Week 9 was a busy one as we completed the second round of oystercatcher surveys in Gwaii Haanas. This oystercatcher monitoring program is one of several monitoring programs associated with Gwaii Haanas’ SGinXaana Sdiihltl’lxa: Night Birds Returning project. The weather on this survey was surprisingly cooperative and we completed all 123 km of shoreline surveys and visited 101 known territories in a five day period. In this survey we found mainly chicks, although eggs were still present at some locations.
In our last week we finished oystercatcher surveys in Laskeek Bay. Although we found several large chicks we noted that, as in Gwaii Haanas, there appeared to be fewer than average chicks this season; perhaps related to the wet and windy weather that has prevailed this spring.