Baraboo weekly news. [volume] (Baraboo, Wis.) 1912-197?, 1916-06-29
THE HOME OF THE SEA BIRDS
NEAR SAN DIEGO,
CALIFORNIA

J GldHl6I OL 0du O16SOs Odlll. un1. duu
Mrs. Glazier and son are now visiting
at Baraboo and Kilbourn. The island
mentioned is in the Pacific ocean not
! for from San Diego. The article reads
as follow]s
Chugging out with sundry snortings
/ Of small motor boat, we wended our
way down the channel and out Of San
, Diego bay, out past the Point Iona
, light, and the government jetty. Turn
| ing our backs on the busy city we set
| tied ourselves comfortably and looked
away in the distance at three little
, spots on the horizon, three tiny islands
which rear their heads out of the Pa
cifc some twenty-five miles away.
These islands are two miles below the
international boundary and belong to
Mexico. They are of volcanic origin
and no one knows how long ago they
first poked their rocky points above
the water. They have neither soil nor
fresh water, and so for ages past the
seals and sea birds have held undis-
puted sway.
There were four of us Qovers of
Nature) who had determined to spend
our few days of outing on these rocks,
climb to the summit where we could
see and photograph the sea birds in
their native haunts. June is the nest
ing season and hence our start on
June 16 Landing on the rock on the
lee side of the island, we slowly
worked our way upward; the pinnacle
is four hundred and sixty-six feet
above the water. 1t is a climb for
your life, and the sea birds have just
cause to think themselves in per-
fectly secure place. Up an almost
perpendicular wall of rock mostly solid
but few loose pieces to roll under
ones feet and go splashing into the
boiling surf below, it sends a cold
chill up ones back as he reaizes that
a single misstep will send him into the
land of never-more; still with a clear
head and steady nerve we cling to
the rocks and work our way upward
foot by foot until we are nearly three
hundred feet from the water. With
two large graflex cameras and can
teen of fresh water it is no small task
but we are soon to receive our re-
ward, for now as we work our way
slowly around point Of rock which
has hidden us from view we come up
on the first birds nests; these are the
cormorants, species of fish hawk
With one camera we snap the old bird
on the nest, while with the other we
get her just as she is about to fly
away. The corOmOrant lays four blu
ish-white eggs, which appear as if they
had had a rather poor job of white
washing. The young birds are black
and very much resemble a hard rub
Der ball, but at a few days old they
begin to take an upright poise, and at
full grown the bird stands perpen-
icular and it's feathers are nearly
black. A few more snaps of these
birds (there were hundreds Of them)
and their nests, and we pass on to the
next family, each species of birds hav-
ing a section of the island to them
selves.
We next come to the pelican, the
large bird with pouch underneath
his long bill Here we got some excel
lent views of the nest and the young
birds which, although but few days
wise as an owl; they were odd little
creatures and we hid ourselves to
watch the old bird feed them. This
is an interesting process. The waters
around the island abound in small fish
as sardines, smelt, and anchovies.
The pelican swoops down upon
and comes up with her bill we'll filled
back to the nest she flies and taking
the bill of young bird inside her
own, she disgorges the entire catch
into the little bill and it is gone with
a single gulp. This performance is a
continuous one carried on from early
morn until sundown as often as she
can make the catch. The pelican is
very watchful bird and very rarely
ever do both old birds leave the nest
at once, but at our approach, when all
the birds flew away, the gulls, natural
born thieves, and ever watchful for a
little easy food, pounced down upon
1.-THE pelicans' nests and began devour-
ing the eggs and even to peck the