Tag Archives: Seabird

Spotlight on Burke Ornithology

COASST volunteers may think they’re the only people that pay attention to dead birds, but it turns out they’re not alone!

Recently our local NPR station, KUOW, profiled citizens collecting dead birds (with proper permit) from their backyard (and surrounds) for the Ornithology Collection at the Burke Museum. Each year, the collection receives about 500 birds from citizens (window strikes, vehicle strikes, cat kills etc). As a whole, the specimens (all 99,000 of them!) – archived as skins, outstretched wings, and tissue samples – provide a valuable resource to scientists.

Seabird scientists, too! Dr. Ann Edwards used the collection to answer, “have fisheries discards shaped the diet of Laysan Albatross?” by sampling Laysan feathers from museum specimens, current NW Hawaiian Island breeders and bycatch specimens from Hawaii and Alaska longline fisheries.

Rob Faucett, Collections Manager, helps assist a variety of outreach and education projects, in addition to research. In the creation of Beached Birds-Alaska and more recently, the Wing Key, we’ve accessed the collection to answer our own questions – can you really tell Thick-billed and Common Murres apart by wing alone (answer: no). Can you separate a storm-petrel wing from a small alcid (answer: yes, the outermost primary is more than a feather’s width shorter than the next). And after hours of pouring over these birds, we can’t resist having a little fun (see below).

All About Refinds!

Leave a reply

Ever wondered what happens to the birds you tag on COASST surveys? And why do we tag them, anyway?

Much of the time, the carcasses are swept away with the next high tide, or are carried away by scavengers. Most times, a bird is never seen again. Think of all the others that are deposited once and for all on unsurveyed beaches – we are none the wiser!

Other times, we know exactly what happens to a beached bird. We have good evidence that they’re more mobile than you might think. In January, Bonnie Wood and Janet Wheeler at Salt Aire North found a Pacific Loon. Later that same day, Amy and Jack Douglas happened upon the very same bird on the neighboring beach, Bonge. Is that possible? Turns out, carcasses do move–by dogs, humans, or raptors. Without a unique tag combo, we’d never be able to trace such refinds.

Those dead birds untouched by animals and tides remain right where they are. Certain beaches are well known among COASST staff as “bird keepers.” These are often the most expansive sandy beaches, where a bird may be buried by blowing sand for many months, only to be uncovered and refound months later. The tags, then, are the only way to tell that such birds should not be counted as a “new” find.

We ask our volunteers to collect data on refinds each time they’re encountered. We don’t require measurements or photos after the original find, but we do ask for a few fields: where found, body parts, species, tie number and color sequence. Some volunteers do choose to take photos each time, and they allow us to make some fun “before-and-after” comparisons. In combination with refind data, this gives us an idea of which parts last– the feet and wings (the basis for the COASST guide).

This intact Rhinoceros Auklet was reduced to just a sternum, the tagged wing bones, and a few other bones after 6 months on Agate Beach, in Oregon.

This Northern Fulmar was one of 24 found on December 3, 2010. A month later, it was found again, only slightly degraded. Then in September 2012, amazingly, it turned up again a whopping 21 months after its original find date!! A new persistence record for COASST!

All photos by Wendy Williams

‘Sticky Birds’ Found in England

Leave a reply

Over in England, dead birds are washing ashore in large numbers on beaches in Devon and Cornwall for the second time this year. The birds, mostly guillemots (i.e., murres), but with a smattering of gannets, razorbills, and cormorants, are coated with a white, gluelike substance. So far there have been an estimated 200 birds affected by this substance since last week, with more suspected to wash up as prevailing winds and currents drive the carcasses to shore.

The Royal Society for the Protection of Birds (RSPB) has been taking in birds found coated in the substance that are still alive and using toothbrushes, “washing-up liquid,” and margarine to try and clean them. So far they have rescued 95 birds, but 25 have died as of Monday.

This kind of thing is tragic for both the birds and for the human population in the affected areas. Besides the emotional trauma of finding dozens of dead birds, there are economic implications for those areas where tourism is a large part of the economy.

Unfortunately, this is not the first time this year a weird sticky substance has been found coating dead birds. In February, an estimated 300 shorebirds were found covered in what is believed to be the same substance. Tests run during the February incident determined that the sticky stuff was polyisobutene, a relatively common chemical aboard ships. Although testing is still in progress, it seems likely that this is the same thing.

Currently, polyisobutene can be legally released into ocean waters under certain conditions. In light of these events, the RPSB has called for polyisobutene to be reclassified and its discharge into ocean waters outlawed. The British coastguard has been working to determine the source of the chemical, but has been unable to do so.

More information from the BBC can be found here.

