CALIFORNIA FISH AND GAME 355 



FOURTH ANNUAL BLACK BRANT CENSUS 



IN CALIFORNIA 



By James Moffitt 



The fourth annual census of black brant, Branta dernicla nigri- 

 cans, was made in California February 10 to 12, inclusive, 1934. 

 Results of the three previous censuses have been reported upon by the 

 writer in California Fish and Game as follows : vol. 17, 1931, pp. 396- 

 401; vol. 18, 1932, pp. 298-310; vol. 19, 1933, pp. 255-263. 



The 1934 census was, in many respects, the most satisfactory one 

 made to date. The cooperators felt that the counts that they made in 

 California this year were the most accurate ones secured during this 

 work. This year, for the first time since this work was undertaken, 

 other states interested themselves in it and censuses were made in 

 Oregon and Washington coincident with ours. The results of these 

 counts are recorded in this paper and serve to provide a much more 

 intelligible idea of the entire Pacific Coast brant population than could 

 California censuses alone portray. 



The census of black brant on Mission and San Diego bays was 

 made by Game Warden E. H. Glidden, assisted by Clinton G. Abbott, 

 Director of the San Diego Natural History Museum, and A. Muel- 

 heisen of that city on February 10, 1934. Most of the day was devoted 

 to taking the census, the greater part being spent on Mission Bay. 

 Tides for the day in San Diego Bay were as follows: high tide, 5.56 

 a.m., 6.1 feet; low tide, 1.30 p.m., -1.0 feet. The tides on Mission Bay 

 were one and one-half hours later. This party recorded 154 brant on 

 Mission Bay and seven birds were seen on San Diego Bay on the mud 

 flat on the east side northwest of the old cotton seed plant. The total 

 number of brant observed in this region therefore was 161 birds. 



The writer took the census on Morro Bay the same day where he 

 was assisted by Game Warden F. W. Hecker and Dr. A. P. Marshall, 

 of San Luis Obispo. The count was commenced at 7.40 a.m. and com- 

 pleted at 10.10 a.m. and was made from an outboard motorboat. The 

 day was clear and calm and the excellent weather materially assisted in 

 permitting us to secure what we all agreed was a very accurate record 

 of the number of brant present on Morro Bay that day, a total of 3895 

 individuals. The tides on Morro Bay February 10, 1934, were as fol- 

 lows : high tide, 7.24 a.m., 6.0 feet ; low tide, 2.59 p.m., -1.3 feet. During 

 the course of census taking, a close watch was kept for brant flying 

 between the Bay and the ocean but as no bird was seen to do so we 

 concluded that all the brant of the immediate vicinity were in the Bay 

 as inspection of the calm ocean from the sand dunes on the beach failed 

 to reveal a brant on its glassy surface. However, there may have been 

 some brant on the coast that day a few miles to the northward as Game 

 Warden Hecker and fishermen told of numbers that they had seen feed- 

 ing in the kelp on the ocean off Cayucos a few days previous. Accord- 

 ing to fishermen and local residents, it is an annual custom for the 

 brant to feed in the ocean in this vicinity, a few miles northward from 



