Kristina's farallon islands 2

This is the entire crew for seabird research during the summer on the islands. Most of the time one or two people would take 2 weeks off before going back for another 8 weeks. Those 2 weeks are for recharging, visiting families, and keeping themselves sane without listening birds.

Kristina likes to take picture of birds life. Here is a baby cracking eggshell.

Here is the new Gull baby. Sort of wet.

Now the baby's feathers are all fluffed up.

Some baby chicks are still protected by the parents until they are ready to face the whole crowd of thousands. On the islands, there are 12 different species and about 300,000 populations.

Some young birds get bullied by the neighbor adult birds.

Sometimes Kristina is lucky to stay inside to observe the birds. No attacking! No pooping on the clothes! Hooray!

She learned to band the birds.

Look at the color of this birds. So black and red.

Most of the time the birds try to catch fish for their diet. For this one, she found a tiny rock fish.

When they don't have enough food, then they might even try to eat their neighbor young chick. So sad!

Lucky for this bird. I think it's got a squid in her mouth. Ocean delicacy.

Kristina said that she saw whales, sea lions, and elephant seals. Occasionally her job was to observe their flipper and record some kind of data. If you click on the ocean picture, you might see two whales in the ocean and one was sprouting the water.

Wow! The mouth is UGLY.

Kristina's farallon islands 1

Kristina came back from Farallon Islands internship at the end of July. I will tell you a little bits of her adventure. She went to the island by some volunteer boats.

The island doesn't have any port or pier to load and unload like the regular boat. They have to use crane to transfer people and other stuff.

These are the bands for them to do the banding on the birdies.

The living situation is the tough part. The islands are appr. 30 miles away from SF, so they don't have regular electricity and water and food supply. They collect solar light and rain water, so people have to conserve electricity and only shower every 3-4 days. They get food supply every other Saturdays. Everyone on the land has to take turn to cook for the whole crew of 6. This is their spice rack.

These male birds are doing some kind of dance to get the female interested. I don't know what type of the birds or what type of dance, I only just think that they are pretty and funny.

This is Kristina holding a West Gull (I think). Too bad that you are not allowed to save them (as pet). If you are on the island, you are suppose to just do the job, record the data, and let them to be living the natural way, so the interns are able to collect the precise datas.

She is wearing all layers to keep the cold out. She is also wearing hard hat inside the hood cause the birds see the human beings as their predators. The birds will find any chance to attack and poke her head besides pooping on her every so often.

With all the attacking and pooping, she still loves them. Every time there are some new chicks, she couldn't help but picking up and taking a photo with them.