The Plot Thickens Surrounding the Death of L112

Christopher Dunagan of the Kitsap Sun interviewed Ken Balcomb after his comment in the San Juan Journal, "Clearly the animal was blown up," referring to the three-year old member of L-Pod, L112. Ken elaborated on his comments, stating he believes she may have died due to a bomb dropped from an aircraft. This is starting to look like a more likely theory than after effects of the sonar exercises, in part because Joe Gaydos of the SeaDoc Society, who conducted the cranial necropsy, said L112 did not swim far after receiving blunt force trauma to the head before she died.

Read the full article here.

The Sonar Issue Intensifies

Last month I posted a blog about L112 Sooke, a young Southern Resident killer whale that washed up on a beach on the Washington coast. Initial findings led many to wonder if maybe she was killed by Navy sonar activity in the Strait of Juan de Fuca. Since, then the Navy sonar issue has intensified and is getting more and more media attention.

An MRI was done on the head of L112, and while results from that test have not been revealed, a cranial necropsy was also conducted at the Friday Harbor Labs. (If you are interested in that kind of thing - it's not for the squeamish - video clips from the cranial necropsy can be seen here.) The scientists involved in the necropsy found trauma in the tissues of the head and evidence of hemorrhaging, though no official cause of death will be released until all tests are completed. Ken Balcomb, director of the Center for Whale Research, had some strong words about the issue in this San Juan Journal article. "It didn't die of disease or starvation. Clearly the the animal was blown up," said Balcomb, who was present for a beaked whale stranding that was also related to military activities.

As it is sounding more and more likely Sooke died of trauma related to sonar use, the question is looming: how many of her other family members have met similar fates? While it is not uncommon for members of K and L Pods, who were in the area during the sonar incident, to spend long lengths of time out of the Salish Sea this time of year, none of them have been seen again since Sooke was found. Until they are seen again, we won't know if Sooke was the only casualty. Candace Whiting ponders the same question in this Seattle PI blog.

Meanwhile, the Everett Naval Station has been conducting sonar exercises from their dock in Puget Sound, which has also been creating a stir. On multiple occasions the sound has been heard in the air or reverberating through the hulls of ships. While the Navy claims this is a standard procedure, it is being heavily criticized for coinciding with the arrival of the gray whales and occurring right in some of their prime feeding grounds in Puget Sound.

With all of these issues in the news, it's somewhat appropriate that there also happens to be a public comment period as the Navy seeks to reauthorize their training ranges in Oregon, Washington, and California. The draft Northwest Training and Testing Environmental Impact Statement can be read here. The proposed actions they hope to undertake are summarized here.

For some additional information on how sonar kills whales, as well as some suggested comments, check out the succinct summary posted by Candace Whiting on her blog.

I really hope many of you will take some time to learn a little more about this issue and submit your comments before the April 27th deadline. You can submit your comments online here. As is beginning to come to light with Sooke, this is a very real issue that could have some very serious impacts on our local marine mammals, including the endangered Southern Resident killer whales. Military exercises are a necessary event, but they can be done in areas and at time where their impact on cetaceans is limited. They don't need to happen in the Salish Sea, a habitat for so many marine mammal species. Please take a moment to make your voice heard!

Coast Starlight: Northbound

Time always flies when you're having fun, and our California trip was no exception. On the morning of Friday, February 24th it was already time to check out of our hotel, but before we left we took another walk along the bluffs and the beach. There were lots of surfers out, and lots of birds too! I saw a northern mockingbird (151), which I thought might be a "big miss" on the trip. On the rocky part of the beach was a single northern tattler (152), and perched on a wire near a residential neighborhood was a Say's phoebe (153).

