Subject: PB weekly summary #3 (long)
Date: Apr 9 09:08:13 1996
From: PAGODROMA at aol.com - PAGODROMA at aol.com


Point Piedras Blancas, San Luis Obispo, Co., California.

Weekly Summary #3, 4/01-4/07, 1996.
(*Selected* species; i.e. in most cases including those species which are
clearly long-shore, off-shore migrants but *not* including 'common' large
migrant larid gulls, cormorants (except DCCO), most shorebirds, miscellaneous
non-sea waterfowl, and in most cases unidentified birds like alcids, terns,
jaegers, etc.)

SEARCH EFFORT - 25X = 23.4hrs.
SEARCH EFFORT - E + 10X = 28.9hrs.
TOTAL HOURS OF EFFORT = 52.3hrs.

RTLO --- 1,889
PALO --- 8,531
ar/palo -- 2 (notes)
COLO --- 852
YBLO --- 0
yb/colo -- 0
CLGR --- 0
BFAL --- 1
LAAL --- 0
NOFU --- 25 (includes two 'ultra-whites')
PFSH --- 1
SOSH --- 242
STSH --- 0
MASH --- 1 (4/02 -- detailed written notes)
BVSH --- 3
storm petrels 0 (none this year yet)
BRPE --- ~86 (judged as migrants)
DCCO -- 7
BRAN --- 6,179 (significant flight, 4/07)
BLSC --- 1
SUSC --- 12,836 (significant flight, 4/07)
WWSC -- 13
RBME --- 87
OLDS --- 1
WHIM --- 41
LBCU --- 13
SBDO --- 318
REPH --- 50
RNPH --- 0
POJA --- 0
PAJA --- 0
po/paja -- 1
FRGU --- 0
BOGU --- 2,051
HMGU --- ~7 (immatures)
MEGU --- 6
GWGU --- 2
GLGU --- 0
BLKI ---- 16 (mostly immatures)
SAGU ---- 0
CATE --- 58
ROTE --- 1
ARTE --- 2 (notes)
FOTE --- 21 (two last week, ...I accidentally skipped over it)
COTE -- 0
COMU --- 86
PIGU --- ~40 (residents; maybe some migrants)
MAMU --- 8
XAMU --- 0
ANMU --- 12
CAAU --- 8
RHAU --- 234 (big flight, 4/07 1500-1800hrs only)

**NOTE: This list is only provided for your information. It is intended as a
quick and dirty summary. JUST A LIST. Totals are representative of a timed
sample and do not suggest an actual weekly total. There will be no
documentation of anything posted here -- that's all in my daily field notes.
Doing such at this point would only launch a storm of comment and open a
Pandora's Box for endless discussion. I realize that this IS IMPORTANT, but
I don't have time for long winded email exchanges at this point and will have
less time in coming weeks. I appreciate your emails and input. However,
the season is now swinging into really busy mode, gray whales and birds
alike, and I will likely not be able even to respond at all much in the
future. So, please understand and don't feel slighted. It's quite enough
to get these weekly summaries out. Your input is however, still welcome and
encouraged, and all communications are retained in a PB file folder for later
discussion if necessary once this 'ancillary' bird migration marathon from
hell and the 'primary'gray whale survey is all over in late May or early
June.

BTW, the site is CLOSED to public access. Sorry. Pigeon Point, south of San
Francisco is probably equally as good as the PB site. As for Washington? I
just don't know. Maybe the Gray's Harbor or Columbia River Jetties. The
shelf break is only 6 miles offshore from here, but more like 30-40 off
Washington. I wonder what a Spring on Tatoosh Island might be like.

A few shorebirds were added to this list this week along with some other
species not yet seen this season but which I expect to come by at some point.
I may still be adding some others to subsequent weekly summaries. The one
shorebird at least that I will regularily report will be whimbrels as they
are interesting and easy migrants to monitor. A *little curlew* was seen
with whimbrels during the 1995 season.

I make no attempt to deal with 'seagulls' other than the specific ones listed
on the current list. The large larid migration however is quite interesting
as flocks of them follow every little nook and cranny along the entire
coast, and as such, could trace a pretty good detailed map of the coastline.
But that's a study in and of itself. I quickly glance most of them over for
something really obvious and different like GWGU and GLGU. Otherwise, forget
it! BRCO and PECO is another migrant to some extent, but I am unable to
separate local residents and transients from true migrants with any
confidence at all.

