Anacapa

Northern Mockingbird in Calle Salto

Today we are going out to one of the Santa Barbara Channel Islands for a quick trip. We are supposed to leave at 1330 and should be back by 1800. We might see some cetaceans and a few seabirds. It is expected that we will have about 2hr on the eastern most islet of Anacapa which is small and therefore it should be possible to get round the trail in that time.

After boarding the Island Packers twin hulled 'Islander' (see website at: http://www.islandpackers.com/contact.html) along with about 50 other passengers we head out from Oxnard harbor shortly after 1330.

The marina is enormous and a large junior sailing school group opposite our embarkation jetty has set off before us with at least 25 Sabots. In the harbor I saw an immature Great Blue Heron hanging about on the pontoons, a Snowy Egret and a Black-crowned Night-Heron fly over and Western Gulls were prominent but not abundant. A few Double-crested Cormorant were in the marina area but not much else. Some House Sparrow were hanging around the fish shop where we had a quick lunch before leaving - the first I have been conscious of since I arrived in California. A lone California Sea Lion Zalophus californianus was casually rolling over again and again close by seeming content to stay in a small area off the end of a jetty.

The trip down the marina was taken slowly and we passed close to a tall ship 'Californian' as we came nearer to the outer harbor. Gulls and a few cormorants were all that seemed to be visible. The sea was calm with only a soft breeze and almost no swell. Speed picked up and we were soon level with a gas platform beyond which we came across a school of about 70 Pacific Bottlenosed Dolphin Tursiops gilli that played with our boat as it cruised slowly in tight turns until everyone had seen some dolphins riding the bow and stern waves and occasionally leaping from the wash. Close alongside they were clearly visible below water.

The only other seabirds I saw were Western Gulls and Brown Pelicans and a few cormorants. As we got nearer to the E end of Anacapa I saw a Pigeon Guillemot fly low to the west - the only one all day.

We reached Anacapa in about 40 minutes and disembarked at a concrete landing. Here we were required to stay for a brief orientation talk before those of us keen to walk the tracks were able to climb the ironwork stairs and concrete steps that led up to the level of the plateau. This is the hardest part of the walk on the island because from here on it is reasonably flat over the top of Anacapa and the cliffs are too crumbly to go too close. There is a trail that loops the whole of the island and we took this completing it in the 0ne and a half hours available before we were to be back at the landing jetty. Longer would have been more enjoyable but it was enough considering we had James with us. He seemed to enjoy his first experience of a seabird island, staying awake most of the time we were walking. An underwater live show was staged on a couple of large monitors for some of the passengers who opted to remain on the lower landing area. A diver went down into the kelp bed with an videocam. This bonus screening is put on on some days for the tours.

Western Gulls greeted us from the start and we were never out of sight of them. They breed over the whole of the top of the island and at this time in early August most adults seem to be attending to a single well feathered young that was fully capable of flight. These dependent young were still frequently food begging to an adult. Some adults were still giving long-calls. The voice of the Western Gull is strangely deeper in pitch, rougher and more clipped compared with most other members of the Herring Gull group that I am familiar with. Quite distinctive it seemed to me. We pick up a useful self guiding pamphlet, but it did not give a list of the birds for the island nor any proper scientific names of the plants mentioned in it, which is irritating to me.

I madly photographed Western Gulls in all position (sensu Pete and Dud)! The only other conspicuous birds seen were Brown Pelicans and a few cormorants. The Brown Pelicans were only ashore at the easternmost part of the island near the lighthouse but this area is out of bounds to visitors so I did not get a chance to get near enough to them for proper picture making. The main breeding area for these pelicans is on West Anacapa which these days figures as one of the most important sites on the west coast of North America. A few cormorants were hanging about on the low sea stacks offshore and in the calm waters, often amongst the swirling heads of the giant kelp.

From the west end of the island there are spectacular views towards the main islands of the Channel Island group, the nearest of which, beyond Middle and West islets that form the broken chain of Anacapa, is the much larger Santa Cruz Island that is in fact the largest island in the whole group. Today they were veiled in a typical Santa Barbara channel sea mist.

The only songbird I saw on the plateau of Anacapa was the Winter Wren and I saw only two.

The island vegetation has been drastically modified from the time Europeans arrived and settled in California. Many invasive weeds have been introduced, often deliberately for stock feed - one still prominent in most parts of the plateau was the Ice Plant Carpobrotus edulis. Sheep were grazed on Anacapa from 1869 until 1938; although sheep ranching ended in 1912 on East Anacapa when the lightstation was built (McCawley undated). Several endemic plants, however, still persist including the bizarre Coreopsis gigantea, unfortunately no longer in flower nor having any remaining green leaves this late in the year.

Along the south shore a stop at Pinniped Point allowed a view of the California Sea Lions hauled out in huddles on the beach below. Northern Elephant Seals Mirounga angustirostris are also recorded from the island but none were seen today. Just behind this viewing spot there is an extraordinary concrete apron about the size of a couple of tennis courts. This was a water catchment device at one time but is now so used and polluted by the gulls that I would find it unlikely that any run off would ever be drinkable!

We returned along the path past the Visitors centre and Ranger's Quarters but did not go out on the short path towards the lighthouse. It was not possible to approach closely the lighthouse and in any case a loud foghorn sounds off most of the time making it unpleasant to go too far in that direction.

We returned to the jetty and boarded the 'Vanguard' (a smaller craft with conventional hull) for our return to Oxnard. Before heading back we rounded the east end of the island chain close by the Arch Rock and on the southern side saw a small group of 4-5 Harbor Seals Phoca vitulina and some small groups of Californian Sea Lions. There were two Black Oystercatchers on the rock shelf. I concluded that amongst the few cormorants seen most were Brandt's Cormorant but with a few Double-crested Cormorants. I did not see a Pelagic Cormorant nor any murrelets. Judging by the guano in several places on the cliff face it would seem that large numbers of cormorants and gulls must be present in season. The passage home, although a bit slower than our outward journey, did allow me to spot 4 Sooty Shearwaters passing W but other seabirds were much the same as those seen on the earlier crossing.

We were back in Oxnard marina by 1830 with two Great Blue Herons near the Packers jetty and several Black-crowned Night-Herons seen fly by. The Sea Lion was still present. A Caspian Tern flew past up the channel.

A very good day.

McCawley, Bill (undated) East Anacapa Island Map & Guide. Pamphlet illustrated with a map and line drawings by Jean M. Keast; Western National Parks Association, 18pp

Trails Illustrated. 1999. Channel Islands National Park - California. Folded double sided compilation of topographic maps on waterproof and tearproof plastic material produced by National Geographic Maps. Various scales on this sheet but Anacapa at approximately 1:24 000. Sheet 252. See website: http://www.trailsillustrated.com