Wreck on the UK Coast

Leave a reply

In early April, an alarming number of dead birds washed up on the east coast of the UK – a large majority of the birds were puffins. It is the worst “wreck” of birds for over 50 years. Researchers have speculated that the event was caused by recent extreme weather. There have been no signs of pollution in the regions in which they were found. It is thought that the birds expended more energy on staying alive in the recent North Sea storms, making feeding impossible. To makes matters worse, the success of the breeding season for many of these birds (which is quickly approaching) could be impacted from this event. The majority of the deaths have already surfaced, but the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds, alongside volunteers, will proceed to monitor said beaches in the upcoming spring and summer months.

For further reading visit:
The BBC News
Arbroath Herald

Dead Bird ID Terminology

2 Replies

One of the challenges of making the COASST Beached Birds Field Guides was avoiding much of the technical jargon found in other scientific resources. So where possible, we prefer “overlapping” to “scutellate” and “four webbed” to “totipalmate.” Those words can be fun to know, but they have no place in a guide for bringing clarity to bird identification.

With bird ID, there are a few terms that are necessary in order to be specific. The glossary in the COASST Field Guide helps with these, but we still field questions about some of the more obscure ones. Here is a closer look at some of the more challenging terms:

Puffin “stripe” or “smudge”

Unique to puffins and the closely related Rhinoceros Auklet, this is the subtly paler coloration on the leading edge of the wing. Sometimes this can look like the feathers are “worn away”, but it’s actually a plumage pattern.

Windows

White spots surrounded by dark, found on the outer wing feathers (primaries) of adult gulls (but not kittiwakes) are referred to as windows.

“Fingernails”

Many gull species have white tips to their primary feathers, which we call “fingernails.”

Speculum

When the secondary feathers are colored differently from the rest of the wing they are referred to as a speculum. Often these are iridescent. This term is commonly applied to ducks, for example this Northern Shoveler wing with a green speculum. Presence and coloration of the speculum can be the key to getting that waterfowl wing down to species.

Wing stripe

This is an area of contrast going through the middle of the wing, with darker or lighter color both before and after. In shorebirds, this is often a white “stripe.” Pigeons show a dark wing stripe.

Inner cut/outer cut primaries

Some birds have oddly shaped edges to their outer primary feathers. The leading edge of the feather may taper gradually towards the tip. This is called an outer cut feather. When the tapering is present on the trailing edge of the feather, it is called inner cut. This can be a good way to tell those cormorant wings from scoter wings!

Alcid Mortality Events on the East Coast

Leave a reply

Razorbill at bird cliff in Westfjords, Iceland. Photo taken/uploaded by Gsd97jks (Wikipedia user).

Check out some recent and intriguing alcid mortality events documented by SEANET, the Seabird Ecological Assessment Network. In case you didn’t know, SEANET is a citizen science project that conducts beached bird surveys on the east coast of the United States.

Since December of 2012, SEANET has documented an unusually high number of dead Razorbills, almost 30 as opposed to the usual 3-5 reported dead. The Razorbills, which are usually found in the Northeastern coasts have been recovered in areas as far as North Carolina and Florida.

Another strange incident observed by SEANET is the high Atlantic Puffin sightings, both dead and alive, in the Cape Cod area. Considering reports of Atlantic Puffins are rare, this high number of reports is being linked with the antecedent storm that occurred in the area. SEANET is currently watching for further effects of the storm on the puffins.

Finally, increased mortality of Dovekies in the Long Island area has been observed. SEANET has not documented abnormal mortality rates elsewhere.

For more information, please visit the SEANET blog here

December 2012 Dovekie Wreck in New York

Leave a reply

In December of 2012 a bird wreck was reported along the coast of New York. The unlucky species was the dovekie, also known as the little auk. Beached dovekies were reported along the shore, in parking lots, fields and even yards. Wildlife rehabilitation centers as well as local veterinarians reported admitting record numbers of dovekies that had injuries ranging from neurological dysfunction to severe trauma. Unfortunately aquatic birds are difficult to rehabilitate as they require special housing, feeding and handling due to their adaptations for life at sea instead of on land. Of the 22 injured dovekies one wildlife rehabilitation center sheltered, only one survived to be released back into the wild.

In an effort to better understand the origin of massive bird wrecks such as this, wildlife health specialists advise recording all conditions present at the time of a wreck so that these observations can be used to better understand and predict future wrecks. One way that you can get involved in monitoring the health of your local environment is by volunteering with a wildlife health monitoring network, such as WHER. WHER stands for “Wildlife Health Event Reporter” and is an online application that allows you to report observations of questionable wildlife health in your area. For more information visit their website at http://ww w.wher.org.

For more articles and pictures concerning the December 2012 dovekie wreck see links below!

http://www.dailyfreeman.com/articles/2012/12/23/news/doc50d672a91d499201484171.txt

http://www.boston.com/metrodesk/2012/12/28/long-way-from-home-arctic-bird-checks-roxbury-firehouse/DrBCH2HjjL8KaBuVvD9o3J/story.html

http://biodiversityworksmv.org/blog/

Albatross Wisdom

Leave a reply

*A Laysan albatross known as “Wisdom” – believed to be at
least 62 years old – has hatched a chick on Midway Atoll National Wildlife
Refuge for the sixth consecutive year.

