Thursday, August 7, 2014

MAMMAL BIG DAY FOR NORTH AMERICA: NEW RECORD SET: AUGUST 3, 2014


From left to right, Pat Kleeman, Floyd Hayes, and the intrepid, Peter Pyle on the Shearwater Journeys's pelagic trip, part of the Mammal Big Day for North America. 

FLOYD WRITES:
Yesterday I joined Peter Pyle (the mastermind) and Pat Kleeman for another mammal "big day," attempting to break our previous North American record of 30 species seen or heard in a single day, which we set last year. We began at Point Reyes at midnight, went on a pelagic trip to the Farallon Islands with Shearwater Journeys, and continued searching until 11:00 pm. We found our record-breaking 31st species at 10:35 pm. We were assisted by experts Sarah Allen and Gary Fellers during the morning and evening, and Debi Shearwater on her boat trip.

Here is a list of the native species, arranged by the time at which each was first detected followed by the number of individuals detected in parentheses:

1) 00:00 Northern Elephant Seal (10)
2) 00:01 “Black-tailed” Mule Deer (71)
3) 00:13 Striped Skunk (4)
4) 00:27 Raccoon (6)
5) 00:28 Badger (4)
6) 00:42 Coyote (1)
7) 00:47 Elk (3; heard only)
8) 01:35 Mountain Beaver (2; heard only at known burrows)
9) 01:51 Black-tailed Jackrabbit
10) 02:32 River Otter (2; heard only)
11) 02:12 Deer Mouse (2)
12) 04:02 Big Brown Bat (30)
13) 04:06 California Myotis (20)
14) 04:06 Gray Fox (2)
15) 04:21 Brazilian Free-tailed Bat (1; identified by bat detector)
16) 05:08 Townsend’s Big-eared Bat (2)
17) 06:12 Harbor Seal (95)
18) 06:16 California Vole (2)
19) 07:24 Western Gray Squirrel (2)
20) 08:14 Harbor Porpoise (50)
21) 09:36 California Sea Lion (400)
22) 10:37 Steller’s Sea Lion (25)
23) 11:12 Northern Fur Seal (400)
24) 14:37 Humpback Whale (3)
25) 13:30 Risso’s Dolphin (1; seen only by Peter Pyle)
26) 17:27 Muskrat (1)
27) 17:49 California Ground Squirrel (1)
28) 19:38 Brush Rabbit (2)
29) 20:48 Yuma Myotis (2)
30) 22:28 Pallid Bat (10)
31) 22:35 Fringed Myotis (1)

Participants in the photo (from left to right) include: Pat Kleeman, Gary Fellers, Sarah Allen, Peter Pyle and your's truly.
The group bested the 2013 record by one species!
Glad to be a part of this day!
Debi Shearwater
debi@shearwaterjourneys.com

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