Right after our walk, the fog moved in really quickly, and the temperature dropped accordingly. Goodbye, warm California weather! It felt like it was happening to make it easier to leave. Because of the chill, we decided not to walk on the beach near the butterfly grove again, instead exploring part of the town of Pismo Beach which we hadn't done yet. The highlight was walking out the Pismo Beach Pier. In addition to getting a different perspective by looking almost straight down on the surfers, there was a lot of wildlife activity just beyond them. Bird-wise, there were brown pelicans, common murres, lots of gulls, and a couple of loons - one of which was close enough to differentiate as a red-throated loon (154). There were also some great mammals to be seen - sea otters, a pair of sea lions, and best of all - a small pod of dolphins!! I first spotted their dorsal fins just beyond the surfers, and they seemed to be surfing themselves. Then two of them jumped in synchrony, completely clearing the water! It was awesome. The volunteer in the information booth on the pier said he'd seen gray whales and porpoises from the pier before but not dolphins. I'm guessing they were probably bottlenose dolphins, but it was hard to tell through the fog.

After lunch, we headed inland to drop off the rental car and wait at the train station for our ride back north. Away from the coast, the sun was still shining, and it was warm enough to sit outside on a bench in a T-shirt and read for an hour before the train came. You can be sure I soaked up every ounce of California sunshine I could! Here was the view from my bench:

In that hour I also saw/heard an impressive 15 species of birds. Most entertaining were the three kestrels - one female and two males seemingly competing for her. One of them definitely had the upper hand - I actually saw him mating with her twice, but the other male was making quite a racket trying to get in there, too. There was also a very vocal pair of red-shouldered hawks that flew by twice. Spring was most definitely in the air!

Our train came, and I enjoyed the last couple of hours of daylight as we started our trek north. As the sun was setting over the hills to our west, this was the scene from the train just before it got dark:

That was the last we'd see of the warmth on our trip! When we awoke, it was near Klamath Falls, Oregon, where the temperatures were below freezing, the breeze was blowing, and we saw occasional snow showers. It was still pretty, though.

After pulling out of the Klamath Falls train station we passed right along Upper Klamath Lake, where there were eagles, ravens, and lots of scaup, bufflehead, and common mergansers.

I also saw a couple of black-billed magpies (155), which I figured would be my last species for the trip. We then headed up into the Siskiyou Mountains where more snowy scenes awaited us.

We descended back into the Willamette Valley and just before pulling into Portland, I added one more year bird - a wood duck (156) near Gladstone! We spent the night at my parents' house, and before heading back north to Washington the next day, I also got to see the evening grosbeaks (157) that had returned to their feeders while we were on the trip. Amazingly, from when we left Friday Harbor until we returned, I added an impressive 49 year birds to my total for 2012, including 3 life birds. That was way beyond my expectations!

While driving north through Washington we experienced every type of weather - sun, rain, snow, hail, and back again - and when we got on the ferry the sun came out again to welcome us home, even though the temperature was now about 45 degrees colder than in California!

Day Three: Birding and Hiking Around SLO

Day three in Pismo Beach again dawned with blue skies, sunshine, and temperatures reaching the mid to upper 70s. It was another day for birding and hiking, and our first stop in the morning was to the Oceano Campground where a summer tanager has been seen recently. No luck with the tanager, but I did see my first tree swallow (139) of the year, with about a half dozen more to follow later in the day. The other interesting sighting at the campground was an odd trio of geese: a snow goose, a cackling goose, and a greater white-fronted goose, all hanging out together. There were some domestic geese nearby, but I thought it was interesting these three “loners” were hanging out all together:

Right across the street from the campground was the county park where we had a brief lunch on day one, and I wanted to go back and take a closer look at the bird life. That turned out to be a very good idea! One of the first birds I saw was an eared grebe (140), a species I tried and failed to get on the year list last year. It also turned out to be one of four grebe species on the same lake – there were also pied-billed grebes, two western grebes, and a single Clark's grebe (141). It was a nice opportunity to make a direct comparison between the western and Clark's – the most obvious distinction between them is whether the white on the face goes over or under the eye (click for larger view):

I found another great species in the scrub on the far side of the lake – an adult and an immature black-crowned night-heron (142). I always love seeing this species, and with the birds seemingly having deserted their former roosting site along the Columbia River in Portland, a this species was not a “gimme” this year.

