Week 12: August 17th-23rd

Happy Sunday, all,
I hope this finds everyone soaking in the peace and freshness that we find following a good rain. Boy, was that needed. Along with the wet weather came a noticeable shift in our Guillemot activity. This is what Dave, our invaluable "data guy", calls the August exodus. I definitely felt it down here in the South Sound. Did you experience it where you are too? With the fledging of chicks, our PIGU do not hang around the colonies for very long, and seemingly float off for an off season in deeper waters. Where exactly they go, we can't say for sure, we just know that they are not where we could count on them being last week, playing, splashing, and feeding hungry chicks like clockwork. Admittedly, some colonies are still going strong and we commend you for staying the course and catching all of that important, late season feeding data. 

With Guillemots in short supply, what did folks see at their colonies last week? Well, we know our number one disturbance, the bald eagle, is never far. At Hastie Lake (Whidbey Island) and Battle Point (Bainbridge Island) they were front and center.  With those mugs, I think we understand why the PIGU do not stick around when they are near!

Lac Pope also spied some rare Guillemot cousins at Hastie Lake, a sweet little pair of marbled murrelets, who look strikingly similar to fledgling Guillemots. Notice, though, how squat they are in the water compared to our PGs--their silhouette is different and it almost looks like they are pulling their necks in. They are also smaller than our football sized PIGU.​ From a distance, these differences could be tough to distinguish. 

Speaking of seabirds that could be confused as Guillemots, Lee Badovinus, the fabulous regional coordinator for Whidbey Island, brought this subject to the forefront in her weekly update, and I think it's worth sharing (thank you, Lee!). This time of year, many seabirds are coming back through in large flocks, particularly in the North Sound and greater Salish Sea. This could potentially make differentiating and counting PIGU a little trickier, and brushing up on our seabird IDs might prove helpful. I recently observed a flock of White-winged Scoters float through a colony during my visit to Camano Island. I had never seen them before, but I immediately thought they looked like large PIGU! And from a distance, it's hard to appreciate size. 

Here are some links that Lee provided, which have wonderful photos of the seabirds one might expect to see in the Salish Sea.

https://pugetsoundestuarium.org/bird-species-list/

https://www.eopugetsound.org/articles/marinebirds

https://salishmagazine.org/seabirds-are-cool/

Another great resource is the Sibley guide, Seabirds of the Pacific Coast, or, Birds of the Pacific Northwest Coast. I can attest that these are invaluable. I carry both with me wherever I go. They are fold-outs and they are laminated, so they are easy to pack and they hold up well in wet environments.

If you want to test your ID'ing abilities, you can go to the Puget Sound Observatory's Puget Sound Seabird Survey page. This page also has two class presentations on seabird identification by SSGN friend Dr. Peter Hodum, of the University of Puget Sound. 
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Something fun for you: South Sound surveyor, Maria Ruth, shared this report about rehabilitated PIGU chicks that were recently released back to the wild at Vandenberg Space Force Base in California. There are some really lovely pictures and it's a heartwarming success story. I thought you all might enjoy taking a peek. :)

Last but not least, I'm excited to announce that we have an official date set for our SSGN 2025 End of Season Celebration! Please mark your calendars for Wednesday, October 1st, at 6:30pm! We will have a new slideshow presentation of PIGU bluffs across the regions and 2025 survey memories. And of course, Dave will present the highly anticipated summary of our data for the season. This year, we will have presentations by special guests Erin Arzola-Davis and Dr. Sarah Converse. Erin is a student of Sarah's at the University of Washington--she is also a previous intern and surveyor of PIGU in the South Sound! She's been working on analyzing a piece of our data and has an interesting finding to share with us. Sarah Converse will add to that by bringing us up to speed on the findings of her study of PIGUs on Protection Island. You won't want to miss it! (I will send out a Zoom link as we get closer to the event.)

I will continue to collect photos of bluffs, colony structures, surveyors, and any other fun/interesting PIGU behavior or survey related photos for our slideshow until mid-September. Please send those to me at [email protected]. I can't wait to put together a wide mix of photos from different colonies to share with you all!

Whether you're still surveying or not, have a magical week out there Guillemoteers!

​Shannon