On the Northwest Coast, Heermann's gulls are late summer's sentinel. Snowy-headed and with ruby-red "lips", they may be the world's loveliest gulls. And while they wander North America's West Coast, almost all are made on one tiny island.
Isla Rasa, near the center of the Gulf of California, is practically perfect for seabirds. Parched and isolated, it is no place for any creature of the land. Yet it is surrounded by an ocean that is bountiful for those that can gather its resources. Each year, nearly every Heermann's gull in the world comes to this speck of land to create a new generation. If this were not enough, nearly all the world's elegant terns nest here too! Even more remarkable than the gulls, the terns fly north after nesting. They visit San Diego before heading to coastal Peru and Chile for the winter.
Blessed with calm seas, we were able to negotiate Rasa's tricky landing. Once ashore, we walked with research biologists over the island. Our trail threaded past thousands of gull nests. The birds, just a few feet away, chuckled in concern but rarely budged. The terns were nesting in one limited patch of phenomenal density, looking like a whirling feathered snowstorm. Close to the colony, our senses were overwhelmed by the sight and sound of these stunning creatures.
The birds of Isla Rasa stitch together continents with their wandering. A visit to their global nexus makes a fitting conclusion to our own wide peregrinations.
