{"id":14659,"date":"2018-05-25T11:25:25","date_gmt":"2018-05-25T18:25:25","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/mlmlblog.wordpress.com\/?page_id=14659"},"modified":"2020-10-15T15:40:26","modified_gmt":"2020-10-15T22:40:26","slug":"nikkiinglis","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mlml.sjsu.edu\/student-life\/2018\/05\/25\/nikkiinglis\/","title":{"rendered":"Adventures in Mexico 2018: Vivan los Aves!"},"content":{"rendered":"
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By Nikki Inglis<\/a>, visiting student of California State University Monterey Bay<\/h3>\n

Photos by Nikki Inglis unless otherwise indicated.<\/em><\/p>\n

It wasn\u2019t until the last star came out on moonless night that we heard it. At first, it sounded like the incessant wind whipping around the wooden cabin walls. Then we heard it again; a growling rasp, a ghostly whisper and so, so close. We heard wings gliding in from the Pacific Ocean and a welling up of some invisible kind of energy.<\/p>\n

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Ninety-five percent of blackvented shearwaters nest on Isla Natividad, Baja California Sur, Mexico. \u00a9 Greg Gilson 2014.<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Within minutes, the sound was everywhere. The hills teemed, wings flapped frantically around us. We couldn\u2019t see any of it, but the soundscape was three-dimensional, painting a picture of tens of thousands of birds reveling in their moonless refuge. Isla Natividad\u2019s black-vented shearwater colony had come to life.<\/p>\n

We had been on the island for seven days and not heard a peep. Only two shearwaters had been spotted by our group - birds that had been trapped by daylight and forced to wait it out in hiding. I was starting to wonder if perhaps they hadn\u2019t arrived yet, and only a few early-breeders were scoping out their seasonal nesting grounds.\u00a0I tried to imagine what 70,000 birds might feel and sound like, but I never imagined this. The black-vented shearwater colony on a moonless night is a singular experience, but it\u2019s not the only reason bird researchers and enthusiasts are interested in Isla Natividad.\u00a0This remote desert island is a haven for seabirds and houses a myriad of rich desert\u00a0habitats\u2014largely free from human disturbance\u2014that offer fascinating insight into distributional patterns, morphology and behavior of familiar and uncommon species.<\/p>\n

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Nesting black-vented shearwaters<\/h2>\n

Ninety-five percent of the world\u2019s black-vented shearwater population nests at Isla Natividad. The shearwater colony covers about 2.5 sq. km. on the southern tip of the island, surrounding the town center and lining most of the roads on the island. You can hardly take a step without running into a shearwater nest, so those steps must be taken carefully. Walking off trail is strictly forbidden, and even headlamps at night are discouraged in observance of the bird\u2019s extreme and almost pitiable sensitivity to light. Recent aerial surveys indicate that there are about 35,000 nesting pairs of shearwaters on the island each breeding season, which runs from March to August. On Natividad, the locals call them \u201clos nocturnos.\u201d The locals\u2019 pride over the nocturnos is contagious. They are adamantly protective over the colony, and there\u2019s even a shearwater mural in town emblazoned with the words \u201cvivan los aves.\u201d<\/p>\n

The nocturnos are so sensitive to light that even bright moonlight will keep them underground or out on the water. Wait for a waning moon\u2014when the sun sets before the moon rises\u2014and sit on a dark beach. It\u2019s worth a trip to the island just for a brief window of moonless night to wander through the otherworldly din. Quiet just won\u2019t sound the same afterwards.<\/p>\n

Other seabirds<\/h2>\n

If the awe of the shearwaters\u2019 immense but invisible presence wears off\u2014and it might not\u2014the island\u2019s other bird-related curiosities offer endless exploration.\u00a0 I see massive flocks of brants offshore. Divers on the boats that rounded the northern tip of the island noted double-crested cormorants on the rocky cliffs. Brown pelicans strut indignantly around beaches and glide in squadrons over breaking waves. At one time, least and Leach\u2019s storm petrels nested here. It\u2019s still unknown if they\u2019ve returned since nonnative threats (ie, feral cats) have been eliminated. Researchers are also interested in whether Xantus\u2019 or Craveri\u2019s murrelets are nesting there now.\u00a0 Circumnavigation of this wild island by panga could definitely yield some notable sightings to any intrepid birder.<\/p>\n

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Isla Natividad\u2019s Western gulls are an integral part of island life and have distinctly strong personalities. <\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Shorebirds<\/h2>\n

The sunrise casts a pink tinge on the tide\u2019s fizzy froth. With each ebb and flow, a flock of plovers forage in the wet sand, scattering as the water nips at their feet.<\/p>\n

I spent several afternoons in the intertidal, where I watched great egrets forage in tidepools draped in kelp, and whimbrels sink their long beaks in the sand. I spotted a tri-colored heron, another bird for my life list, as they don\u2019t make it much further north than this. There are several species and variations thereof on Natividad that can\u2019t be found in central California.<\/p>\n

There is a notable pattern in bird ranges in which some species from the east coast of North America snake around through the Gulf of Mexico and pop up over in the Gulf of California and the west coast of Baja, but rarely make it into southern and central California. For example, this pattern is why, on Natividad, the oystercatchers have white bellies. They\u2019re American oystercatchers, and they\u2019re commonly seen in the on east and southeast coasts. But further north in alta California, the black oystercatcher takes over. True to its name, it\u2019s solid black as night. It\u2019s perplexing, as the ecology of Baja\u2019s pacific coast is much more similar than to California is to that of the Gulf of Mexico.<\/p>\n

It almost seems as if some of these birds observe the U.S.-Mexico border, and want to avoid the Tijuana traffic as much as we do.<\/p>\n

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