Prairie Warbler and other Notes (Shark Notes)

I've been two weeks on the island now, and if you haven't noticed it's been pretty incredible.  No megas (yet), but always plenty of good birding to be had.  We sea watch twice per day on the island, and although numbers of birds (specifically Sooty Shearwaters) are down from the first week, I've had Pomarine Jaegers migrating close to the island on my last two afternoon watches.  Today I had an adult and an immature within a few minutes of each other.

The interesting landbirds continue to move through including a Prairie Warbler that showed up yesterday afternoon at the lighthouse.

As you may know, one of the specialties of the Farallon Islands is white sharks.  Each intern spends two hours per day on the lighthouse watching for shark attacks.  We look for gulls swarming, pools of blood in the water,

and, of course, sharks thrashing and feeding on a carcass in the water.

These photos were taken on Thursday of a white shark feeding on an immature elephant seal less than a quarter of a kilometer from the island.  This was one of five attacks we've gotten to see in the past week.