Island Scrub-Jay

You all saw this coming. How could I spend a field season on Santa Cruz Island without writing about it's famous scrub-jay? Santa Cruz Island is the only place in the world where this bird exists.

Meet yellow-white-blue. Yellow-white-blue was the jay that spent the most time on the grounds of Christy Ranch (my former residence), and thus the jay we saw the most. Yellow-white-blue is the most approachable jay we had. Here Y-W-Bu just caught a skipper, which you can see disintegrating in the wind.

Genetic work has shown that Island Scrub-Jays have likely been genetically isolated from Western Scrub-Jays for several hundred thousands of years. The northern Channel Islands (San Miguel, Santa Rosa, Santa Cruz, Anacapa) at one point formed a giant land mass, Santa Rosae Island, when sea levels were lower. It is thought that the jays colonized and diverged from Western Scrub-Jay while this super-island was extant. As sea levels rose, the populations on the other islands died out. An Island Scrub-Jay bone discovered on Santa Rosa Island was dated to be around 10,240 years old, and is the sole known piece of evidence of their residence on Santa Rosa Island, which is only 9 miles away from Santa Cruz.

Since Island Jays have been around for so long, this means they were likely affected by the presence of pygmy-mammoths, the only large grazing mammal known to inhabit Santa Cruz. Other extinct inhabitants of the northern Channel Islands include a gannet, a puffin, and a flightless goose!

The massive bill is one of the obvious features that sets Island Scrub-Jays apart from their western counterparts. They are also larger, longer-tailed, a darker shade of blue, and have a harsher call. Island Scrub-Jay has never been recorded on any of the other islands in modern times, and neither has Western Scrub-Jay. Their skeletal structure betrays the fact that these birds are poorly built for long-distance flights.

Here is a recently-fledged bird, one of very few that came from a successful clutch this year (directly/indirectly due to drought?). Younger Island Scrub-Jays may not breed for years, possibly because quality breeding territories are already occupied by older birds.

Island Scrub-Jays can be found wherever there are trees or thick chaparral...pretty much anywhere besides beaches and grasslands. Island Packers run trips to two different landing sites on the island, Scorpion Anchorage and Prisoner's Harbor. While there is a group of jays at the campgrounds at Scorpion, the birds are much, much easier to find at Prisoner's. Serious jay seekers should seek at Prisoner's, without a doubt.

One of the lesser-known field marks of Island Scrub-Jay is a blue vent, which you can see here. I find this field mark to be variable though, some birds appear rather gray down there.

Well that's the quick and dirty breakdown of Island Scrub-Jay. A final note...for reasons I cannot explain, many individual birds out there are named after famous (and not so famous) political figures. So instead of pishing for jays, just scream names of politicians into the brush...you cannot fail.

Regrets and Shorebirds Aside

This Yellow-headed Blackbird was the last interesting spring migrant I saw, back in early June. Despite the maelstrom raging around us, it begged me to crush it as it foraged passionately.

Wow. Just like that, we have plunged into rarity season. The Wood-Rail really opened the floodgates, didn't it? I have been without internet for quite a while now, and once I come back online rare shorebirds are being reported left and right. Being confined to an island that is not known for vagrant shorebirds, this shit is getting a little hard to handle...

But then I remember I just saw my state Red-necked Stint, and I can relax. While Lesser Sand-Plover is indeed a facemelting and anxiety-inducing rarity, I am happy to say that I saw one back in 1996...Greater Sand-Plover, on the other hand, is another story...a story of pain, failure, and regret.

Regrets and shorebirds aside, I am currently on my final tour of duty on Santa Cruz Island. The focal species of our studies are almost all done breeding, which makes field work go pretty quickly now that we are not checking on nests or chicks. Unfortunately, the internet gods who reign over the island have not been kind lately, so instead of enriching the Blogosphere, I've lately been going through back issues of National Geographic and spending way more time editing photos than usual. But I am sure to have pure, uncut internet access for the next few days, so I will try to do what I can while there is still time.

