We all like standing along the coast watching out at the Channel Islands on a clear day due to the fact that they look stunning and stunning. We understand they are a few of the most stunning and life-sustaining islands on the planet, both listed below and above the waterline.
When a sea bird or coast bird takes a look at them, they are taking a look at that location of genesis their types most likely relies on for life itself. Our Channel Islands offer nesting and breeding premises for 99% of seabirds in Southern California.
The islands are essential wintering locations and stopover points for shorebirds. There are 30 shorebird types (and most likely more waiting to be found), according to the Channel Islands National Park, consisting of snowy plovers, willets, roaming tattlers (my preferred bird name), whimbrels, black turnstones, and sanderlings.
Twelve types of seabirds discover what they require in regards to seclusion, food sources and undisturbed nesting premises that are safe from predators.
The Channel Islands are home to the one and just recognized breeding population of California brown pelicans in the western U.S.
Here are some outstanding and thought-provoking bullet points from the website of the Channel Islands National Park (www.nps.gov/chis/learn/nature/seabirds.htm) seabirds to whom the Channel Islands are seriously crucial:
- The biggest breeding nests of seabirds in Southern California
- The just breeding nests of California brown pelicans in California
- The just safeguarded nests of California brown pelicans and Scripp’s murrelets on the West Coast of the U.S.
- The biggest nests in Southern California of Cassin’s auklet, western gulls, Scripp’s murrelets, rhinoceros auklets, tufted puffins, ashy storm-petrels, double-crested cormorants, pigeon guillemots, and black storm-petrels
Over time, there have actually been various difficulties on different islands. Rats were a big issue on Anacapa and San Miguel islands. They consumed the bird eggs and child chicks.
On Santa Barbara Island the issue was cats, animals and bunnies. Cats and birds seldom exist together quietly. On Santa Cruz and Santa Rosa islands there were non-native grazing animals like wild pigs. The list of previous difficulties goes on.
The National Park Service, together with other firms and volunteers worked long and hard to eliminate or get rid of risks and to bring back environments that the different birds required to get chick production back to what it was previously.
Happily, it has actually all been working and adequate time has actually passed that we can see and determine the favorable outcomes of all that effort.
For me, the crowning example was the elimination of non-native golden eagles and the effective re-introduction of nesting bald eagles.
When I’m fishing around Santa Cruz Island and see a huge bald eagle leave a high perch, swoop low over the water, create a fish in its talons, and bring it up towards its nest or an area to enjoy its meal, I cheer that bird on.
