Diet days come and go now with ease. In fact, the diet tent runs like a well-oiled machine - one person on data/sample management, two people on dissections, one person as a runner to get birds from the beaches. It's almost as good a machine as Lynne, Annie, Deanna and I processing samples in Mark Twain National Forest! The only new part of my job is now I thaw the stomach samples in the "lab" (pole barn) and sort through the various fishes - identifying and weighing them to quantify biomass.
I've been up to a lot of different, exciting adventures.
05/04-10/2008
I spent Sunday night on the island to relieve a colony monitor for a day off. The weather was perfect, sunny and warm. I assume most colony monitor duties when I stay on the island - scout for predator signs - bird heads (from owls), tracks and scat (of mammals), and count the birds on colony at sunset. The sunset count was overwhelming! I nearly hyperventilated and cried. It was a vast sea of white and black. It took me a couple of tries to count my half of the colony. There were ~13,125 terns on the colony! I went to bed immediately after the sunset count.
The following Friday, I drove to Corvallis to drop off radio telemetry antennas at the University. It turned out that Don was having a noose-mat tying party at his house. Noose mats are essentially 1cm mesh wire cloth cut into 3ft. octagons with a 1ft octagon cut out of the center. Then hundreds (thousands?) of nooses (fishing line tied in slipknots) are tied to every third square. These are placed around the nests of terns so when the terns land their feet are caught by the nooses. We use these to catch terns for banding. So, since I'm now a professional noose mat tyer, I couldn't turn down the invitation to his party. It was a good time!
Saturday I watched Don and Deanna's dog run two agility trials. She is the border collie in the photograph I posted some time ago. She runs like the wind! Simply amazing what they have taught that dog!
On the way back from Corvallis, I drove to the Columbia River Gorge Scenic Area.
I stopped at Multnomah Falls. It's a beautiful place that has been overrun by tourists. My time here was brief. I continued on up the river to Bonneville Locks and Dam to see the fish ladders. The fish ladders are mazes of cement steps with water rushing over them. It's a wonder that fish can swim up them.
Recently, a monstrous mass of unknown composition was detected in the river below the dam. Fish biologists deployed underwater cameras and discovered hundreds of white sturgeon - huge fish - in a ball. These fish were probably trying to swim to tributaries to spawn but couldn't navigate the fish ladders due to their large size.
I saw a lone salmon swim the ladder and only three more pass by the windows in the visitor center. The ladder narrows to concentrate fish past the windows where they can be identified and counted. I found this visit disturbing. It's sad to see just how much humans have really screwed things up. Millions of salmon swam upriver to spawn just nearly 200 years ago - now there are only tens of thousands.
Multnomah Falls, OR
A flower, Multnomah Falls, OR
Looking up the fish ladder, Bonneville Dam, OR
A fork in the "road", Bonneville Dam, OR
Spillway for excess water, Bonneville Dam, ORWhile I was walking around the fish ladders, I saw my first Western Tanager and my first Osprey carrying a salmon.
Western Tanager, Bonneville Dam, OR
05/11-17/2008This week was pretty busy for everyone. Diet data collection took two days this week due to the weather. We had huge waves rolling on the beaches - not good paddling weather! We have a zodiac moored off the island. We moor the motorboat then row in the zodiac to the island. This prevents the boat from getting beat up on the beaches and from getting beached by outgoing tides. Outside of diet data collection, I spent a ton of time resighting banded birds on the colony. I also got trapped in a blind for a day due to California brown pelicans roosting on the beach behind my blind. These pelicans are endangered and flushing has to be minimized. So, I drew in my field book.
Drawings by meI had one afternoon off, so I drove up to Ilwaco, WA (20minutes) to see the Tall Ships in port. I talked my way into a brief tour of the Lady Washington. She is a replica of the 1872 Lady Washington. She was in the first Pirates of the Caribbean movie. A beautiful ship with over a hundred lines to control her sails.
Lady Washington, Port of Ilwaco, WAA few days later, these ships sailed the river off the island and had a mock battle, cannons and all. I was in the north blind looking south and watched the whole battle.