Here is a veritable smorgasbord of Santa Cruz Island scenes for your ocular consumption. See you soon!

I hope the bird made it off the island, rather than being eaten by a fox. It was pretty fearless, which may not been a good personality type with hungry foxes lurking everywhere.

The Peregrine Falcons no longer chide me (or try to kill me) when I get too close to their nest sites, although it's not rare to see an adult whiz by with a juvenile begging horribly close behind it.

The other day I looked up into the fog and saw 2 Peregrine Falcons (one of which was probably this bird) soaring with a kettle of 7 Red-tailed Hawks. That may not sound so strange to you, but on Santa Cruz Island in July, that was too many raptors for me to handle. I found myself kneeling in the grass, weeping into the dust. Strange sights call for strange reactions.

I have pelted my beloved and attractive readers with Island Fox photos lately, so you only get one today. This is outside the kitchen at Christy Ranch, where we are normally based.

For BB&B's very first Acorn Woodpecker photo, I thought I would make it particularly wholesome. If only the woodpeckers were storing acorns in the cross...the potential for bizarre metaphors would be endless.

Barn Swallows are one of the most abundant birds on the island. They have been raising chicks for months now. If a bird raises chicks over and over again for months, it would seem logical that they would become one of the most abundant birds, no? We all could learn a lesson from the Barn Swallow.

I take that back. I think Barn Swallows should go about creating more Barn Swallows as much as possible, but this is not a way of life I would recommend to any sane human lover of earth, life, liberty, etc. In the end, none of this has anything to do with Barn Swallows sunning themselves in ecstasy on a windowsill.

Christy Beach at sunset, with squid boats dotting the horizon. Not bad, not bad at all.

I think a lot can be learned from the social lives of Black Oystercatchers. They clearly do a lot of socializing, both in pairs and in strange group displays which remain unexplained. In this photo we see them behaving in a remarkably human way; completely ignoring each other, despite their obvious close proximity. They never did get a conversation going.

Heermann's Gulls are back in force, attempting to steal fish scraps out of the pouches of Brown Pelicans. A lot of them still have their dapper frosted heads, but they are going to start looking gray-headed and boring soon.

Fraser Point is on the west end of the island, where few lucky souls are privileged to travel. The next outcrop of land, to the left, is Santa Rosa Island. This is the view from one of my field sites (photo is blow-uppable, and taken with an iPhone).

Great Success! The Santa Cruz Island Fox

Ah, the Santa Cruz Island Fox. What can be said about this cat-sized apex predator? Why don't we start with the obvious...these animals are unforgivingly adorable.

This is the typical fox face. They are usually smiling, and usually on the verge of falling asleep. They probably dream about really cute shit, thus the constant sleeping.

Island Foxes, descended from Gray Foxes, are found on six of the eight Channel Islands off southern California; each island has its own distinct subspecies. Here on Santa Cruz, they were on the verge of extinction just a few years ago. Santa Cruz Island was owned by ranchers for many years, and as you can expect, they let the place go to shit. Livestock drastically changed the appearance of the island, and many animals (i.e. pigs, sheep, goats, etc.) went wild and feral. While this was happening, the resident (and territorial) Bald Eagle population was being decimated by DDT. With an abundant mammalian food source and eventually no Bald Eagles to defend the airspace, Golden Eagles moved out to the island in the 1990s. The Goldens didn't have any problems taking down the tiny foxes, which are cat-sized, and very quickly the entire population of Santa Cruz's foxes tumbled below 80 individuals. The Goldens moved out to to other islands as well; the foxes of San Miguel and Santa Rosa barely clung to existence, with a pathetic population of 15 on each island by the year 2000.

