Hundreds of Cormorants Flying North

When I strolled out on Port Hueneme beach this afternoon, I saw a continuous stream of black flutters over the ocean... Cormorants flying in formation--hundreds of them!

I ran to the end of Port Hueneme pier to try and get a better photograph, between the fishing poles. This was the best my zoom could do on my point-and-shoot camera:

It was wonderful seeing all those Cormorants together like that.

I haven't seen any Western Grebes for about three weeks. I'm sure they have migrated back to their spring/summer lakes by now. The last grebe I saw on shore (the last one I rescued) was on Friday, April 3rd. Here's the little guy's photo:

My girlfriend, Judie, was with me that day. She had come for a visit all the way from Colorado. She stood guard by the helpless grebe while I ran back to my condo to get a box. These grebes are not supposed to be on land. They're a pure aquatic bird, and their sternum bones are not well-protected. It is not good for them to be out of the water.

I set him on a donut-cushioned towel, and we drove him up to Carpinteria where we rendezvoused with Connie, a bird rescue person from Santa Barbara Wildlife Care Network. She took him, along with three other seabirds, to June's care facility in Goleta.

After seeing oodles of Cormorants today, I saw quite a few pelicans resting on the sands near Port Hueneme Harbor.

The seagulls accompanied this gal along the sand cliff:

There were lots of seabirds today. More photos to follow... just not enough time tonight. I've got to fly off. Bye for now.

The Dredging of Port Hueneme Harbor - PART II

Final Chapter.

I jogged to Port Hueneme harbor this morning and saw that the last of the large dredging cylinders were being dragged along the sand and tug-boated out to the harbor. A man working as cylinder overseer told me they were heading off to Ventura Harbor now, and that they wouldn't be back to Port Hueneme for perhaps two years.

Since I was without camera this morning, I decided to go through my photo archive, and choose my favorite dredging photos from the last three months for this final dredging post.

Below is a photo taken in mid-December '08, showing the path of the outpouring. Notice the sand cliff crumbling away in the lower lefthand corner:

But what was even more interesting was how this young seagull basked in the flowage:

This aftermath photo below (a sort of textural still life) I deemed "dried sludge":

From what I observed upon my daily beach patrols, pelicans in particular enjoyed hanging out near the dredging sites along the beach.

In fact, I can't even count how many pelicans showed up for this dredging sunset on Friday the 13th in February. Unbelievable! (Click on the photo to enlarge it, and see if you can count how many pelicans are standing on the shore.):

Dredging would take place at different points between the harbor and Port Hueneme Pier, giving Mother Earth time to mend her sandy Hueneme shores. Right after the first of the year, they were close to the harbor, near the lighthouse:

And at the end of the month (January '09) they were close to the pier. Below is a great night shot, with a view of Surfside IV condos in the background:

The seagulls liked to play 'chicken' with the big bad bulldozers that were used to push the sand around.

Below you can see the tracks of the bulldozers, as well as an inland perspective on the big spout.

But alas, the dredging party is over, the spouts have all dried up, and summer awaits.

An Eagle Rescue in Wisconsin

A great article in February 23, 2009 issue of News From Indian Country about Clarence Daniels, tribal member of Forst County Patawatomi Nation, who in late December last year, had noticed an eagle struggling to get across Highway 55. Mr. Daniels was on his way back from Wausau, Wisconsin. A good story:

The Dangers of Lead to Birds, Waterfowl and Wildlife
By Lori Thomas

The Dredging of Port Hueneme Harbor - PART I

It's been an interesting few weeks walking the shores of Port Hueneme and seeing this whole dredging operation play out. At first I thought, "This must be some kind of environmental nightmare." But I have since come to the opinion that the dredging thing has very little impact on the wildlife, and that the environmental repercussions are only temporary. In fact, as I have observed the seabirds' reaction to it all, it seems they rather enjoy it.

During that week in January when the Santa Ana winds faced down our balmy, offshore breezes, the whole beach was transformed into a desert, which just happened to have an ocean next to it.

I was walking along the lonely shore, saying outloud to myself, "Where are all the birds?" But as I continued to patrol the beach, I happened upon their gathering place, just beyond the dredge outpouring source. "Of course," I replied to myself, "they're all here at the local swimming hole, where else?"

These birds were having a field day, and it almost made me want to don my bathing suit and jump in. (I said, almost.)

I do wonder what's contained in those oodles of blobs dotting the shore following the siphoning of gobbledygook from the bottom of the harbor through hundreds of feet of metal piping.

So, I took a closer look by taking this photograph:

When I step on these things, they squoosh like modeling clay, and if they haven't dried out yet, they slick like oil. It's as if the combined ingredients of nature's seabottom and spews of incoming ships have created some kind of beach cookie dough, a perfectly delectable delight for seabirds. The Western Sandpiper below is apparantly on a diet - a small portion:

After a time, these cookie dough blobs eventually dissolve into the sand and become part of the ever-continuing process of earth re-cleansing herself.

Stay tuned for The Dredging of Port Hueneme Harbor - PART II

Dog owners happy-to-disobey beach rules and threaten seabirds

"Oh, isn't it so cute the way my dog chases the birds?"

See Spot run wild and free! (Free as a bird?)

I understand, BUT... did you know?

Dogs and humans can be the deciding factor on whether an injured, tired or distressed bird lives or dies. And it's against the rules to bring your animals onto Port Hueneme beach.

