From Pacific to Prairie and Pole to Pole

Kristen and Dr. K with a murrelet!

          After dark all the murrelets come back to the island to socialize and rest from a long day of feeding. Not only do they have to watch out for hungry sea lions, but also our fearless crew of bird-netters! We are collaborating with a research team that is working on a population study of these rare birds. We spent two nights netting and banding murrelets. How do we catch these small birds that can fly and dive? It certainly isn’t easy!

          In a Zodiac, we zoomed around the small bay of SBI. One person steered, while another sat in the bow with a giant net. The third person used a spotlight to find birds. Once a bird was found, they were often captivated by the bright light (similar to a deer-in-headlights) and the netter was able to scoop them up. Though this usually worked, the bird would sometimes dive under the water or, if the spotlight was removed for just a second, they regained their wits and flew away. There were several wild murrelet chases through the bay. Nonetheless, we caught over 50 birds in just two nights!

A newly banded murrelet