At The Grove LA

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With binoculars on her shoulder and an iPhone at hand, Susan stopped scanning the horizon, looking for humpback whales to film the dramatic event as the afternoon low clouds were moving inland.

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At the coffee shop, she was waiting for a friend.

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Scientific Name
Urile penicillatus

Brandt's cormorant is a strictly marine bird of the cormorant family of seabirds that inhabits the Pacific coast of North America. It ranges, in the summer, from Alaska to the Gulf of California, but the population north of Vancouver Island migrates south during the winter. Its specific name, penicillatus is Latin for a painter's brush (pencil of hairs), in reference to white plumes on its neck and back during the early breeding season. The common name honors the German naturalist Johann Friedrich von Brandt of the Academy of Sciences at St. Petersburg, who described the species from specimens collected on expeditions to the Pacific during the early 19th century.

Quick and Cool Facts

• Brandt's cormorants breed along the Pacific Coast from Alaska to Mexico.

• Their main breeding range is between California and Washington.

• Brandt's cormorants nest in colonies on the ground, including cliffs, islands, and offshore rocks.

• The male cormorant selects the nest site and brings the nesting materials to the female so she can build the nest.

• Brandt's cormorants are great divers, and they can dive deeply from the surface and can reach over 100 meters in their pursuit of prey.

• Their webbed feet propel them underwater so they can swim and feed on fish close to the bottom.

• During the breeding season, they have an expandable pouch on their throat that turns blue.


Habitat
Brandt’s Cormorants are strictly coastal birds, almost never found inland. Even along the coast, they seldom fly over land. In coastal waters they favor kelp beds and sometimes enter inlets, bays, sounds, lagoons, and estuaries. They are usually not more than 10 miles from land except during migration.


Food
Brandt’s Cormorants dive from the surface and swim underwater, visually hunting fish and squid. They grasp prey in the bill, crush it, then swallow it headfirst. Depending on prey availability, they may hunt near the surface or near the bottom, as far as 230 feet down.

Credit
— wikipedia.org
— nps.gov
— allaboutbirds.org
— audubon.org

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A surfer, uses a board to ride on the forward section, or face, of a moving wave of water.

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