20070207 Montara Lighthouse

We have breakfast in the kitchen of Montara Lighthouse Hostel.
From the window we have a beautiful view at the ocean. Picture wv: 20070209 010.jpg

We see:
- lots of Cormorants Phalacrocorax spec., feeding and passing by.
- 1 Brown Pelican Pelecanus occidentalis flying south.
- 1 Black Oystercatcher flying south.
- 5 - 10 Common Murres Uria aalge (I think in England they are called Guillemot) feeding.

Something more about:
Project called “Returning Home: bringing the Common Murre back to Devil's Slide Rock”.

During the breeding season there is a live video connection in the Hostel, that shows breeding Common Murres Uria aalge and Brandt's Cormorants Phalacrocorax penicillatus at Devil's Slide Rock, in the Gulf of the Farallones, 3 miles north of Montana Lighthouse. Outside the season the video shows highlights of the 2006 breeding season.

Historically, the Common Murres nested on Devil's Rock. In the early 1980's, about 1500 pairs nested on the rock. Shortly after the colony was decimated when birds were killed in fishing gill-nets and oil spills. The colony was eliminated in 1986 after an oil spill along the coast. The barg “Apex Houston” spilled 26.000 gallons of crude oil while in transit from San Francisco Bay to Long Beach, California, hillong an estimated 9.900 seabirds, 6.300 of which were Common Murres.
The Common Murre Restoration Project is conducted by several organizations, including the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, Humboldt State University and the national Audubon Society.
The shipping company agreed to pay for projects to restore the Common Murre population.
Since 1996, biologists have been using a technique known as social attraction to restore the murre colony on Devil's Slide Rock. Murre decoys and amplified calls from CD players have been used to lure the highly colonial birds back to the rock.
The first chick was born in 1996. Since then, the number of nesting pairs and chicks has increased steadily, to 190 breeding pairs and 133 chicks fledged in 2004.
The scientists, that monitor the development of the colony, have a home base in the Hostel.

There is a DVD available, called “Returning Home” (2006) - see photocopy.

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We say goodbye to Lydia and Nancy. We offer them our kitchen towels.

When we leave the trip counter is at 30 miles.
First we get a full tank of petrol at Pacifica.

In the surroundings of Pacifica we see a male Northern Harrier Circus cyaneus. The same as our “blauwe kiek”?

At Golden Gate Park we see 2 raptors together in a tree, with striped breast, like juv. Sparrowhawks. Cooper's Hawks? ref. 2007-02-10 (Strybing Arboretum).

On the road we see a number of “Hawks”.