The above comments will not be repeated in future summaries.
----------
Notes & other selected highlights this week:

Ratio RTLO to PALO 4:1 first of week, 1:1 on 4/03. On 4/04, PALO were off
and running with the ratio RTLO to PALO by the end of the week running ~1:7
with numbers of RTLO diminishing every day. Two AR/PA types were studied and
notes written about them, but I'm not ready to go out on a limb on these yet.
A few MAMU continue to always be seen in pairs, flying by both north and
south. There may be a few nesting birds somewhere nearby up in the Big Sur
Coastal hills somewhere.

Rain washed out morning sessions on 4/01 although most of the kittiwakes this
week were seen with that storm. Fog blottoed the entire Easter Sunday
morning 25X session. Bummer!! :(( I did 6 hours in the usually 'dead'
afternoon instead, and it wasn't nearly as quiet as is it usually is. I think
the fog tends to knock down the flight, especially if the coastal fog is
widespread and dense, but I can't prove that of course.

*Manx shearwater* was the 'bird of the week', coming way inshore and viewed
for about two minutes on the 25X at 0.7-0.3 nm in perfect light.
Black-vented shearwaters are just about all gone.

Peregrine Falcon -- I suspect that young hatched on 4/05 as behavior has
changed slightly with the female coming out more to perch on the ledge of the
aeiry for brief periods. Sunday was cold and foggy and I didn't see much of
her and suspect she was on the nest most of the day. Food exchanges from the
male to the female on the Outer Rock (aeiry site) have stopped, or at least I
haven't seen it recently. We have a prairie falcon in the area and the
peregrines don't take much to it when it is around as both birds bolt off the
Outer Rock (nest site) and chase it out. A few kills seen this week, mostly
shorebirds -- dowitchers are a favorite.

I've become quite attached to the pair of starlings living on a rock pinnacle
in front of our study site. They are quite good at imitating greater
yellowlegs and black-bellied plovers, and for that I was about ready to shoot
them. Now, they are getting pretty good at whimbrel and short-billed
dowitcher. This is probably the same pair that have resided there since
1994. Their saving grace however is their ability to alert me when a
accipiter or falcon is passing nearby, high or low over the iceplant. They
have a very distinctive alarm note specific to bird-eating falcons and
accipiters that alerts me every time the peregrine goes by. Had it not been
for them, I probably would never have seen the prairie falcon the first day
it showed up or the sharp-shinned hawk. They don't respond to the resident
red-tailed hawks. I guess they see them as no threat.

Rufous hummingbirds continued pouring through all week -- many males, but
numbers were beginning to subside by week's end. One Allen's hummingbird
nest has been found -- one egg 4/04, two eggs 4/07. The feeders are still
really busy, especially during the morning of 4/01, as the pouring rain
didn't even seem to phase them! Passerine migrants through the "oasis"
virtually 'nil' this week, with only Lincoln's and golden-crowned sparrows to
report as coastal migrants. Not a single warbler all week!

The resident 35-40 pigeon guillemots have some interesting behavioral
patterns. Since 1994, I've discovered them indulging in what I must call
'the happy hour' which takes place without fail every sunset. This is the
only time in the day that the whole gaggle are seen as they all gather in
*exactly* the same spot every evening, 0.5 nm off the South Point, 150:T from
our fixed study site. There, they raft up, tumble about over each other and
engage in a lot of chatter. About what? Gossipy stuff I suppose, one
ups-manship on who got the biggest fish, who got laid, and the like. It
looks like 'Happy Hour' to me :)

The Hyakutake Comet continues to be seen in the NW evening sky, usually
before 2200hrs. The offshore phase of the gray whale migration (adults &
juveniles) has tapered off and we are beginning to see a few cow/calves now.


San Simeon State Park -- not checked this week. Again... no time for
everything!


Richard Rowlett <pagodroma at aol.com>
(Bellevue, WA)
currently: Piedras Blancas Lighthouse
San Simeon, California