Where the Sidewalk Ends.: And Its One More Day Up in the Canyons...

01 February 2008

And Its One More Day Up in the Canyons...

...and it's one more night in Hollywood.
If you think that you might come to California;

I think you should. - Counting Crows, Recovering the Satellites
___________________________________________

My next position will be as Avian Field Biologist for the San Clemente Loggerhead Shrike monitoring program. This work will take place on San Clemente Island, the southern most island of the Channel Islands chain off the coast of southern California.

San Clemente Island is owned and operated by the United States Navy as a training facility.

It lies ~55 nautical miles south of Long Beach, and 68 nautical miles west of San Diego. The island is ~ 21 nautical miles long and 4.5 nautical miles at its widest point.

satellite image of San Clemente I.

The topography, in part, consists of a mountain range that runs down the southern two-thirds of the island. It has a maximum elevation of 599 meters (1965 ft.). Within, exists canyons, waterfalls at certain times of the yr, and riparian areas. The rest of the island consists of Coastal and Upper Marine Terraces, an eastern escarpment, and sand dunes.

The Channel Islands are part of one of the richest marine biospheres in the world. Many unique species and subspecies are endemic to the islands; including Island Fox ( Urocyon littoralis), Channel Islands Spotted Skunk (Spilogale gracilis amphiala), Island Scrub Jay (Aphelocoma insularis), Ashy Storm-petrel (Oceanodroma homochroa), Island Night Lizard (Xantusia riversiana), San Clemente Loggerhead Shrike (Lanius ludovicianus mearnsi) and the San Clemente Sage Sparrow (Amphispiza belli clementeae). The aforementioned just some of what going on above, not mentioning any of the great organisms living below the water.

Briefly about two of these endemics:

The critically endagered Island Fox is native to six of the eight Channel Islands of California. It is the smallest fox species in the United States. "Roughly the size of a house cat."

There are six subspecies of Island Fox, each native to a specific Channel Island, including San Clemente Island.

photo from Wikimedia

The bird I'll be working with.

The SCI Loggerhead Shrike is an endangered subspecies of the Loggerhead Shrike.

This monitoring project has been going on for about 10 years. There are now 100 adults of the SCI shrike, that is ~ 40 to 50 nesting pairs.

photo from scisland.org

Shrikes are quite interesting aves. More about Shrikes (Family Laniidae) later.

In the near future, we can touch on island ecology such as allopatric speciation, island endemism, and other points of unique floral and faunal evolution brought on by natural selection and geographic separation/isolation.

Good morning.

peace,

mwyork

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Hawaiian Monk Seals

The most endangered seal in the U.S., with only around 1500 in existance. This animal has always had a fragile phenology due to the precarious transition from nursing pup - to weened pup. This species had its population lowered due to a number of factors including human harrassment, historical hunting among others. There are those in certain groups and agencies that have had the opinion that in order to help this animal, the culling of the Galapagos Shark, one of its main predators, from nearby waters that seals use as the way to bring the population back. An oceanic apex predator had nothing to due with the seals' population decline. Interesting how we humans immediately go to predator persecution in various aspects of wildlife management and conservation. The last shark crew on Tern I., not without effort, took all of zero Galapagos Sharks. Cunning, we as a species are sometimes. Anyhow, the outlook for the HI Monk Seal is not a rosy one, though many biologists are working extremely hard on its behalf. The world has already lost the Caribbean Monk Seal and the Mediterranean Monk Seal. Unfortunately these guys may be next. I felt absolutely honored and fortunate to have been able to see them during their extremely important restings on the shore, as well as the incredible experiences of being with them once in awhile snorkeling.

Tristram's Storm-petrel (Oceanodroma tristrami)

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