The Onset of Spring

As the winds pick up along the Central Califorian Coast and the days grow longer, the first signs of spring are beginning to show, here on Año Nuevo Island. Due to the abundance of rain this season, the soil-stabilizing barley grass continues to give the restoration area a green and lush appearance, while providing excellent cover for the first seabirds showing up for their breeding seasons. Looking across the area, the white heads of Western Gulls (Larus Occidentalis) can barely be seen above the grass as they begin to establish their territories and build nests.

Between the gulls, narrow tunnels weave through the understory of the grasses, ending at the entrances of clay modules or gopher-like holes the erosion control material (EC) --the first indications of returning Rhinoceros and Cassin's Auklets! In preparation for monitoring the auklets' breeding season, we have spent the past few trips opening more potential burrowing sites in the EC, clearing the entrances to the modules and trying to make the auklet's new homes as warm and welcoming as possible.

The auklets and gulls aren't the only ones setting up for the season. Pelagic Cormorants are beginning to make precarious nests on the mainland cliffs at Año Nuevo State Reserve. Brandt's Cormorants have been seen collecting nesting material and we've seen some truly elegant courtship displays from the Black Oystercatchers.

The native plants that were installed last fall are also responding to the beginning of spring. Farallon Weed (Lasthenia maritima) is growing thick and beginning to blossom. American dunegrass (Leymus mollis) is thriving among the barley, providing long-term stabilization of the soil. Other natives including Lizardtail, buckwheat and saltgrass are all flourishing as well.

And so, as spring gears up, both animals and biologists are eagerly preparing for the onset of the seabirds' breeding seasons.