Many of the birds from the previous visit were still there: hundreds of gulls (mostly western and California), mallards, Brewer's blackbirds, great-tailed grackles, and hundreds of coot. The coot were everywhere along the central coast, and it's easy to overlook a bird you see in great numbers. But when given a closer look, they're a pretty nice looking species too:

Next up we headed south to Oso Flaco Lake, where there's a boardwalk hike that goes through the forest, across the lake, and into the sand dunes that stretch along the coast south of Pismo Beach. Another rare bird had been reported here – a black-and-white warbler – but apparently I used up my twitching luck on the caracara the day before because this one wasn't to be either. There were some other species, however, that haven't quite made it to Washington on their northbound spring migration just yet. I saw a few more tree swallows, lots of yellow-rumped warbles, and my first orange-crowned warbler (143) of the season. There was also a single female American goldfinch (144), a large flock of chestnut-backed chickadees, and another Nuttall's woodpecker hanging out in the deciduous woods at the beginning of the trail.

Next, the boardwalk crossed the lake, where the most common species was the ruddy duck (about 75 of them), along with some northern shoveler, coot, gadwall, double-crested cormorants, and the only bufflehead we saw on the trip.

We wound our way through the sand dunes next, and I can only imagine what it must look like when all the lupine bushes on this part of the beach are in bloom. It was pretty quiet bird-wise, but we heard something when we stopped to look at a western scrub-jay, and it turned out to be a California thrasher (145)! This was a species we both especially hoped to see after reading about it on an interpretive sign at the Elfin Forest the day before, and with it's sharply down-curved beak it was an impressive bird to look at. In addition to being my 35^th year bird of the trip (!!!) it was also a life bird for me.

The trail went over one last dune before going down out of the beach grass and lupine bushes and onto the beach itself. We walked a little in the deep sand, but it was slow and difficult going, and that along with the strong winds had us turning back before too long and back-tracking our way back to the car.

As we crossed back over the lake, I paused when I heard an unmistakable sound coming from the reeds. It was a yellow-headed blackbird (146)! I'm confident this was what I heard as nothing else sounds quite like it, but I found out later this is an unusual species to see here, and was likely only stopping over here while migrating further north.

From Oso Flaco Lake, we drove inland and up into the rolling green hills to Lopez Lake Recreation Area. The area is popular with campers and fishers, and with all its hiking trails we hoped it would be good for birding, too. The first birds we saw there were also there for the fish – a hundred or more double-crested cormorants, dozens of western grebes, 18 pied-billed grebes (the most I've ever seen in one place), and a pair of osprey (147).

There wasn't much in the way of walking trails along the lake, so we started following a trail up into the hills, the muscles in my legs complaining the whole way after the Bishop Peak hike of the day before. As the temperatures reached 80 or so, along with the lack of wind, it was pretty warm for this northwest gal, but in the shade of an oak grove in a valley between two hills it was the perfect temperature. While stopping to enjoy this break from the heat, we spotted the first of several acorn woodpeckers (148), and watched them as they worked acorns into holes in the trunk of the oak trees:

Continuing up the hill, we heard a band-tailed pigeon (149) calling, and saw lots of turkey vultures circling the bluff above. They must like to glide on the thermals created around such peaks? There were also a lot of them around Bishop Peak the day before.

We came to a lot of broken rock that fell across the trail, and it was cool to see the fossilized remnants of shells on a lot of the pieces – evidence of a very different variety of fauna that inhabited this region in a bygone era:

The trail looked like it continued back into the hills and away from the view, so we stopped to take in the vista of Lopez Lake before heading back down to the car:

We stopped in the oak grove again on the way back down to take another look at the acorn woodpeckers. While there, I heard a different call that sounded like an off-kilter chickadee. It took a moment to locate the source of the sound: an oak titmouse (150)! My second life bird of the day. Unfortunately they were too far away for pictures, but there were at least three of them up among the upper branches. It was cool to see both acorn woodpeckers and oak titmice in the oak grove, species that are known for associating with that particular tree.