I post the rules here. First, in English:

#3007 Dogs Must Be on a Continuously-Held Leash
#4008 No Animals on Sand (Seaward side of Pathways)

Then in Spanish:

#3007 Se Requiere Perros en Correa Agarrada en Mano
#4008 No se Permiten Animales en la Arena (Paseo-lado de la Playa)

I found myself witnessing a pelican's nightmare tonight when I strolled the beach at sunset. I am posting my experience as an illustration of my point.

When I first spotted the tired guy, he was trying to negotiate the high waves.

He was definitely coming in.

Once he got to shore, I made a wide girth around him to take this shot:

In the next photo, you can see where he stood in comparison to Port Hueneme Pier in the background:

I stood by and kept an eye on him. And then I saw the man and woman with their two little dogs. I thought, "Well, that's cool. At least they're keeping them on a leash." But then they were getting awfully close to the pelican, and I was starting to get concerned.

As I stood in view and took this photo, it had not been in my wildest imagination that this man would actually unleash his dogs right there where the tired pelican rested on shore. What the... ? And the two little dogs ran straight for him. I screamed, "No. No!!" But it was too late. The pelican did what all tired birds do when threatened, they go back into the sea. And he was having a hard time. He was too tired to fly, and he wasn't swimming either, more like just floating in the surf, his wings falling limp on both sides. He was just really tired, and I knew it. I was so angry at the stupid dog owners!

But despite this inconsiderate act, the little guy came back to shore, and walked slowly up the beach until he got to a safe resting place, by all the leftover dredge from the harbor (which I will be posting about soon). I also had to tell a group of boys with fishing poles to stay clear of the pelican. If he went back into the water again, I didn't think his chances would be good.

There are many threats to the wildlife in this huge seaport. As the ship sailed out of port, I sent a little energy to the pelican.

I will return to check on him first thing in the morning. Rest well, little guy.

And please, please, proud dog owners, if you're going to break the beach rules, do so with caution and consideration of these precious wild creatures.

There is also disturbing pelican news from the International Bird Rescue Research Center. (What's causing fatigued pelicans to drop from the sky?)

The cormorants came back

Happy New Year to humans and birds alike.

In my previous post (Dec 30), I said I would return to the beach the following morning with my camera, because I thought I had seen a pair of cormorants diving for fish beyond the breakers that day. And I hadn't taken my camera with me. I did return early the next morning, camera hanging over my shoulder, and there they were; the cormorants had come again.

I feel a kinship with these birds now, as well as the grebes.

Something had caught my eye through the viewfinder after I had found the pair of cormorants again. I snapped a photo of what I thought was a pelican landing, judging by the large wingspan. But when I looked out in the water, there were now three cormorants. I knew the third had just joined the other two. According to the book, "Introduction to Birds of the Southern California Coast," cormorants fly with rapid wing beats and neck extended. And when they hit the water, they skid to a halt. I think I captured this skidding-to-a-halt thing here.

I tried to determine what kind of cormorants these were, as I knew they were the same as my cormorant I had lost.

However, I am limited by my point-and-shoot Fujifilm Finepix S8000fd camera. Eventually, I'd like to upgrade to the Finepix S100fs, for those sharper images and optical zoom. I'd like to upgrade myself to advanced amateur photographer, too. The photo below is the closest in distance I could get with my current zoom. By this photo, I determined that all the cormorants I had seen were Brandt's Cormorants, and not the Double-crested or Pelagic cormorants.

The Brandt's Cormorants are the most common cormorant in the Southern California Bight. (See more cormorant photos in my December posts.)

The oil-soaked cormorant died in the water

It's been two weeks since my last post, but it's not because there wasn't something to talk about; it's because I haven't had the words to describe the sadness I felt when, three days after I had spotted the cormorant on shore, two days after I had seen him again in the water near Port Hueneme Pier, I found him dead on the beach. I had missed a day in between because there had been a rainstorm. More than likely, he died of hypothermia. It was a lot for me to take in, the grief hard to bear, knowing I could have saved him if I had known he was in trouble. I should have made my plan, and executed a rescue. I'm so sad about the bird. He really was a magnificent creature.

I took his picture because the sorrow was important. It will always be important. The two bird deaths here in Port Hueneme happened as a result of the oil spill 30 miles up the coast--the Santa Barbara County oil spill near Carpinteria on December 7th. I found the oil-soaked grebe on December 10th already dead, and the oil-soaked cormorant died sometime before the morning of December 19th.

I will post again, as there are other things I want to discuss, like the dredging of Port Hueneme Harbor, and the clay-looking oily, rocky blobs left on shore as a result.

But I wanted to leave this post with a little hope:

Today I saw a pair of cormorants diving for fish today out beyond the breakers. I didn't take photos, as I haven't been taking my camera to the beach lately. I will return in the morning to check on them, and bring my camera just in case. But from now on, it is my first priority to make sure the birds are okay before snapping photos.

My husband and I rescued a young seagull with a broken wing two weekends ago. I had spotted him on the beach following sunset a couple of days before, and didn't think I could handle the rescue. When I approached him, he would run away--fast. So when we saw him again, my husband helped me corral him. I made the handoff to Liz, who had rescued two other seagulls the same day near Channel Islands Harbor and was taking them to a bird care facility. It was Liz who told me that mine was a young seagull, because he was brown-colored. I didn't have a camera at the time of his rescue, but I did go out the following day and take shots of the different-colored seagulls. I am including two:




All these wild birds deserve to have a clean ocean in which to live.