A Cluck By Any Other Name

One of my duties for the Morro Bay Winter Bird Festival is to go along on field trips to photograph birdwatchers and the birds they are watching. A couple of the outings went to working vineyards where we sipped wine and kept our eyes searching for birds.

Up at Halter Ranch in Adelaida we got to bird the area near the old Mac Gillivray Victorian house and the winery tasting room. We had our binoculars handy to catch sight of acorn woodpeckers in the oaks, goldfinches and juncos flitting around, and white-breasted nuthatches strolling upside down on a tree limb. So it was a great spot for me to get lots of photos that really fit for my bird festival portfolio.

On our walk up through the area where the grape vines grow, we encountered a species relative to our wild friends. I noticed them first at the side of the dirt road near one of the winery sheds. They stood there trying to decide, should they cross the road or not? It's a big decision for a bird that has existed for decades with the unanswered question, why does the chicken cross the road? I can tell you. To get to the vineyard of course!

After hesitating a few minutes they made the dash right in front of me, scattering pell-mell into the grassy lanes between the vines, pecking away as they went. I raised my camera and began shooting. Why not? They are birds, after all, and this was a bird festival.

Raising chickens is fun, relatively easy, and gives you the dividend of fresh eggs. Not all communities allow livestock raising, but in many of our county areas, keeping a small flock of chickens is okay.

So how do you start? You can begin with day old chicks and have the hens ready in 22 weeks to begin laying. This method requires an outlay for feed with no substantial return until you start getting eggs. Another method is to purchase ready-to-lay pullets or get mature hens that are already laying.

You'll have to build a chicken coop for their protection at night and in bad weather. The coop will contain the nests in which the hens will lay and most coops also have feeding stations in them. Many people are reverting to free-range birds combined with supplemental feeding. But chickens will still need a place of refuge even if they are allowed to roam your property.

A chicken's bones, like all birds, are hollow and they are connected to the respiratory system. Chickens cannot sweat and have to control their body temperatures in other ways. Evaporation of water from the respiratory tract is one way they do this and a lot of heat loss occurs from the head.

A chicken's skin is fairly thin and can vary in color depending on their diet. Feathers, of course, keep the birds warm and are essential for flight. They molt and renew their feathers yearly.

It's the digestive system that is interesting and it starts with the beak and the mouth where food then passes to the esophagus and into the crop. The crop acts as a temporary storage department. Food then moves along to the stomach and meets up with the gizzard, an organ that is capable of grinding and crushing food. The gizzard is assisted in this job with gravel and grit that the chickens eat while foraging. It's the gizzard that enables the chicken to adequately digest whole grains.

Chickens are pretty well known for being somewhat dim witted and this is due to the fact that they have a rather small cerebral cortex, the part of the brain that signifies intelligence. Hens may not be too smart but they do have a special social structure called the pecking order. In this system the top bird can peck any other bird, but lower birds can only peck birds that are below them. The poor lowest bird can be pecked by everyone and cannot peck back! Somehow this system keeps order in the chicken coop.

As a hen matures, so does her reproductive system. Hormones stimulate the development of the ovary (only one, by the way) and it matures to produce everything needed for that all too important element, the egg. Yolks are produced first followed by albumen (egg white) that is deposited around the yolk. An outer and inner membrane forms and eventually the process is completed by the formation of the shell. The whole process takes about 27 hours.

Some chickens lay white eggs; some chickens lay brown eggs. In South America the Araucana chicken lays blue eggs. No matter the color, egg laying activity will take place without the aid or presence of a rooster. Roosters are actually a deterrent to good egg production as their presence encourages the hens to get broody.

So what makes a hen get busy laying if it's not the rooster? The answer is light. When pullets reach sexual maturity the increasing length of day releases the factors that initiate egg laying. In some commercial hen houses, the lights are turned on all the time to keep production going.

Small farms and hobby farmers are returning to raising many historic breeds that have all but disappeared from commercial production. Javas, Delawares, Buckeyes, Hollands, Chanticlers, are just some of these breeds now being raised and shown at county fairs across the country. Some of these breeds are dual purpose birds supplying both eggs and meat.

There is a lot more to know about raising chickens and information is available from your county extension office and the American Poultry Association, www.amerpoultryassn.com; My Pet Chicken Guide to Chicken Care, www.mypetchicken.com, or from books such as Raising Your Own Livestock by Claudia

The Light Station at Point Piedras Blancas

Lighthouses have always evoked a romantic feeling with people. Travelers go out of their way to visit a lighthouse. Your visit to the Central Coast can include just such a tour.