By this point, it was late afternoon, and we were warm and thirsty. We headed back to San Luis Obispo where we went to the tasting room at Tap It Brewing and enjoyed their IPA and APA (American Pale Ale) offerings along with a sneak preview of their summer seasonal ale. Then, it was back to the hotel in time to continue happy hour on the deck and take in another spectacular central coast sunset. Life is rough, eh?

Second Day: Elephant Seals, Birds, and Bishop Peak

We decided to drive north on the morning of our second full day in SLO county. We drove straight up to Piedras Blancas Light Station, in part to see the nearby elephant seal colony and in part to look for a crested caracara that had been reported there over the last couple of months. The last report came from the day before, but the birder who reported it said she had to try four times before she was successful, so I wasn't too hopeful. When we pulled up to the light station, there was hardly a bird in sight. I finally spotted something perched way in the distance, and though my brief hopes of it being the caracara were dashed, I was still thrilled to see it was a white-tailed kite (132).

We slowly drove back towards the elephant seal colony, and I scanned the hills as we went. I couldn't believe my eyes when right in the middle of a field sat the crested caracara (133). What a find! This is the first time I've seen this species in the United States - I saw them once before in Mexico, where it is far more likely to be encountered. As we sat and watched, the white-tailed kite came over and dive-bombed the caracara a couple of times (click to see a larger view):

Next, we stopped at the elephant seal colony. There were lots of males, females, and youngsters, which made for some interesting interactions to watch. Quite a few males were sizing each other up, but only one altercation reached this posturing stage:

The largest males were in the middle of the packs of lounging females, with the smaller and younger males around the periphery. Several smaller males in a row tried to pursue this female, who wasn't the least bit interested:

All the big male had to do was lift his head and look at the younger males, and they all turned tail and scampered back to the surf. The female rejoined her companions further up on the beach.

The males, with their large snouts and enormous size, look otherworldly. Most of them are battle scarred and not all that pretty to look at, but even they can look kinda cute when at rest:

Not as cute as the weaner pups, though:

The elephant seals weren't the only mammals around. I haven't mentioned some of the other mammals we've seen - while watching the kite and caracara I spotted a coyote running across the hills in the background. While on the train, I saw a jackrabbit. And the ground squirrels are everywhere around here:

The elephant seals were the main attraction, but of course I was looking at the birds, too. There were horned grebes, brown pelicans, surf scoters, and black oystercatchers nearby, but the highlight was a brandt's cormorant (134) in breeding plumage.

We didn't get too far south of the elephant seal colony when I had to pull over at a viewpoint after seeing a flock of large shorebirds come in to land on the beach. Some of them were whimbrel, but there were also about ten long-billed curlews (135) in the mix. Just before getting back on the road, Keith spotted a hawk in the distance on the other side of the road. It turned out to be a ferruginous hawk (136), only the second time I've ever seen this species.

After picking up and eating another picnic lunch, we went for a hike in Los Osos at the Elfin Forest Preserve. The best part of this walk were the overlooks of Morro Bay. The tide was low and the mudflats were FULL of birds - I can only imagine what all I would have seen if I'd had a scope! The birds close enough to ID were still impressive, including lots of green-winged teal, northern shovelers, willets, and American avocets (137). While scanning the flats I also heard my first marsh wren (138) of the year.

Next up was a climb to the top of Bishop Peak. We knew it would be a somewhat strenuous hike, and the view from the bottom didn't look too bad:

It turned out to be a bit more strenuous than I was anticipating! It was just over two miles more or less straight uphill for a 1500 elevation gain, with the middle stretch more like bouldering than hiking. Add the unaccustomed warm temperatures, and my heart was beating hard and the sweat was pouring. It was also a little disheartening to see some of the local college kids RUNNING up and down the hill for exercise (there were some others huffing and puffing along like me, though).