During the morning hours on Sunday, the chick was observed pipping its way
into the world by U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service biologist Pete Leary, who
said the chick appears healthy. Wisdom was first banded in 1956, when she
was incubating an egg in the same area of the refuge. She was at least five
years old at the time.

“Everyone continues to be inspired by Wisdom as a symbol of hope for her
species,” said Doug Staller, the Fish and Wildlife Service superintendent
for the Papahānaumokuākea Marine National Monument (Monument), which
includes Midway Atoll NWR.

Staff and volunteers stationed on Midway are responsible for monitoring the
health of the beautiful seabirds that arrive every year by the hundreds of
thousands to nest. Upon the seabirds’ arrival, field staff monitor them and
gather information for one of the longest and oldest continuous survey data
sets for tropical seabirds in the world.

Wisdom has worn out five bird bands since she was first banded by U.S.
Geological Survey scientist Chandler Robbins in 1956. Robbins estimated
Wisdom to be at least 5 years old at the time, since this is the earliest
age at which these birds breed. Typically, they breed at 8 or 9 years of
age after a very involved courtship lasting over several years so Wisdom
could be even older than 62.

Bruce Peterjohn, chief of the North American Bird Banding Program at the
USGS Patuxent Wildlife Research Center in Laurel, MD, said Wisdom has
likely raised at least 30 to 35 chicks during her breeding life, though the
number may well be higher because experienced parents tend to be better
parents than younger breeders. Albatross lay only one egg a year, but it
takes much of a year to incubate and raise the chick. After consecutive
years in which they have successfully raised and fledged a chick, the
parents may take the occasional next year off from parenting. Wisdom is
known to have nested in 2006 and then every year since 2008.

“As Wisdom rewrites the record books, she provides new insights into the
remarkable biology of seabirds,” Peterjohn said. “It is beyond words to
describe the amazing accomplishments of this wonderful bird and how she
demonstrates the value of bird banding to better understand the world
around us. If she were human, she would be eligible for Medicare in a
couple years yet she is still regularly raising young and annually
circumnavigating the Pacific Ocean. Simply incredible.”

Sue Schulmeister, manager of the Midway Atoll NWR, said, “Wisdom is one is
one of those incredible seabirds that has provided the world valuable
information about the longevity of these beautiful creatures and reinforces
the importance of breeding adults in the population. This information helps
us measure the health of our oceans that sustain albatross.”

Almost as amazing as being a parent at 62 is the number of miles this bird
has likely logged – about 50,000 miles a year as an adult – which means
that Wisdom has flown at least 2 to 3 million miles since she was first
banded. Or, to put it another way, that’s 4 to 6 trips from the Earth to
the Moon and back again with plenty of miles to spare.

*About Albatross*

Albatross are legendary birds for many reasons – in Samuel Coleridge’s
poem, “The Rime of the Ancient Mariner,” a sailor has to wear an albatross
around his neck as punishment for killing the bird. According to seafaring
legends, albatross are the souls of lost sailors and should not be killed.
However, as reported by James Cook, sailors regularly killed and ate
albatross.

Albatross are remarkable fliers who travel thousands of miles on wind
currents without ever flapping their wings. They do this by angling their
6-foot wings to adjust for wind currents and varying air speeds above the
water.

Nineteen of 21 species of albatross are threatened with extinction,
according to the International Union for the Conservation of Nature.
Present threats to the birds include lead poisoning of chicks on Midway
from lead paint used in previous decades; longline fishing, where the birds
are inadvertently hooked and drowned, though conservation groups have
banded with fishermen and dramatically lowered the number of deaths from
this cause; and pollution, especially from garbage floating on the ocean.

The birds ingest large amounts of marine debris – by some estimates 5 tons
of plastic are unknowingly fed to albatross chicks each year by their
parents. Although the plastic may not kill the chicks directly, it reduces
their food intake, which leads to dehydration and most likely lessens their
chance of survival. In addition, albatross are threatened by invasive
species such as rats and wild cats, which prey on chicks, nesting adults
and eggs. Albatross evolved on islands where land mammals were absent, so
have no defenses against them.

The Mysterious Glob

Leave a reply

Only the seventh Mottled Petrel found on COASST surveys was spotted on January 19th at Oregon Mile 196. This bird is a small, tubenose bird that breeds all the way in New Zealand. On the bird’s right foot a mysterious glob, possibly a tumor, was found. Another possibility–a piece of marine debris that the bird became entangled in. A very interesting find by some COASSTers. Keep up the good work!

Mottled Petrel THE MYSTERIOUS GLOB