The foxes luckily escaped the anti-enviro politics of the Bush Regime and somehow got listed as Endangered in 2004...what followed was an extensive and intensive recovery effort that involved eradicating all feral animals from the island, trapping and relocating all of the Golden Eagles, captive-breeding the foxes, and reintroducing Bald Eagles to keep the Goldens out. Remarkably, practically every aspect of the recovery program had great results.

I swear this species is narcoleptic. You'll come across one as it is hunting, and then it will suddenly just flop over and go to sleep. This has happened over and over again.

I've never seen an animal who could not be bothered to open its eyes. I guess you can afford to do that if you're the island's top terrestrial predator.

Among the many cute things they do is fuck with people as much as possible. They have come into our ranch house (uninvited)...twice. The first time it happened I didn't quite know what to do (I had been outside and not had a fox in my house before), so I just held the door open and talked to it like a combination cat-dog, which is how I view them. After some whistles and baby-talk I got it to trot past my feet and out the door without any additional effort.

They are notorious for stealing things. I had to steal back my coworker's headlamp from them, which they had stolen from inside our Land Cruiser. Their consistent fondness for crapping and peeing on your stuff (car seat, backpack....doesn't matter) is probably their worst trait though.

The old blowing-in-the-ear trick always gets your partner in the mood for sweet sweet love-making.

Ohhhhhhh yeah...everything is going according to plan. Time for some fox rocket!


Or not. The female is literally pushing him away. He looks pretty bummed.

The recovery that the foxes have made is fantastic; the Endangered Species Act really did its job. In less than a decade their numbers on Santa Cruz Island jumped from <80 to around 1300 animals (almost back to historical levels), and their survival rate is said to be an astonishing 96 percent. It's great to see them every day here.

Oh yeah, did I mention that these animals have almost no fear of anything? They just love getting crushed over and over again, so their cuteness can be immortalized. The only problem with photographing them is that they are falling asleep all the time...

Foxes, Birds, Buckwheat....and The Green Lady

Photo ops these days are getting few and far between....except when the local pair of Island Foxes stops in for a visit, and the situation rapidly deteriorates into a violent crush-fest. I've really grown fond of the foxes; I think they are officially my favorite terrestrial mammal.

The Christy Ranch pair is affectionate. They are true creatures of recreation, I rarely see them doing anything that looks like it requires much concentration. Ah, the care-free life of being on top of the food chain.

Brown Pelicans are far more abundant around Santa Cruz Island now than they were earlier this spring, when they were surprisingly few and far between. Post-breeding dispersal is in effect.

In an effort to show you something other than the same foxes and bird species over and over again, I'll post some different stuff today. This is a view looking south from our 1973 Land Cruiser from the west end of the island; Santa Rosa Island is visible in the distance.

Peregrine Falcons are finishing up this year's nesting; I've seen a couple recently-fledged birds around in the last week. I've gained a new appreciation for these birds here; I've seen hundreds of Peregrines over the years, but nowhere else have I gotten to bear witness to their aerial mastery (often at eye level) on the regular. The speed these birds attain and some of the maneuvers they pull are just jaw-dropping.

I guess this is Santa Cruz Island Buckwheat, although the leaves are completely different than what online references suggest. It's one of the most common flowering plants at our field sites. Botanists....thoughts?

We've only recorded a handful of shorebird species on the job; Wandering Tattler is one of the few expected species. That said, tattler is the rarest expected rockpiper in Ventura County, so it has been nice having them around this spring. I would also like to point out that this is the one and only bird species that I have seen on all the islands I have worked on; Santa Cruz Island, Buldir Island (AK), and Midway Atoll! Wander they do.

Horned Larks are common in the grasslands and bluffs. They love their dust. I frequently find their dust bathing spots while hiking around...I think I still have the eye for these sorts of things after back to back summers of nest-searching for terns and plovers.

Pacific-slope Flycatcher is the only Empidonax that breeds on the Channel Islands. I've run into a couple pairs on Santa Cruz that have been absurdly approachable; their genus is not known for being fond of people.

