January 27, 2016
Today was our first day working outside of Castro again. Our plan for the next few days is to resurvey the sites with large flocks and/or green flagged birds.
Today we went to Nercon - a site just south of Castro. It was raining when we got up and all through breakfast. It was misty but wet when we left and I think G and I were both wondering if we would have any visibility through clouds and rain for a survey today to be worth it.
G hopped out of the car quick and started scanning while I bundled up in warm layers. Before I was done getting ready I heard Garrett day he had already found a green flag from the road. We’d have to walk down to the flats to read the code though. Oh boy.
We hurried down and G got back on the bird first getting the flag code read. 19 no more! Our twentieth unique individual from the Alaska breeding population!
This was a female who breeds on our north study plot and best of all her mate was the green flag we had seen at this bay just over a week ago!
This particular bay is different from most bays we survey because it’s really a series of small bays connected at low tide providing lots of foraging substrate. But, it’s also right in town and most of the coastline is houses, businesses, etc making it hard to access each little cove and impossible to see all the birds in the same flock at once.
Half an hour so later most of the birds flushed but seemed to land just around the corner of visible mudflat, so G and I walked over there. Godwits indeed! To make life interesting G found (why is G always finding them?? I swear I find them too!) another green flag! This was a bird we had seen already but once again at a different site 50km or so away.
While I was getting observations on her (about 45 seconds into the five minutes) G re-found the first female of the day. He managed to watch her for the 4.5 minutes before I was ready to switch over to her which was great! Lots of data today!
Another fun highlight of the day was watching a Kelp Gull try to eat a small pale/white octopus (body was maybe 2-3 inches whole thing the size of my palm). Awesome!
Running total: 20 unique individuals with 3 breeding pairs represented. Plus 4 individuals seen on multiple days. Here’s to more success!
Today was our first day working outside of Castro again. Our plan for the next few days is to resurvey the sites with large flocks and/or green flagged birds.
Today we went to Nercon - a site just south of Castro. It was raining when we got up and all through breakfast. It was misty but wet when we left and I think G and I were both wondering if we would have any visibility through clouds and rain for a survey today to be worth it.
G hopped out of the car quick and started scanning while I bundled up in warm layers. Before I was done getting ready I heard Garrett day he had already found a green flag from the road. We’d have to walk down to the flats to read the code though. Oh boy.
We hurried down and G got back on the bird first getting the flag code read. 19 no more! Our twentieth unique individual from the Alaska breeding population!
This was a female who breeds on our north study plot and best of all her mate was the green flag we had seen at this bay just over a week ago!
This particular bay is different from most bays we survey because it’s really a series of small bays connected at low tide providing lots of foraging substrate. But, it’s also right in town and most of the coastline is houses, businesses, etc making it hard to access each little cove and impossible to see all the birds in the same flock at once.
Half an hour so later most of the birds flushed but seemed to land just around the corner of visible mudflat, so G and I walked over there. Godwits indeed! To make life interesting G found (why is G always finding them?? I swear I find them too!) another green flag! This was a bird we had seen already but once again at a different site 50km or so away.
While I was getting observations on her (about 45 seconds into the five minutes) G re-found the first female of the day. He managed to watch her for the 4.5 minutes before I was ready to switch over to her which was great! Lots of data today!
Another fun highlight of the day was watching a Kelp Gull try to eat a small pale/white octopus (body was maybe 2-3 inches whole thing the size of my palm). Awesome!
Running total: 20 unique individuals with 3 breeding pairs represented. Plus 4 individuals seen on multiple days. Here’s to more success!