What Exactly Am I Doing Here?

I realized that my last post never even mentioned what I am doing on the Farallones. I am a volunteer field intern for PRBO's Southeast Farallon Island Project. PRBO has been out here studying wildlife in some capacity since 1968, so I am essentially just gathering data to add to their long-term dataset. In the Winter (December to March-ish) the project focuses on Pinnapeds (seals and sea lions), in the Spring/Summer (March to August) the project monitors breeding seabirds, and in the Fall (August to December), the current season, the project focuses on migrating songbirds and White Sharks (known to most as Great White Sharks). These projects monitor long-term population trends as well as explore the ecosystem's response to climate change.

Red-breasted Nuthatch grabs a grub from a crack in the "sidewalk" at the lighthouse.

In the Fall, the crew of 5-6 people methodically scour the 95-acre island for birds everyday and conduct a variety of surveys to monitor other island dwellers and visitors. We mist-net and band as many birds as we can catch when the weather is good which allows us to keep track of birds that stick around for more than a day or two. We also conduct 10 hours of "Shark Watch" in 2-hour long shifts at the Lighthouse to scan for attacks.

The schedule for the beginning of October. Descriptions of jobs below.

 Dinner is a very important job. One person cooks and cleans each night and we sit down family-style to enjoy the meal together. This is great because when you get in from a long day in the field, it is really nice not to have to plan a meal and clean up after yourself. Depending on how many people are on the island, you end up cooking about once a week. We eat well out here. Incredibly well, in fact. The Farallon Fifteen is real.

A.M. Seawatch is a 5 minute count of passing seabirds (shearwaters, fulmars, loons, etc) done with a telescope.

A.M. A.S. means Morning Area Search. This is a 1.5-2 hour bird search of the entire island. The island is broken up into 5 areas and one person walks the entirety of the accessible land looking for new birds and re-sighting birds with bands.

BATS is a scan of each of the three trees on the island and of the lighthouse for bats. We have had 3 Hoary Bats this season, two of which were before my arrival.

SHOR means Shorebird count. One person walks the edge of the island counting shorebirds at high tide.

P.M. A.S. is the Afternoon Area Search, done exactly like the AM Area Search.

GULLS is an all island count of roosting gulls. Western Gulls are the most abundant; there is a smattering of California Gulls, and occasionally another species or two that are hanging out.

P.M. Seawatch is a series of six 5-minute seawatches in the evening, facing the opposite direction of the A.M. Sea watch for better lighting.

COLOR means one person spends 2 hours searching the island for color-banded birds (see BAND below).

BUOW is the Burrowing Owl assistant for the night, who stays up with Maggie, the Burrowing Owl intern, to help her band the owls and take photographs to help age and sex the birds. They usually get to sleep in the next day.

E-SEAL is a search for tags on Elephant Seals every 3rd day at low tide, when the seals are hauled out in the coves and gulches.

BAND is the person who is in charge of running nets and banding birds all day. We band all birds we catch with a lightweight aluminum band on their right or left leg depending on the day (left on odd numbered days, right on even days), and we band six of the more abundant species with plastic color bands so we can keep better track of how many there are and how long they stay (see COLOR above).

Shark Watch is a constant scanning of the waters surrounding the island for shark attacks, whales, and boaters.

Last but not least, DATA. This person is in charge of entering data when there is time in the day. This job definitely depends on the day---on a busy day with lots of birds, data is the lowest thing on the list and will most likely not get done.

This busy busy schedule basically has everyone running around all the time on a birdy day, helping each other out and seeing lots of cool natural events unfold while taking notes and keeping lists. On slower days, we get to take a breather and enjoy the island life.

Banding a Burrowing Owl on my Birthday.

Western Palm Warbler after I banded it.

Male Varied Thrush taking a break.

Mmm, Sunrise.