HUNDREDS of gulls (the white dots) fighting over various patches of weed-choked asphalt?

It's true, Alcatraz is actually an important breeding site for Western gulls, as well as Brant's cormorant and Pigeon Guillemots (which nest in abandoned pipes!). I only spotted gulls, but it might be worthwhile to come back in the summer and try to see baby gulls...

As a bonus bird, on the way back, I saw a grackle outside the ferry building. It's a common bird, but I have only seen one once, at a random rest stop in Arizona. So, rare for me.

In case you are thinking the above picture looks like just some boring blackbird, compare it to this picture of an actual boring blackbird from the same tree.

See? ACTION GRACKLE with Long Tail accessories.

The pelicans at home

The newly-renovated boathouse/restaurant opened about a month ago, and I wondered what real estate the cormorants would stink up now that their old pier had been removed. Turns out they seem to have followed their old pier to the other side of the lake, where it's now sinking into the mud.


Here, various birds have had no trouble putting their feet up on the coffee table, and their poop all over the couch. Here we see a white pelican, likely on its way to the coast from breeding grounds inland; and double crested cormorants, which are common in summer but will probably leave the lake soon.

Though they nest in very different habitats, at this time of year the three species cross paths for an interspecific jamboree. And when brown pelicans come sit on the porch, they bring the moonshine. No. Not really. They just hum fragments of "Slough foot Sue..."

The brown pelicans have finished nesting in the islands of southern California and Mexico, and are now heading north...

...with an occasional layover on a crowded dock.

Unlike the white pelicans, brown pelicans hunt by diving from the air with a very impressive splash (which I didn't manage to capture.) Here's one post-snack:

It soon takes off again--

--and loops back around for another attempt. Come on, fishy!

Plants in a salt marsh

A long time ago, Heidi asked me what kind of plants you'd expect to see at Lake Merritt if it wasn't all paved and landscaped.

I started collecting photos a while ago and came up with a few that are growing through the cracks: First, salt marsh gumplant, a cheerful looking weedish thing which apparently makes great stilts for marsh mice that don't want to get their feet wet at high tide.

Pickleweed. Shaped like a pickle, and salty like one too.

This weekend Tom and I went out to Middle Harbor Shoreline Park, a scrappy little parcel of beach that affords a great view of SF, as well as a few more salt marsh plants.

We found a species of buckwheat:

And a kind of aster, which I think is called "Seaside Dasiy."

And of course, what blog post would be complete without a bird skeleton?! We found an ex-cormorant. Cause of death: nosy photographers.

One thing you can see in this picture is the way the flight feathers are actually attached directly to the wing bones (not the skin). Those things are really stuck in there, together forever, huh?

Check it out, even with this crappy camera-phone picture, you can kinda see that the cormorant's eye ring is still in the socket. Cool.

Signs of summer: Ch-ch-changes

Besides the hundreds of molting geese, there are other changes going on as spring turns into summer. Some are pretty, like butterflies 'n flowers:

Flowering buckeye looks like it just woke up and hasn't done its hair yet... but it smells great.

(Check out the bonus ants on this iris:)

Some changes are not as picturesque, like this horrible sea monster pile of algae. The Lake Merritt Institute explains that as the day length increases, algae begins to proliferate in the shallow water just offshore. When it dies and rots, it smells like you would imagine a horrible sea monster pile of algae would, plus it lowers water oxygen levels, so the city removes it with a special harvester boat just like... they would remove... a horrible monster... OK, I admit it's a bad analogy. Later in the summer, an even more annoying water plant, wigeon grass, will start growing like crazy. The city evidently removes literal TONS of the stuff during July and August.


Sheltering in all that algae are hundreds of cormorant snacks in the form of tiny baby fish. Cormorants, like pelicans, just HATE getting algae on their faces before a big date, so the fish are probably pretty safe hiding in there.

Speaking of cormorants, their numbers are increasing as summer approaches. A few of them are breeding in the dead trees on the islands, and their combined grunting makes the islands sound like they're home to a flock of arboreal pigs. Later in summer I'll probably be able to get some good pictures of them as they herd fish cooperatively.