Lady Washington and Hawaiian Chieftain, Columbia River, OR
Lady Washington, Columbia River, OR
Fish weir, East Sand Island, OR
Old pilings and railroad chassis, East Sand Island, OR
Railroad boxcar wheel, East Sand Island, OR
The north beach, East Sand Island, OR
Rotting piling, East Sand Island, ORI spent Sunday night on the island. Again, the sunset count was overwhelming. I got it right on the first try - 13,650 terns on the colony! The third highest count. I went to bed immediately after the sunset count. Swainson's thrushes were singing their flutey harmony. These birds sing 3 songs of different pitches simultaneously. Incredible! The next morning I found river otter tracks running east and west along the north beach. I have yet to see this elusive critter!
River otter tracks - webbed feet and a dragging tail05/18-24/2008
I finally was granted access to the cormorant end of the colony. These are sensitive, flighty birds so only cormorant techs are allowed on the colony. This is the end with a series of tunnels that run to an overlook tower. At one end of a tunnel, there is a blind with 6 one-way windows that open to allow for photography through holes in screens. Double-crested cormorants are beautiful birds. See for yourself:
Double-crested cormorant
What is that looking at me?
A pair on their nest
The view of part of the colony from the towerEarly in the week, a harbor seal pup showed up motherless on the island. Harbor seals are plentiful in the estuary and there is a rookery on West Sand Island (adjacent to East Sand Island). It was newly born with a fresh umbilical cord. It was able to swim and seemed healthy other than an eye infection. Days passed and the seal pup was still motherless - often getting tossed into pilings at high tide. Its energy reserves seemed low - the pup laid against beached logs to seek shelter from crashing waves. Then the next day, it was peppy - swimming around, wiggling across the sand. That night it left, hopefully with its mother.
Harbor seal pup
Taking shelter next to a log
Harbor seal pup tracks
The authority on Cuteness!On Saturday, I went on an aerial survey with my housemate Kelly, crew leader, Lauren, and Captain Brad. We flew up the Columbia River surveying islands for nesting terns. Of which, there were none. We also flew up to Washington to Willapa Bay and Gray's Harbor on the same mission. Again, no terns. On the way to Willapa Bay, we flew just off shore of the Pacific Ocean. The fog below us was thick but then ended in a distinct line. I decided I should look for whales but really doubted I would see any. Not 30 seconds later, I saw a gray whale cow and calf swimming north. I told the crew about it and Capt. Brad circled for a better look. The cow breached then. I was so excited!
Fueling the planeThe aerial survey was super fun. I saw Mt. St. Helens and the Olympic Mountains, too. Such a beautiful place here.
Self portrait in the nose of the plane
A ship going upriver
The cockpit with Capt Brad (left) and Kelly
Mt. St. Helens
Me in the plane05/25-28/08
Today, we captured adult terns. We deployed 18 noose mats and caught 31 terns over 4 or 5 capture sessions. The scene was chaotic. Run with noose mats onto the colony being careful to not run over nests and break eggs. Stake noose mats over nests, ward off egg-stealing gulls, then run off the colony. This took 2 minutes. Wait for birds to land and get caught - a few minutes. Then run like hell onto the colony and immobilize the birds then cut the nooses off the mat. Put the birds into the crates, reposition noose mats on new nests, ward off gulls, run off the colony - 4 minutes. Repeat until 31 birds are captured. We then carried the crates of birds to the processing stations where they were banded, weighed, wings measured and painted pink, then released. The entire capture/banding operation took 3 hours from start to finish. Here are the pictures:
Holding a tern to be banded
A tern being weighed
Preparing to release a bird
In motion
Almost released
Released
Today, we captured adult terns. We deployed 18 noose mats and caught 31 terns over 4 or 5 capture sessions. The scene was chaotic. Run with noose mats onto the colony being careful to not run over nests and break eggs. Stake noose mats over nests, ward off egg-stealing gulls, then run off the colony. This took 2 minutes. Wait for birds to land and get caught - a few minutes. Then run like hell onto the colony and immobilize the birds then cut the nooses off the mat. Put the birds into the crates, reposition noose mats on new nests, ward off gulls, run off the colony - 4 minutes. Repeat until 31 birds are captured. We then carried the crates of birds to the processing stations where they were banded, weighed, wings measured and painted pink, then released. The entire capture/banding operation took 3 hours from start to finish. Here are the pictures:
Holding a tern to be banded
A tern being weighed
Preparing to release a bird
In motion
Almost released
ReleasedThat's all I have.
Enjoy.
Enjoy.
1 comment:
I have tears with your last photos releasing the tern. You are so cool.
I've been to the falls, back when I was 17.
There was one more thing I wanted to say, but can't remember. Oh ya! That pup is SO CUTE. Were you that close?
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