Birds on Catalina Island - Kate


WINGIN’ IT
By Kate Crowley
When I stepped out onto the patio and looked up, I saw a flock of black birds soaring around as if on thermals, but it was too early in the morning, even on Catalina Island to have much heat rising up. Yet, somehow the ravens and crows managed to catch currents of air coming off the ocean.  I was there for my mom’s 90th birthday party (she lives in Iowa but wanted to celebrate someplace warmer) and I am the only one among my siblings and other relatives who looks at and for birds the moment she steps outside.  I was especially excited to see the ravens, since they are my favorite bird and are rarely found in urbanized areas. The only other town that I know of in the lower 48 states that has ravens flying around is Ely, MN.  The ravens are easy to tell from the crows, because of they tend to soar longer and their general silhouette is much larger, with a tail that is wedge shaped.  Their cries are also deeper and more varied. 
When I am with my extended family they humor my bird watching passion by pointing out birds to me and showing a cursory interest.  Behind my back, who knows what they say, but I gamely share what I know and it doesn’t dampen my enthusiasm in the least that they are not as thrilled as I am by these winged creatures.  Luckily, my two kids are interested in birds too, my son more than my daughter, but they both enjoy seeing and watching birds wherever they are. They were started young on this pursuit and though they totally lost interest in their teens and early 20s, they have both shown more interest as they have become full adults and parents.
Besides the ravens, the other bird that will forever be connected in my mind with Santa Catalina Island is the acorn woodpecker.  These are birds I have only seen in the southwest U.S.  As their name indicates, they are normally found living around oak trees, where they drill perfectly shaped holes that they fill with acorns.  These woodpeckers have the most delightful faces, with a red cap, red cheeks and forehead, and black that goes from the back of the head up to and around its bright yellow eye. We have always thought they look like clown faces.
On Catalina the woodpeckers are using date palm trees for their storage (granary trees) and nest holes. At the top of the tree, beneath the green fronds, there is an area where old fronds have fallen or been cut off and what’s left is thick and deep enough to accommodate the birds after they have hollowed out the core.  There are some species of oak trees on the island, and I suspect the woodpeckers collect those acorns when possible to store in the palm trees, but they are probably gathering other nuts as well. 
My daughter Alyssa and I stood beneath one tree, located next to a golf course and watched four of the birds poke their beaks and bodies into the holes.  The entire tree was riddled with holes.  Later, on another date palm, I watched some crows circle around the tree, putting their beaks into the holes.  I’m sure they will steal whatever the woodpeckers put into them.  In fact, a volunteer at the Nature Center told us of seeing a flock of acorn woodpeckers attacking a raven and actually killing the larger bird.  Ravens and crows are predators and will take eggs or nestlings if they have the chance. Other birds know this and will mob them if they feel threatened. 
The final bird that I will long remember from the island by is the brown pelican. These large ocean-living birds are so unusual in appearance that you can’t help but be captivated by them, both in flight and when floating on the water, or especially when they dive for fish. We watched them late in the afternoon circling above the harbor, near the moored sailboats and the feeding sea lions.  Every once in a while, one would lift up slightly and then tilt downwards in a piercing dive, folding its wings at the last moment. It would pop up in just a moment, but I never could see if it had a fish in its long bill. I suspect they swallow them quickly.  Without wasting another minute, the big birds lift up off the water and continue their search for food.    

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

The Munger Trail - Willow River to Moose Lake

Image
The Willard Munger Trail - named for one of the environmental heroes of MN is our neighborhood bike trail and the place I get my biking exercise and conditioning.  I thought it would be good to share some of its highlights and pleasures.  So here is a look at the trail and what I enjoy. The small towns that prospered during the days when the trail was a railroad track and the country moved by Steam Engine are just a shadow of what they used to be, but that shadow is filled with surprises and fun places to explore if you give yourself the time to engage in the setting, as well as the peddling.  Willow River is our little home town and the Mercantile is over 100 years old and still meets many of our needs.  It is a place for refreshments and Peggy Sue's is a local restaurant that makes a great lunch or dinner stop. There is also a local park that provides you with a sense of the RR past. The trail is very straight like most RR grades and lacks hills except between Rutledg
Read more

Sense of Place

Image
GOING NATURE’S WAY By Kate Crowley I am intrigued by the idea of Sense of Place; to feel completely ‘at home’ in one particular place.  I have read that people who grow up on the Great Plains feel claustrophobic when they are in forested environments and in reverse,  people who have grown up surrounded by forest find the openness of the plains unnerving, with nothing to break the view to the horizon. I grew up in the city, but the Minnehaha Creek and Parkway were just two blocks away and I spent countless hours playing and exploring there.  The city lakes were within biking distance. The Mississippi River was just blocks away from the apartment where I lived the first four years of my life.  When I was 36 I married Mike and moved to our current home and it was perfect.  When my dad first visited us in our new home, he said, “Kate must think she’s died and gone to heaven”.  This is where I am supposed to be.  Scientists who have studied the evolution of humanity have proposed
Read more

Rain threatens birds

Image
WINGIN’ IT By Kate Crowley As the floodwaters recede, a stunned and relieved populace can finally stop holding their collective breath. Throughout southern Carlton County and all of Pine County there is a sense of disbelief that only four years after a major flood event, it has happened again.  At our home we measured over 8” of rain in less than 24 hours. This is what the word deluge was meant to describe. Others said it felt like they were in the middle of a monsoon. Thankfully there was no loss of life in our region, but property damage and loss was significant for people who have in some cases finally recovered and remodeled after the flood of 2012, which was said to be a once in 100 years flood when 8 to 10 inches of rain were spread over three days. Here in Willow River, there was fear that the small dam holding back the waters of the river would fail, with catastrophic results. Roads throughout the two counties (and into Wisconsin) were hard hit and the cost to repair
Read more