62 POINT LOBOS RESERVE 



birds; but from mainland observation it seems that they begin to pair off 

 as early as February. By April some of the nests are built, and by May 

 there are two or three eggs (sometimes, though, only one) in each nest. 



The nest building procedure is for one bird to stay on the spot while 

 the other goes for material, collecting sticks and weed stems. Then, stand- 

 ing beside the nest spot, it opens its bill and shakes out the sticks and stems, 

 which are taken and arranged by the sitting mate. The highest sites seem 

 to be most desired, for the birds crowd there and are most active in driving 

 away intruders. 



Nests on Bird Island are situated mostly in compact groups on the north 

 end, the middle hump, and the foot of the south hump. The birds relieve 

 the monotony of incubation by frequently stretching and preening. Some- 

 times they flap their wings hard enough to blow the feathers of a neighbor. 



The number of young hatched on Bird Island varies greatly from year 

 to year. Since 1927 the number has ranged from none to 78. 



The naked young are kept covered by the brooding parent and are not 

 so often seen, though sometimes with a telescope the young pelican can be 

 observed feeding from the open bill and pouch of its parent. This is the way 

 the young are fed until they are able to fish for themselves — even as late 

 as August and September of the year. 



Pelicans occasionally can be seen fishing in the narrow channel between 

 Seal Rocks and the mainland and in the general vicinity of the tip of 

 Cypress Point. However, the greatest number appear to fly off to some 

 more distant place to the northward. The birds both leaving and returning 

 usually fly close to the water, at times seeming almost to touch the waves. 



When food is sighted, the procedure noted most often is for the bird to 

 turn back and drop to the surface of the water, then to make quick jabs 

 with its opened bill — sometimes only a few and at other times many. Only 

 on rare occasions have the pelicans been seen to go partially or completely 

 below the water. 



A striking feature of the behavior of the brown pelican is its marked 

 trait of flying over the ocean and avoiding the mainland during the early 

 part of the year. After the middle of the summer these pelicans take to 

 flying across the mainland at times. Grinnell and Linsdale guessed that 

 this was either because of the economy of flying over prospective fishing 

 areas or because they felt a greater degree of safety when over the water. 



Brandt Cormorant, and Pelagic Cormorant 



These two species, not easily distinguished from each other by many 

 visitors, offer continuous demonstration of two diverse ways of coping with 

 one environment by separate, closely related species present here in abun- 

 dance, but not readily observable at many other places along the Pacific 

 Coast. 



Greater numbers of Brandt cormorants nest at Point Lobos than of any 

 other ocean bird. Because these birds like to perch and nest on the outer 

 seaward sides of rocks and islands, it is practically impossible to count the 

 numbers present ; but it has been estimated that between 300 and 500 indi- 

 viduals live within the limits of the Reserve — that is, during the nesting 

 season, when the greatest number are present. 



They can be seen on the tops of all "humps" of islands, and quite often 

 they form a fringe of thick black dots along the skyline of almost the whole 



