Brown Pelican May Come off Endangered Species List

The Department of Interior is considering removing brown pelican from endangered species list.Brown pelicans were placed on the endangered species list about 40 years ago because their population crashed due to DDT poisoning. DDT is metabolized in birds into a compound known as DDE. DDT and DDE are fat-soluble and large amounts would be deposited in eggs, and the fatty tissues of the birds.

Pelicans and other birds like the bald eagle, and peregrine falcon are at, or near the top of their food webs. DDT, because it is fat soluble, and is stored in the fat of animals “bio magnifies” as it moves up the food chain. In other words as these birds near the top of the food chain consume their prey they also consume the DDT stored in the fatty tissues of their prey. Their prey in turn store the DDT consumed in their food. DDT caused the eggshells of these birds to become so thin that when the adults sat on the eggs to incubate them, the eggs were crushed. Brown pelicans in California nest on the channel islands, including Anacapa and Santa Barbara. Despite thousands of birds laying eggs, in some years no chicks at all survived.

In 1972 DDT was banned in the US. Since then there has been a gradual recovery in the numbers of pelicans and peregrine falcons. The peregrine was removed from the endangered species list in 1999. The bald eagles, which used to nest on Catalina have not done as well. There are still high concentrations of DDT in some fish and birds in this area due to the massive dumping of wastes full of DDT into the waters off San Pedro by the Montrose Chemical Company.
There are estimates of as many as 600,000 brown pelicans through out the US currently. The birds also are found off the Gulf Coast and nest on low-lying islands off the coast of Louisiana. However, these islands are vulnerable to damage from coastal storms, and inundation due to the rise in sea level.

During the winter and spring brown pelicans can commonly be seen at Bolsa Chica here in Huntington Beach.

Sunday at Bolsa Chica

It was a warm and sunny morning at Bolsa Chica today. The highlight of my walk was seeing this peregrine in the trees on the mesa near where the great blue herons are beginning to nest. A few days ago I found the remains of a green winged teal on the path around the wetlands. It was probably this bird that ate the teal. Another common name for peregrines is "duck hawk" because they prefer to catch and eat birds the size of ducks and other shorebirds. One afternoon I was walking below the mesa near the pocket wetlands when I looked up because a shower of feathers was raining down. There was a peregrine in the tree above me tearing apart what might have been an American wigeon.I have also seen a peregrine eating a black necked stilt at Bolsa Chica.
This is a male and female green winged teal. They are small dabbling ducks that filter mud for algae and small invertebrates. Ducks like these teal are light enough that they can burst into the air from a stationary position, unlike heavier ducks which run along on the water prior to take off.
Remains on the footpath.

Old Faithful Geyser LIVE!

Yellowstone National Park has just added a live feed streaming video web cam of Old Faithful and a few other geysers in the immediate area of Old Faithful. You can go to the web page by clicking here

Feeding time, and the mountains are beautiful

The San Gabriel Mountains have a beautiful blanket of snow left from the recent storms. The rain here has caused the native plants on the mesa to break dormancy, and many are flowering. Bladderpod, and the coast sunflower are in bloom right now along with the non native mustard.

This male scaup along with several others was diving for mussels near the tide gate this morning. These diving ducks commonly eat fish, but were snacking on one mussel after another. After positioning them just right in their beaks, the birds swallowed the mussels whole.
Surf scoters were also dining on mollusks this morning. The male bird above, and the female below were feeding by the walk bridge on clams. They also just swallowed the clams whole. The must have strong gizzards to be able to grind up this food.

Large and Small at Bolsa Chica

There was a great deal of bird activity this morning in the pocket wetlands and the nearby eucalyptus trees. An osprey was having a breakfast of what looked like some kind of ray. Grebes like this little pied-billed grebe were fishing along with mergansers, terns and egrets including the reddish egret.


Green wing and blue wing teal along with northern shovelers, northern pintails and American wigeons were dabbling in the mud.
Male Anna's hummingbirds were zipping about and courting females. Those that have so far escaped the wall of death, that is. Parts of the wall where there is no chain link with green mesh now have caution tape attached to it as you can see from this picture.

Windy day at Bolsa Chica

There was a strong wind blowing from the east this morning at Bolsa Chica. This allowed this male kestrel to ride the wind while hunting for bugs, lizards or small mice.
This female northern harrier was also up over the mesa and gliding low over rabbit island in search of prey.
The kestrel flew directly above me several times as he hunted on the mesa. 
This young red tailed hawk was also up over the mesa looking for food. The wind made gliding easy.

