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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. Thursday, May 29, 1924 We all made an early start for the north end of the island, taking with us a length of rope with which to safely descend to the Duck Hawks’ nest. We searched for Murrelets in every cranny along our way but were unsuccessful. Three rattlesnakes were killed near the trail as we passed along. The reptiles were coiled up in the warm sandy spots awaiting some victim at which to strike. After shooting a couple of Gulls for Jose, Van and I went back to the Duck Hawk’s nest which we were able to reach without difficulty with the rope. The shelf was literally covered with bird feathers and I picked up 42 pairs of Murrelet wings from the nest and found a new bird or two that had fallen victims of these diabolical Duck Hawks - Epidonax sub? And Passerella sub?. The two young ones were present end very much on the fight when I attempted to pick then up. One grabbed my arm, clawing blood before I could get him loose. I had hoped to keep them alive a day or so to acquire some photos, but they were too bad. While I was busy with one, the other crawled along a ledge of the cliff and gained another recess some ten feet farther along the wall in an absolutely inaccessible place and I had to kill him with rocks. Again reaching the summit of the island, we found that the "Tecate" had arrived, so I hastened back to camp while Van picked up a few of his single Murrelet eggs. One of his singles was found on the first day and now had a companion egg laid during the night but no bird was present. After everyone arrived in camp we lost no time packing up our goods and were soon on board the ship—bound for home where we arrived about 3 p.m. |
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