The near 360-degree view from the top was pretty darn impressive, though. Here's a three frame panorama that only captures a fraction of the view - click to see a larger version:

Here's Keith taking in the view well over halfway back down:

The rum and coke that awaited me at the hotel was well deserved after that excursion! 

So many great sightings and experiences in two days, but still another full day to go. Next up: more hiking, more exploring, and more birding.

First Day in Pismo Beach

A good night's rest after a somewhat fitful night's sleep on the train made us ready for our first full day in Pismo Beach. While there were lots of places we wanted to check out, the first thing we did was walk along the bluffs in front of our hotel again, as the views and birding were so good the night before.

In addition to Eurasian collared doves, which now seem to be everywhere, Brewer's blackbirds, white-crowned sparrows, and a few white-throated swifts, we also found a Bewick's wren (122) and a pair of California towhees (123) right in front of our hotel. The tide was high, so there weren't any shorebirds or much of a beach to walk on, but we did get some closer views of black phoebes.

First up for the day was one of the major reasons I wanted to come to Pismo Beach: the monarch butterfly grove. From October through February monarch butterflies overwinter in California, and Pismo Beach has one of the largest congregations at anywhere from 20,000 to over 100,000 a year.

Monarch butterflies are remarkable insects, and thanks to arriving just in time to hear the park docent give a talk about them, I finally understand their migration a little bit better. We got to witness several pairs of monarchs mating. They're all breeding now just before they leave their wintering site. From here, these butterflies will move north anywhere west of the Rocky Mountains, from elsewhere in California all the way into Canada. They will lay their eggs, then die. Their offspring, which require milkweed as caterpillars, will grow, mate, and die within 4 to 6 weeks. This will be the same for the following generation as well, all the way through four generations. Then, in the fifth generation, the caterpillars will be born with larger stomachs. They won't mate, but will begin to feel the urge to migrate based on the shortening days. They will eat much more, which is necessary to fuel them for their migration back to the wintering grounds in places like Pismo Beach. This fifth generation will live for 8 or 9 months, and will return to the same site their ancestors five generations ago came from. It's amazing!

Equally amazing to the feats they undertake was the experience of standing in a grove of eucalyptus trees with hundreds of butterflies flying around and perching on branches all around you. There were probably several thousand there yesterday, short of the 20,000+ they had during the peak season in December and January. Already some are starting to disperse, and most all of them could be gone in as little as a week. I'm so glad we got here in time to see them!

There was a lot of bird activity at the butterfly grove as well (though not to feed on monarchs - the milkweed they eat makes them toxic to birds). The first thing we noticed were several hawks flying overhead and calling. It took a bit to identify them as red-shouldered hawks (124) - not a common sight in the Pacific Northwest but as I'm finding out quite a common sight around here! I've probably seen close to ten already. The best view was a little later in the butterfly grove, where one was perched right out in the open. I would have missed it entirely if it hadn't been calling, and even then it was Keith who found it!

There was a lot of warbler activity in the grove, too. They were mostly yellow-rumped warblers, but with a fair number of Townsend's warblers (125) mixed in, too. Then, a woodpecker flew into view. I was about to call it a hairy woodpecker but something made me stop short - it looked different. Luckily I took a closer look - it was a Nuttall's woodpecker (126)! Not only a year bird but a life bird to boot. At the same time I was looking at the woodpecker I saw my first common yellowthroat (127) of the year, but he mostly got ignored in favor of the woodpecker.

The grove, part of Pismo Beach State Park, opened up right onto the beach, so we headed out that way. The transition from grove to beach was a beautiful one:

A small lagoon right near the path was a foraging spot for a flock of least sandpipers (128). I took my shoes off and left them here while walking on the beach - when I got back the least sandpipers were right near my shoes! They didn't mind at all when I went to put them on; I'm always amazed at how bold they are for being such tiny birds. There were lots of sanderling and a flock of about 20 whimbrel out near the surf line, and a brown pelican (129) flew by, too.