Head to Highway 1 on the coast and go towards San Simeon, the town that Hearst Castle put on the map. The castle, as fantastic as it is, is not the edifice you are seeking. Travel past the entrance, and past the turn-off to the elephant seal viewing. Already you are seeing your destination, the lighthouse named for Point Piedras Blancas.

To tour this light station, time your visit for a Tuesday, Thursday, or Saturday morning. Tours start one and a half miles north of the entrance to the light station at the old Piedras Blancas Motel. Be there at 9:45 A.M. No reservations are necessary and tour guides will be waiting for you there. Tours cost $10.00 for adults, $5.00 for ages six to 17, and free for children five and under.

Next you will car caravan with your guide to the lighthouse. Tours are led by docents from the Piedras Blancas Light Station Association, a non-profit organization involved in restoring the site.

Construction of the Piedras Blancas Lighthouse began in 1874 and was finished in 1875 when the first order Fresnel lens was installed. You will notice that the top of the lighthouse is missing this lens. Originally the lighthouse stood more than 100 feet high. It is now 74 feet high. In 1949 the lens and the upper section of the structure were removed due to earthquake damage. The beautiful Fresnel lens has survived however, and you can see it close up in an enclosure in downtown Cambria.

In the early days lighthouses were recognized by ships at sea during daylight hours by their special colors. Each lighthouse was assigned a specific set of colors and was painted accordingly. A ship passing by could tell where they were based on those colors. Whatever the colors, the ship's captain could spy them through his looking glass and say, "aha, white with red, we must be at Point Piedras Blancas."

This identification would not work under two other circumstances of course; if it was foggy or if it was nighttime. Then both light and sound came into play. The timing of the flashes of light was also assigned and the light station couldbe recognized in this manner. Light flashes could be two quick flashes followed by three long ones. Whatever the configuration was, this timing gave away the location of the lighthouse. The light from the first order Fresnel lens could be seen 18 miles out to sea.

In 1906 a fog signal building was built. Inside was the latest equipment to make sound loud enough to carry out to sea. The first sounds used were similar to a train whistle, and then a siren was used. Finally the traditional fog horn blast came to be and the light station was recognized by the length of the blasts. These first blasts used were loud enough to break eardrums.

Piedras Blancas means white rocks in Spanish and the large rocks just offshore are just that. Over the years many birds have roosted or nested here and their droppings, called guano, are the source of the color. At times in the 1800s guano was harvested from these rocks by passing schooners. After a harvesting like this, when the sea breezes blew, an odor wafted across the light station making the lives of the lighthouse keeper and his family a bit miserable.

As you tour the lighthouse grounds with the docent all these interesting facts will be related

and as you walk the paths you will pass by fields full of native vegetation. Up until a few years ago this was not the case. For many years these grounds consisted of overgrown iceplant called capobrotus, the type seen along California freeways. Volunteers worked long and hard pulling this invasive plant out and miraculously the native vegetation began to return on its own. Docents have placed interpretive signs near the plants to benefit recognition.

Just offshore you will see California sea lions lounging on the rocks and smaller harbor seals swimming in the sea. Brown pelicans, cormorants and gulls will be perched on the rocks. Docents will show you skeletons of some of the marine mammals that frequent the area, such as the colony of elephant seals that took up habitation on the beach below the lighthouse in

1990. From an original group of about 19 seals, the colony has grown to 10,000 each breeding season. Just south of the lighthouse is the main seal beach where there is a boardwalk and viewing platform.

The tour will also take you inside the lighthouse where there are displays explaining the early equipment used in operating the beacon. Visitors are not yet allowed to climb to the top of the lighthouse, but after future restorations, this too will be available. In the middle of the interior hangs a weighted pendulum that extends into an eight-foot hole in the floor. The pendulum swung and was part of the apparatus that made the beacon up top turn.

Different fuels were used over the years to burn and produce the light. Oil and kerosene were two of them and these were kept in a small bunker just below the lighthouse and in front of the fog signal building. This bunker was constructed of concrete and is the first concrete building built in San Luis Obispo County. Light keepers and their assistants had to haul the oil or kerosene from the bunker up to the lighthouse and then ascend the winding staircase to the lens housing area.

Every year from March through May, biologists from the Southwest Fisheries Science Center come to the light station to count the number of California Gray whale mothers and calves heading north. They also take note of migrating birds and count sea otters that frequent the waters offshore.