Buttress Roots

While in Belize I saw numerous species of trees with buttress roots. These roots are common in species of trees found in the rain forest, because the trees have fairly shallow roots. The soils in the rain forest are nutrient poor, so having shallow, but widespread roots is a strategy that allows the tree to acquire nutrients from a wide area.
However, shallow roots don't provide much support to the tree, hence the buttresses. Some of these specialized roots can reach 15 feet. These were well over the top of my head.

The buttresses also provide surfaces for other flowering plants, mosses, lichens, and ferns to grow.

Belize

Iguana in tree top over the Sette River. 
Keel Billed Toucan
The Sette River
I just returned from a week in Belize which included attending a 5 day class on the Marine Ecology of the Reefs of Belize. We were going to spend three nights on Wee Wee Caye which is 9 miles off the coast, but the sea was so rough it was unsafe for us to travel out to the Caye in the small open boats we had. So we stayed at the Possum Point Biological Station and did one day trip to the caye in a large boat. The class turned out to be more about terrestrial rain forest ecology which was fine with me since we saw so many new birds, and walked through fabulous forests with trees that looked like they could pick up and start walking like those in the Lord of the Rings. We snorkeled in the rain in water warmer than the air. I saw amazing fan corals, brain coral, sea stars, fish, and sea anemones in just 3 to 4 feet of water. I also spend two nights at a lodge in Western Belize just a few miles from Guatemala and visited Mayan ruins.

From the International Airport in Belize City, which is the size of the airport in Long Beach CA, we flew on a 12 seat Cessna toward the Sette River.

One year ago today, Tanzania

One year ago today I greeted the New Year at a wilderness camp on Maasai land in the Serengeti.
The word Serengeti comes from a Maasai word Siringitu. It means the place where the land moves on forever. 

On New Years Eve, as we turned off the good dirt road onto “the road” to our camp, (which was really nothing more than where others had driven before us), I asked Sebastian, our guide how long it would take to get to the camp. He replied, “Four hours if we have no trouble.”
We were about 1 kilometer down the “road” and we got trouble. Flat Stanley is posing here with Carrie as we see just how far down the rear tires have sunk into the soil. It was quite an adventure as over a 3 hour period Sebastian jacked up the wheel, while we hunted and gathered on the grasslands for rocks to put under the tires for traction. After unloading all the luggage and pushing as Sebastian drove we were finally able to get the landcruiser out of the mud. Our happiness was short lived as about 10 kms further on we got stuck again. Fortunately Sebastian had sent text messages to the camp and Julius and Noel soon arrived. With their help we were unstuck in a matter of 15 mins. or so and on we went. By this time it was getting dark and as we sped along the Serengeti at 40-50 kms/hr Thompson gazelles would race along side the car and cut across in front of us. Sebastian was determined not to get stuck again since working to get the car out of the mud with lions around at night was something none of us wanted to do. This resulted in a great deal of fishtailing through the mud and calls from Sebastian to "HOLD ON", as if we weren't. We all were wondering if he had ever flipped a landcruiser... Finally at 11:30 at night we arrived at camp, and what it camp it was!
This was the most luxurious camping I have ever done. The photo above is of the dining tent and lounge area. The food was fabulous, and at night after dinner and conversation a staff member walked us to our tents since we were out in the wilderness with lions and leopards around. 
As you can see from the inside of my tent, I had a wash basin, there was a chemical toilet in the tent, and a gravity fed shower. Early in the morning one of the camp staff would come in through a side door in the tent and put warm water next to the basin, and leave coffee and scones or other goodies on the veranda outside. I could get used to this kind of "camping".

Since we were on Maasai land and not in the National Park we could get out of the landcruiser and go for walks. We went for walks every morning and afternoon. On our last night there we walked to a kopi (a rock outcropping) to find the staff had set up pillows, blankets and rugs for us along with food and drink so we could enjoy the sunset, and...
the rise of a full moon.

Happy New Year

Among those of us in the Land Trust, there has been a long standing tradition , started by my late husband Dick Le Grue, to meet on the Bolsa Chica Mesa at sunrise. We also recognize the recipients of the Kennedy-Kolpin Conservation Award on this morning, then meet for a pot luck breakfast nearby. This is what we saw this morning as the sun rose over Saddle Back Mountain.