--------- Forwarded message ----------
From: Suryan, Robert <rob.suryan@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Date: Thu, Jul 7, 2016 at 1:41 PM
Subject: Yaquina Head seabird update - COMU chicks!
To: [many]
Hi,
Here is the Yaquina Head seabird update as of July 7th.
Common murre eggs have finally hatched! Unfortunately, a total of
seven chicks on southern Flat Top have fallen victim to primary and
secondary predators. Oddly enough, a mink was spotted in our plot and
caused a disturbance as it ran throughout the rock; it was responsible
for death of one murre chick and the arrival of western gulls, leading
to the death of two more chicks. The remaining murre chicks were eaten
by a bald eagle in one other disturbance. Additionally, the 23 nests
being followed on southern Flat Top were lost due to the high
disturbances from the bald eagles. Over the course of recent days, we
have also lost 47 nests located on the rocks adjacent to Colony Rock.
The only active nests in our plots are now located on the lower rock
adjacent to Colony Rock. We are currently monitoring 2 murre chicks
and 12 nesting birds in this plot. Overall, birds continue to densely
populate Flat Top and Colony Rock during the late afternoon hours, but
by dusk only 20% of the rocks remain full. Upon our arrival in the
early morning hours the rocks are bare due to bald eagle disturbances.
On other news, cormorant chicks have been spotted throughout our
plots! Overall, Brandt’s Cormorant nests are more abundant. We have
seen chicks in 25 of the 50 Brandt’s Cormorant nests and 9 of the 30
Pelagic Cormorant nests. Stay tuned for the next update!
Despite of all the disturbance, two of our tagged murres are still
making central-place foraging trips – departing and returning - to
Yaquina Head. The accuracy of the tags that these two birds have only
allow us to say they are near the colony. We cannot tell which rock
they are on - as we can with the GPS tags. These birds are still
making really long trips off the shelf and up to southern Washington.
Today, both birds are offshore of Willapa Bay and Grays Harbor!
Interestingly, Amanda and Jess just returned from conducting seabird
surveys during a 2-week NOAA cruise and noted there were very few
birds off southern and central Oregon. They did not see typical
numbers until north of Tillamook and the Columbia River. This year,
the murres are likely suffering from limited prey resources along with
heavy predator activity – birds and mammals!
Stay tuned for the next update!
Denisse Silva
Stephanie Loredo
Jess Porquez
Jane Dolliver
Rachael Orben
Amanda Gladics
Rob Suryan
http://hmsc.oregonstate.edu/research-labs/seabird-oceanography-lab
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