by Karen Telleen-Lawton, Noozhawk Columnist (read the original in Noozhawk by clicking here)
To think I flew to the Galapagos to marvel at rock-star wildlife like blue-footed boobies, while brown boobies were on their way to our Channel Islands. These diving seabirds previously bred only in the tropics of the Atlantic and Pacific.
They have been increasing their range northward, according to Yvonne Meynard, chief of interpretation and public information officer for Channel Islands National Park (CINP). In the 1990s their migration reached the Coronado Islands of Baja California.
Biologists discovered the boobies off Santa Barbara Island during a survey earlier this month. I try to imagine their conversation, muffled by wind, huge binoculars, and efforts not to startle them:
“That looks like … no, but yes, … a booby!” “Couldn’t be. But well … look over there!”
There is Sutil Island, a tiny islet off the southwest end of Santa Barbara Island, where they observed four nests and more than 100 individual birds.
The researchers couldn’t spot any baby boobies, but the adult birds appeared to be incubating eggs or possibly tending to small young on each of the nests.
Brown boobies gather broken shells, sticks, and leaves on the bare ground to make a nest. They lay a pair of powder blue eggs and take turns on the nest until they disperse for the winter at sea.
The birds are thought to have been named by early explorer-scientists, who considered them a little daft for being so tame and easy to catch. They are a tad smaller than cormorants, with chocolate-colored back and wings and a prominent white chest.
They plunge from great heights — up to 50 feet — to feed on surface fish and small squid.
CINP Superintendent Russell Galipeau is understandably pleased about the park’s new inhabitants.
“This discovery, once again, demonstrates the importance of the Channel Islands as critical seabird habitat,” he said.
Galipeau noted that this boosts the total of breeding seabird species in the park to 14, all of which rely on the rich marine resources and the isolation of the offshore islands for food and nesting grounds safe from predators.
Other birds nesting on Santa Barbara Island include storm-petrels, oystercatchers, auks, murres, pigeon guillemots, and even American kestrels and barn owls.
Many of these populations were decimated when black rats, cats and rabbits were inadvertently introduced to the islands in previous centuries.
Researchers and volunteers have logged thousands of hours in the past decade replanting native vegetation to provide cover and nesting sites for the beleaguered wildlife.
To encourage the first returnees, biologists attracted the social birds with sound recordings of their mating calls.
Channel Islands aficionados are hosting a booby population that is in decline worldwide. A recent study by Audubon classified 314 species — nearly half of all North American birds — as severely threatened by global warming.
Birds are tending toward laying earlier in the spring, according to a study by the Royal Society back in 2004.
They demonstrated the beginnings, over a decade ago, of phenological miscuing, which is not responding or responding inappropriately to the changing climate.
Some birds were also coming out of synchrony with their environment, called phenological dysjunction.
That’s the matching bad news to the good news of the Channel Islands’ restoration-in-progress.
The brown boobies’ arrival marks yet more evidence of the changing climate. They may be among the lucky wildlings who can — and did — fly to new habitat and find newly restored islands.
Responding to phenological cues, I guess they’re not such boobies after all.
Karen Telleen-Lawton, Noozhawk Columnist
Karen Telleen-Lawton is an eco-writer, sharing information and insights about economics and ecology, finances and the environment. Having recently retired from financial planning and advising, she spends more time exploring the outdoors — and reading and writing about it. The opinions expressed are her own.