Piedras Blancas Light Station which was once administered by the U.S. Lighthouse Service, and then the U.S. Coast Guard, is now managed by the Department of the Interior's Bureau of Land Management. The BLM and the Piedras Blancas Light Station Association are slowly restoring this wonderful historical edifice to its former glory. A tour of the light station will be a highlight of your visit to the Central Coast.

The Other Heron

At the Morro Bay Winter Bird Festival in January many of the participants had the desire to see particular birds to round out their life lists. These can be birds that are often present in San Luis Obispo County but are rarely found.

Of the large wading birds, great blue herons, great egrets, snowy egrets, and black crowned night herons are easily spotted in the waters of Morro Bay and in fields and ponds inland. But try and find a Least Bittern or a tricolored heron and you have taken on a difficult, if not, impossible task.

There is another heron that lives here and should be able to be seen year round. So why is it we don't see more of the green heron?

The green heron, sometimes referred to as the little green heron or the green-backed heron is a solitary bird. It is the runt of the heron family at approximately 16 to 18 inches long and has the tendency to hunch up its neck making it appear even shorter. Adult birds have a glossy dark green crown, gray-green back, chestnut colored neck, white chin, and orange-yellow legs.

Green herons are one of the few birds that use tools. It stands stock still over water and drops bait onto the surface. When fish rise to the bait, it strikes. The bird uses a variety of lures including insects, worms, twigs, and feathers.

Herons in general are masters of stoicism, standing motionless like statues, neck stretched out and bills pointed downward, waiting to strike their prey, which they do with lightening speed.

When disturbed the green heron will erect its short crest, lengthen its neck, and flick its tail. People don't notice them until they do these motions or they see the bird fly off unexpectedly. Often the only way these small herons are noticed at all is by the movement of their eyes as they search the waters. Green herons in particular can meld into their backgrounds and appear like logs thanks to their distinctive coloring.

Green herons breed along creeks and streams, in marshy and swampy locations, and on the edges of lakes. The nest is placed somewhere above ground, often in a tree, and is a platform of sticks. The female lays three to six pale blue to greenish eggs that hatch in 21 to 25 days. Both parents incubate the eggs. Juvenile birds resemble bitterns with streaky brown colorations.

When breeding season ends green herons like other herons wander far and wide seeking favorable foraging locations. You might spot green herons at Laguna Lake, Lopez Lake, Atascadero, Nacimiento and San Antonio lakes, and in the estuary area of Morro Bay. Keep an eye out for them. They are a treat to see and you can add them to your life list.









Photo of Green Heron at The Living Desert, Palm Desert, California
Sometimes birds in captivity suffer from diseases and deformities that they might not get if they were still in the wild. This bird has a deformed bill and while it can still feed, it cannot be released into the wild. It is uncertain whether the bird developed this problem before being brought to the Living Desert wildlife organization.

Rare Birds Rarely Seen

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The very nature of the Central Coast of California gives us the ability to see a variety of water birds. Whether one lives at the shore or inland, chances are they have seen some kind of wading bird in your territory. The most commonly recognized ones are herons and egrets, but lately there have been sightings of birds that are not regularly seen here. One of those is the white-faced ibis.

Residents of the central valley may be more familiar with this sickle-billed bird if they have visited the wetland refuges located there, but this is an unusual visitor to our coastal area.

There are three kinds of ibis in North America, the white ibis that inhabits the southeast section of the country, the glossy ibis, also an eastern coast species, and the white-faced ibis seen primarily in the west.

Worldwide there are numerous ibis and there are interesting facts about them. The scared ibis was venerated in ancient Egypt and many mummified bodies of these birds have been found by archeologists. In Florida, during hurricane season, ibis are the last species to seek cover and the first to reappear afterward.

White-faced ibis are the size of a small goose and have dark purplish to purplish green glossy feathers with a green or bronze sheen on the wings. Their legs are a reddish maroon color as well as the face, which has a border of white feathers during breeding season. White-faced ibis also have red eyes.

At first glance these birds look almost identical to their cousins, the glossy ibis, however, glossies have brown eyes and slaty face skin with a pale blue border. In the Gulf Coast area the species do overlap.

White-faced ibis feed in freshwater and saltwater marshes, lakes, tidal mudflats, and irrigated fields using their long curved bill to probe in the mud for crustaceans, worms and burrowing insects. They feed in irregular groups and gather into long straggling lines in flight with their legs extended beyond their bodies.

