Anyone on facebook who is interested in Black Oystercatchers is
invited... and encouraged... to join the Black Oystercatcher page that
Dawn V. and I started last year in hopes that volunteer monitors would
share information. There is much to learn about these shorebirds and we
could all help each other by sharing our observations.
And... Is there a grad student out there who might be interested in
mining Elise Eliot-Smith's almost 11 years of data to see if there is
any correlation between fledging success rates and mussel toxicity
levels? Since chicks are presumably more vulnerable to toxins than
adults, I would love to know if the areas where mussels have been found
to be toxic are areas where BLOY chicks have had poor survival rates.
Various areas on the coast are tested every two weeks for toxins so
those records should be available. Elise has records of where chicks
have and have not fledged successfully for the last ten years, 11 after
the season ends this year.
My understanding is that little has been done to study seabird mortality
rates from toxins in fish and shellfish. Black Oystercatcher chick
survival records might be a great way to begin...
Linda Fink
--
http://lindafink.blogspot.com/
http://lindafink-birdnotes.blogspot.com/
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