Fall 2014 Newsletter

Our 2014 field season is all wrapped up! Thanks to everyone for a great 25th season of research, monitoring, conservation and education! 
Highlights of this past season:

  • We welcomed 19 volunteers and 104 visitors to the island including 34 students from local schools
  • Ancient Murrelet chick departures were slightly lower than last season, but comparable to the 2 previous years
  • No raccoons were detected on the island and we expanded our monitoring program to include other islands in LB
  • We conducted Black Oystercatcher surveys in both Laskeek Bay and in Gwaii Haanas.

For details on what we’ve been up to, please find our 2014 Field Season Summary attached to this newsletter.

Our 25th season comes to a close

During the last two weeks of the season we spent most of our good-weather days out on the water scanning shorelines looking for Black Oystercatchers and stopping in to check on their eggs and chicks. Last week, we headed to Gwaii Haanas for the second BLOY survey in the Hotsprings Island area. Unfortunately, the weather was not as cooperative as it has been in the past, and we were only able to complete three days of surveying, in between southeast storms. We were able to visit 68 territories that we had visited earlier in June. Many territories now had chicks, which makes our task a little harder as the chicks are well camouflaged and can look just like rocks! We have to search the area, and watch and listen to the adult birds for clues as to where their chicks might be hiding. Before the chicks can fly, they are fed small intertidal invertebrates. We find the shells scattered on the rocks, and collect these to see what the chicks have been eating. We mostly find limpits, mussels, and chitons, but sometimes abalone and whelks. We have also been surveying the Laskeek Bay BLOY, so our days have been full of loud BLOY parents and fluffy grey chicks. On July 9th we saw our first fledged BLOY chick of the season, at the territory by Crow Valley on ELI.

A Fantastic 2014!

Our 2014 field season has come to an end. Thank you to all the volunteers, staff, service providers, funders and partners who helped make it all happen.

Come see us at the Tlell Fall Fair (August 2nd) and Edge of the World Music Festival (August 8-9-10) for news from our 25th field season and/or to participate in our fun educational activities!

Summer is off to a wet start!

Only one wildlife tree is still active with a clutch of Hairy Woodpecker chicks. Located conveniently close to the main trail in WT #149, this group of noisy chicks will likely be fledging soon, as have the other cavity nester that we monitored through May and June. A total of 14 wildlife trees were re-corded active this season. As usual, Redbreasted Sapsuckers were the dominant species (10 nests), followed by Hairy Woodpeckers (2), Chestnut-backed Chickadee (1), and Red-breasted Nuthatch (1). A Northern Flicker was seen entering a nesthole on multiple occasions in May but we never heard or saw any young