During the 1960s and 70s breeding of white-faced ibis took a plunge due to both habitat loss and chemical pesticides. Similar to the plight of brown pelicans, ibis eggs became very thin from DDT and were easily crushed during nesting. While DDT was banned here in 1972, it is still used in other countries where the birds winter so it still presents a problem.

White-faced ibis are migratory birds and range from the western states in North America to Mexico and South America. In recent years small groups of these birds have shown up on the Central Coast sometimes stopping at the estuary in Morro Bay, or showing up at Laguna Lake in San Luis Obispo.

In May a flock of approximately 30 birds flew north over the ocean near Piedras Blancas Lighthouse and settled down to feed in a small wet marshy area just north of there along with a herd of cows. It was a first for that location. Sightings like these bring hope that the birds are recovering and increasing in numbers.

There is an opportunity to see rare birds like white-faced ibis at the Morro Bay Winter Bird Festival held every year over the Martin Luther King Junior weekend in January.

A George By Any Other Name

Well, what do you know George Washington got a new home! You remember George, the kitten that showed up on my doorstep a few weeks ago, starving and meowing.

George had taken up with Thomas Jefferson across the street. Who knows what Thomas had in mind, but recent developments have us all wondering. When Thomas' family decided they could provide a home for little George, he had name change to James Madison with the intent to call him Madison. We all also knew a vet visit was in the offing since George was full of fleas and had a big bare spot of worn off fur on his rump. So the very next day off he went for his examination. Aha! The vet took one look and said, "A better name for George Washington would be Martha!"

Now we have to wonder what exactly was Thomas Jefferson interested in when he befriended little George, er, uh, Martha?

George now has not only a new home, but a new collar, and a new name (they stuck with Madison). She gets a nice extra bowl of food at my house every now and then and is pretty cocky about displacing Thomas if he comes trotting up to the food bowl. Thomas' nose is out of joint now that she lives inside his house, but we're hoping he'll get over that. Just to make him feel better I sneak a bowl to him too.

As to the name change, she really ought to be called Dolly, but I'll always think of her as George.

Why Can't Kitties Live Forever?

He flopped around on the rug, suddenly howling and screaming and hissing. He bared his fangs and his tail puffed up three times its size. He seemed to be looking at something that apparently raised his hackles and had him fighting one of his greatest cat fights. What was it? A spectre of doom? A spirit he did not recognize? A glimpse at the end of the tunnel? With one great scream and hiss he gave over and this last of the best cat fights of his life was over. So ended the nine lives of "Caramel" better known as Mel-Guy, the kitty-boy of Anchor Street in Morro Bay, California.

Mel-Guy was well known on the Central Coast having achieved fame in a front page newspaper photo with me during my struggle with breast cancer in 2007 and 2008. He was a loyal and staunch companion, bonded only to me and no one else. While the story of his first few years remains unknown, it was always apparent that his beginnings had not been ideal and throughout his life he trusted no one except me and I had to win that trust.

It's not easy getting a neurotic cat to attain some semblance of normality and it took about three years of diligent reinforcement to get Mel-Guy to realize that, I at least, was not going to harm or abandon him.

I worried during my cancer spell that I might die and was not upset that my life might end, but was terribly concerned as to what would happen to Mel-Guy. I had friends who offered to take him should such a thing occur, but in my heart and soul I knew that this would never suffice for him. I never asked God to spare me for myself, but to please do so because I had to take care of Mel-Guy. Still it never occurred to me that he might up and die before me.

With animals it's always hard to know when they are sick. They mask it so well that often the bad signs only show up towards the very end. This was certainly the story with Mel-Guy. He showed discomfort and was ill for only two days prior to passing and even after I brought him to the vet that morning, it was not at all evident that within ten minutes of returning home he would be dead. Nothing in my experience prepared me for the kind of death he had. I'd put a previous cat to sleep and found the experience, while sad, enormously peaceful and certainly nothing like what I witnessed with Mel-Guy.

But I got to thinking about his life with me. Mel-Guy was a fighter. If a cat fight was going to happen in his territory you can bet that it was one that he instigated. In all other respects, he was a gentle, loving animal, if somewhat of a scaredy cat. He had his kitty friends, Duke-Boy, Satchmo, Pippy, and Molly-Molly, but let Max or Buddy or some wandering stray trot through the front yard and boy, it was time to rumble.

So it has not been a shock to find out that a cat fight was what did finally bring Mel-Guy to his last day. The fight occurred in late October and it was bad. The wound on the top of his head, which he wouldn't let me touch for days, became infected. I drained it and drained it and then hauled him off to the vet for antibiotics. The treatment appeared to help for a while but within a month the infection came back. So another vet visit and more antibiotics. Another month went by and shortly after the Christmas holidays, the infection was back again. So back to the vet we go and this time the vet operates and finds a portion of a tooth stuck deeply in his skull.

