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Trips to the Coronado Islands, April and May 1924 | |
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Photo Gallery
Field Notes April 1924 Related Links L.M. Huey Biography
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L.M. Huey Field Notes On duck hawks, rattlesnakes and murrelets. Tuesday, May 27 1924 An early start was made to Big Middle Island where we arrived in about half an hour. A Great Blue Heron was seen standing in the kelp near the south island as we were rowing over. As there was no place to use our mooring anchor one of us had to remain in the skiff, so I was elected. Van & Jose spent two and a half hours searching thru the rocks and under the bushes without results. Gull nests were abundant and most of them were heavily incubated. 2 clutches of young were found & taken for skins. The most unusual thing was the finding of a nest of Calif. Great Blue herons with 2 new hatched young & one pipped egg. These were taken for specimens and constituted the first breeding record for the Coronados of this species. A pair of Duck Hawks had been soaring about overhead during our morning stay at the island and as we were rowing towards south island the female [orig. uses symbol] was seen to fly directly into a recess in a good sized cliff on south island. My two and a half hours spent in the bobbing rowboat resulted in a most terrific case of sea sickness, making me useless the rest of the day. Late in the afternoon I felt a bit better & we all went up on the island to search for murrelets. None were found tho when passing over a recently burned area Jose found a new quail’s nest that had been destroyed by the fire. Van had three single murrelet eggs that were found Sunday afternoon. We looked them over & found no birds incubating or second eggs yet laid. Wednesday, May 28 1924 We all started to the west side of south island in an attempt to locate the Duck hawks’ nest and collect them if possible. The female [orig. symbol] met us at the crest of the island and Van took a pop at her without results tho some of the shot struck her. Proceeding down the cactus covered slope very cautiously on account of rattlesnakes, Van soon from a vantage point over the nest cliff shot the male, dropping it into the surf below. This necessitated the return to camp and the embarkation for a long journey in the skiff so he left his gun & the shells with me. I did not have long to wait before the old female [orig. symbol] returned and a long chance shot failed to reach her, however she returned and a charge of 5s brought her screaming to the ground at the foot of the cliff. While I was peering about over the edge of the cliff marking the location of the fallen bird I saw two young duck hawks perching on the edge of a ledge near the south end of the cliff. Thinking that they were about ready to fly I shot them. It took me fully an hour and a half to get around to the base of the cliff where the old female [orig. symbol] had fallen and when trying to cross a fair sized brush patch I bombarded it with large rocks before venturing in. In this case the efforts proved worthwhile for five different rattlesnakes responded and I chose another route. After picking up my old bird I attempted to get my small duck hawks but found that it was too dangerous to climb, owing to rotten rocks without a short rope, tho it was but 10 feet up or down to the ledge. On going above & looking down I found that by throwing rocks I was able to knock one of the dead birds off and while doing this, to my surprise, the cackling voices of two more young greeted my ear. Meanwhile Van Rossem had made it around in the skiff, picked up his bird and was again at the top of the cliff. I called him down and with his help I was able to get to the edge of the nest ledge and secure my other dead young one. The two live ones were wild so it was found necessary to return at some future time with a rope. When on the edge of the nest ledge I gathered up a few handfuls of feathers to examine for species later. The whole place was one mass of feathers, in fact it appeared as tho a few feather pillows had been torn apart there. These feathers later proved that such birds as Russet-backed Thrush, Hermit Thrush (subs.?), Western Tanagers, Ash throated Flycatchers, Xantus Murrelets, Petrels, Dusky Warblers, Housefinches, Mourning doves and others that could not be positively identified had fallen prey to these vicious birds. When we were returning to camp, a Western Wood Pewee was seen and Jose shot a Traill Flycatcher. At camp we found a movie outfit working. They had a couple of palm trees piled up on the beach but the weather made it impossible to make up the set. A very strong north wind sprang up and the skiff was dragging its anchor so bad that it was necessary to pull it upon the rocks. This worked fine until about five p.m. The wind & waves having grown worse, I chanced to look up just in time to see the skiff going to sea—and it was not without worry and help from another fellow on the island that we again had it safely moored with an additional anchor. |
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