When you walk by the lab this summer you will see three students in a darkened room hunched towards computer screens. They are intently watching very compelling videos. The star of these movies are the Xantus’s murrelets that nest on Santa Barbara Island. Last summer Channel National Park biologists with the support of the Montrose Settlement Restoration Program installed video cameras in the nests of these rare seabirds. The murrelets dig their nests under vegetation or use exisiting holes. These data will help in the conservation of the species by letting us know more about the nesting behavior of these birds and what predators visit their nests. The students went to Santa Barbara Island to see the nests, cameras and birds. See the previous post to hear about their adventures!
Jamie, Neha and Molly intently watching murrelet movies