The warmth, the bare feet in the sand, the great birding, the thousands of butterflies....I was so happy!!

The day was far from over, though. After spending several hours at the grove and on the beach, we picked up some snacks and had a quick picnic lunch at a little county park. There was a lot of duck and gull activity there, and they were clearly used to being fed. Most exciting to me, however, were the great-tailed grackles (130), though it was also nice to find some California gulls (131) in with the ring-billed and westerns. And I couldn't believe how many coot were there! Hundreds, all on land grazing in the field. This big flock must have decided the grazing was better across the street:

Why did the coot cross the road?

Then, we headed off to do something I have always wanted to do - horseback ride on the beach. Of course, it just reminded me how much I miss being around horses after riding a lot growing up, but it was nice to be back in the saddle again, if only for a short time. The horse I rode was Rooster - Keith was on a furry horse named Stu. It was just us and the guide and was a beautiful ride along the beach and through the dunes.

We got back in time to enjoy a glass of California red wine on the porch of the hotel and take in our second stunning sunset of the trip:

Next up: our second full day features elephant seals, mountain climbing, and of course, more birds!

Coast Starlight: Southbound

On Sunday afternoon we took off from Union Station in Portland heading south on an Amtrak train along the Coast Starlight route. The first part of the trip traversed territory I'm pretty familiar with, but as we got further south in Willamette Valley we entered more rural country and ended up seeing just about every possible farm animal. The highlight was a newborn sheep that was too young to even stand up yet!

We headed through the mountains in the dark, though I could tell there was snow on the ground. I look forward to seeing that section of the trip in the daylight when we head back north. In the morning, I woke up as we pulled out of the Sacramento station. We had breakfast along San Pablo Bay, where there was lots of bird activity. I saw my first year birds of the day - a turkey vulture (111 - they'll be reaching Oregon and Washington soon!) and a western grebe (112). 

One reason train travel is so fun is because you get to see things you otherwise wouldn't be able to see - the train often travels where roads don't. I've taken the Empire Builder from Portland to Chicago three times, and you get to see a lot of stunning scenery with no roads in sight. On this trip, one thing that stood out as we traveled through several big cities was the human side of things that are often out of sight: homeless camps, trash, and graffiti - everywhere.

Not exactly the most pleasant thing to look at (though some of the graffiti is pretty impressive), but interesting nonetheless. After getting through the Bay Area, there were more natural areas to take in, and that meant more birds.

Near San Lorenzo I saw a pair of snowy egrets (113), near Morgan Hill I saw a flock of wild turkeys (114), and then as we traveled along the Elk Horn Slough (pictured above) I added willet (115), black-necked stilt (116) and western gull (117).

As we continued south, the sun came out and the climate became more arid. Between Salinas and Pasos Robles I saw an immature golden eagle (118) riding the thermals over a cliff. That was the last year bird for the train ride, but I was pretty amazed I added eight year birds while traveling at such speeds!

Here are a couple more pictures from the train before we pulled into San Luis Obispo - our stop:

When we stepped off the train, the sweatshirts came off, the sunglasses came on, and I could almost feel my body sighing in relief as it soaked up the sun for what felt like the first time in months. It was warm! This is what we came for. And this - the view from our hotel room porch:

After settling in, we had time before sunset to go for a walk and explore the trail down to the beach. In half an hour I added three more year birds - black phoebe (119), white-throated swift (120), and a single whimbrel (121) down on the rocks with two pairs of black oystercatchers. The swifts were the biggest surprise, and it took me a moment to identify them. I first detected them by their descending call, which I finally located as coming from up overhead. There was a flock of about fifty of them swarming around, I'm assuming gathering up before roosting for the night. They look like ants in this photo, but it was impressive - you'll have to take my word for it!

There were lots of surfers enjoying the last few waves before sunset:

And it was a very spectacular sunset!

Next up, our first full day at Pismo Beach: butterflies, birds, and horses!