I hoped that would be the end of it and end is what it was. We now think that Mel-Guy succumbed to blood poisoning from that cat bite. To be sure I would have had to pay about $150 in blood tests. I opted out. The vet however really wanted to know what might have happened and asked me if he could do a limited autopsy, no charge. That revealed not only involvement of his liver, but pretty nasty cancer in his small intestine. The cancer would have killed him eventually too. We think he had that cancer all the while that I had mine. I wish I had known, I would have hooked him up to my chemo!

There's a new kitty at my house now. Gordo came to Woods on February 27th, the same day Mel-Guy died. When I heard that I knew he was the cat to go home with me. He's nine years old, a senior cat. His canine teeth hang down over his lower lip which is black in color. He looks like a little vampire, but is really a love.

Gordo will not be enjoying the thrills of the "wild." He is an indoor cat. I know most cats like to roam around outdoors, but never again will I have an animal die just because I allowed him to experience the "wild." I thought I might find a way to fence off my small front porch for him, but in the last few weeks I've been adopted by a tiny stray kitten who now eats out there. Afterward he goes across the street to hide out under something in the yard where the cat Thomas Jefferson lives. I've named the kitten George Washington and I'm hoping to find a home for him where he could STAY INDOORS because kitties should live forever!








This is George. He now accepts sleeping in a bed I made for him on the porch. We tried having him in the house last night in his little bed in the back room with the door closed and he did well until 6 AM when he knocked a lamp onto the floor. Then he met Gordo and freaked out when he saw that BIG kitty. After jumping on the stove and raking his claws into my loveseat, I put him back outside. George needs a home so if you know anyone who would take him, please let me know. I estimate that he is about 8 or 9 months old. Very sweet but needs to be trained. My e-mail is candidcow@charter.net.

And Mel-Guy says his last farewell to life on this planet in this realm in his own special fashion!

Rare Alaskan Visitor

Two vagrant sub-adult parakeet auklets seen off the coast of Central Coast January 17, 2009. Photography by Brad Schram, copyright 2009, all rights reserved - used by permission.

Some folks attending the Morro Bay Winter Bird Festival this year were treated to a possible once in a lifetime view of a bird that is not often seen on the California Coast.

The pelagic field trip ventures out into the open ocean to find albatross, shearwaters, alcids, kittiwakes, jaegers, and sometimes a gray whale. This year the group was searching the waves when someone shouted out "auklet." Expecting probably one of the two auklets that visit the waters off the Central Coast, namely Rhinoceros auklet or Cassin's auklet, the guides were amazed to see that the bird in question was a parakeet auklet and not only was there one, but two. Cameras came out swiftly and thanks to the talent and skill of leader, Brad Schram, we have some great shots of these very rare visitors from Alaska.

Most people want to know about this bird's name. Why is it called parakeet? It doesn't look like a parakeet, does it? The beak is apparently the clue. It is orange-red and slightly upturned and those special people that give scientific names to birds thought it resembled a small parrot's bill. Thus they dubbed it Aethia psittacula, from the Latin, psittacus, meaning, little parrot. Now I've looked at parrots large and small and studied parakeets, known as budgies, and I sure can't see any similarity in their beaks to this little auklet's, but what does it matter. It's great bird!

Parakeet auklets live in Alaska most of the year extending over to the coasts of Siberia. They are small birds with a somewhat long neck and are black above with white below. During breeding season they sport a thin white plume from their eyes to behind the head.

Auklets are sea birds, feeding out on the open ocean. Parakeet auklets nest in small colonies in crevices high up on the rocky cliffs from June to August in Alaska and Siberia. They winter from the Bering Sea to Japan, and sometimes reach the shores of Central California. Local Audubon members who have lived here a long time tell me the last time parakeet auklets were definitely sighted off our coast was back in 1955, so this year's finding is really special.

Since the festival's pelagic trip in January two other ocean ventures have been held and the birds were seen again. Who knows how long they will stay in our area, but for the folks on these seagoing birding trips it has been a real treat and for many,a sighting of a life bird for their birding lists.

Maybe next year's pelagic trip will serve up even better rarities, so be sure to sign up for the 2010 Morro Bay Winter Bird Festival to be held January 15 through the 18th.

Parakeet auklets
(c) 2009 Brad Schram