February 12, 2006

Dead Bird Walking

I spent the morning walking Del Rey with the dead bird counters from the COASST crew.  We've been collecting data on the beach for several years now as part of a region-wide project doing protocol based data gathering on species of birds that wash up on the beach dead.  The recent storm series brought winds gusting to 60 miles per hour and record setting rainfall.  It also brought an incredible amount of woody debris from Columbia River which got deposited on the beach.
 



FTSP2006021201.JPG
Fork-tailed Storm-petrel		Today's count included:
Western Grebe              1
Northern Fulmar            2
Fork-tailed Storm-Petrel   1
Western Gull               1
Cassin's Auklet            5

There's a lot that can be learned from constant effort monitoring ofdead birds.  The massive Northern Fulmar die-off that occurred in the fall of 2003 and the annual die-off of Common Murre each summer are two good examples.

This season, Western Grebes and Cassin's Auklets appear to have suffered the greatest impacts from winter storms. Constant monitoring can also yield information on patterns of vagrancy or help with band recovery, as well. Two Parakeet Auklets (rare in Oregon) were picked up last week and a banded Black-footed Albatross was recover last fall.

Posted by mbalame at February 12, 2006 7:08 PM