Yet another species that probably goes undetected as a vagrant east of its normal range, and I think the same can be said of Cordilleran Flycatcher. I wonder when California will get its first Acadian? Seems inevitable...I should probably just go out and find one myself. 

This Island Scrub-Jay chose a photogenic perch, although some would say it's hideous and awkward. The Christy Ranch family group isn't around quite as much as they used to be; I am guessing they are needing to forage further afield.

One of the unbanded Island Scrub-Jays at Christy Ranch. The building in the background is the oldest structure on the island. The only person allowed in the building is the spirit of a woman who died in the 1800's who now goes by The Green Lady...as the story goes, she prefers to sit in that window. The Green Lady is a part of island lore, but other than some strange sounds late at night (which I suspect is the intern doing strange things), I haven't gotten to meet her.

This is the bridge that spans the creek though the middle of Christy Ranch. The foxes likely get more use out of it than people do. There is an old ghost story about a Chumash woman losing her mind on this bridge many years ago and deciding to haunt it after she died...but I reckon any inhuman screaming coming from this area can be chalked up to the foxes.

The view looking west from Christy Ranch. I like the jagged break in the clouds.

Hacking My Way Through The Field Season

I'm over halfway through my field season...time flies! The Global Birder Ranking System awarded me many points when I Haynored this female Lark Bunting through a dirty truck window at Christy Ranch last month. Not only a very rare spring bird anywhere in California, it is the first one ever recorded on Santa Cruz Island! This one is especially white and neatly-marked.

This Yellow-headed Blackbird (immature male?) was around for a few days as well. In fact, I got to put it on my meat list. I realize some of you think that I'm making me dumb Farrallon joke, but the original definition of this phrase (which came into existence years before) is far more perverse...I will enlighten you all soon.

I crushed this Rock Wren back in March, but I visited its territory again recently for another round. I think it likes the attention. I wonder what singing birds think when they attract a large half-asian birder instead of a female.

California Quail are introduced on Santa Cruz Island, but they don't seem out of place. A couple feather piles I've found make me think the foxes don't mind them being there either. My inner biologist tells me to shun them, but I like them anyway.

It seems I've never posted a Pacific-slope Flycatcher before. I practically melted my camera firing off shots of this confiding individual at the Scorpion Ranch visitor center. No one will ever call this bird a facemelter, but it's hard not to like them.

This is a nesting colony of Brandt's Cormorants, one of the things I'm paid to look at. By the time I get back out there practically ever Brandt's Cormorant nest will have hatched eggs, and some will have large chicks. The nests I'm monitoring seem to be doing pretty good, but we'll see how many chicks get fledged.

One of the views at Christy Ranch, one of my temporary homes for the summer. Not bad, eh?

Gratuitous Island Fox cuteness.

They seem to constantly be squinting. Maybe their allergies are as bad as mine.

A young Barn Swallow keels over and dies. The end of days are upon us. When the swallows fall from the skies, we can expect the skies to be falling right behind them. Repent! Repent for all your misidentifications! Repent for the times you nerdily tried to one-up another birder in conversation!

Who said that? This bird is just sunbathing.

The "jay crew" reports that Island Scrub-Jays are having a terrible year. Very few young are fledging, and they are finding some birds far from where they are expected (these birds are not prone to wandering). I haven't seen any juveniles at all yet. This can probably be directly or indirectly attributed to the drought, but its hard to say whats giving them problems for sure.

I'm really hoping the drought breaks next winter. Everything needs the water...of course, this is all just going to get worse as the years go by...life is pain, unless you are looking at an Island Scrub-Jay lifting its skirt.

I have seen this Zombie Spotted Towhee a number of times. I don't know what's going on with it; the other side of its face looks even worse, with a lot more blue-gray skin...as close to an actual Terminator a Spotted Towhee can get. Luckily for us, this bird only terminates seeds and insects.