Week 6: July 6th-12th

​Welcome to Week 6, fellow Guillemot devotees!

With five weeks behind, we are officially halfway through the season (for many of you). I say many and not all, because of course, the PIGU do not heed our survey calendar, and thus there are just as many folks who will continue to see prey deliveries into weeks 12, 14, 16, and even 18 (that was our record last season)! 

The switch has finally been flipped on prey deliveries! Not all of the data has come in yet, but from what I can see, and from network chatter, I gather that things are really ramping up. We still have yet to hit our anticipated peak, but hopefully most colonies now have increased burrow visits and provisioning of chicks. So, what are your PGs serving up for breakfast? The data tells us that most prefer to feed gunnels or snake pricklebacks (over 60% across the network in the years 2021-2024), followed by sculpin (~30% from 2021-2024). Other prey you might see are forage fish (e.g. surf smelt), shiner perch, or shrimp/other invertebrates. I'd be curious to know if you have seen any unusual offerings delivered up to chicks?

(Pssst...if you would like to browse more of our data from last season, don't forget we have a data analysis page on our website, here!)

Here is a gunnel delivery captured at Battle Point on Bainbridge Island by Suzanne Liebermann. Suzanne says the PG was considerate enough to stop and pose before heading into the burrow! Considerate, indeed! :) 

I thought this might be a good time to share an amazing video by photographer, Tim Kuhn, of a guillemot pair feeding their chicks over a month's time. Tim has been observing and filming a guillemot colony near his home on the Oregon Coast for years now. His PIGU nest in rock cavities, which in this case, made it easier for Tim to get an excellent view of feeding activities. If you would like to see more of Tim's work, you can visit his website or YouTube channel. He has many more beautiful photos and videos of not just PIGU, but other wildlife and birds. Tim graciously gave me permission to share his work with you all. 

​If you get any fun prey shots over the season, please send them to me!! It's always exciting to see what's destined for the hungry mouths in the burrows! 

Notes on notes. This week was pretty quiet when it came to questions and ponderings, but I did have a few discussions about survey notes. Like disturbances, questions about notes can be tough to answer and the solution is not always black and white. When writing notes, think about which factors of your survey might have had an impact on what you observed and recorded. Notes should function to explain your data when something out of the ordinary influences survey results. For example, foggy weather or choppy water might impede your ability to see and count PIGU.  Writing a note to this effect could explain why your population counts are lower (or higher) than usual. Other notes could signal that PIGU activity is still ongoing even when no burrow visits were logged. For example, a note that a PG held a fish on the water, tells your regional coordinator that your colony is still active. This could be important, especially as we near the end of the season. You might also record "other" types of prey, if you're able to identify them. 

In the end, use your best judgement and keep notes recorded on data sheets short and sweet. Wordy notes can be difficult to quality check. Also, bear in mind that we aren't able to track and use note data quantifiably or summarily. We are most likely to reference notes only when we have a question about a survey. I truly love when folks are moved to write about their experiences during surveys and I hope that you do! Please don't hesitate to send me or your coordinators interesting happenings or record them in a journal, just make sure to think twice before writing a novel on a data sheet. ;)

Speaking of fog, disturbances, prey deliveries, Lac Pope experienced all three at Hastie Lake last week. Here are his beautiful photos. Lac and his team waited for the eagles to leave before settling in. I adore the foggy morning PIGU gunnel delivery!  Thank you, Lac!

I'll leave you with one last thing for the week. Rory Macklin, of Birds Canada, was kind enough to come speak at our SSGN monthly meeting last Wednesday about research he is doing using community science survey data. Specifically, he spoke about observations at the intersection of seabird populations and vessel traffic in the Salish Sea. Alcids, and PIGU, are included in his analyses. I thought that some of you might be interested in watching his presentation, especially given the high amount of vessel traffic we see here in the Salish Sea and the potential for deleterious impacts. 

May the swoosh of PIGU flybys and wonders of beachy mornings make your week magical! ​
​Shannon