Week 2: June 11th - 17th
Happy Week 2 everyone!
We have fish!! Exciting news out of Discovery Bay in Jefferson County—Mary Bond emailed me to report that she had two gunnel deliveries during her survey yesterday morning. Day 1 of Week 2! I believe these could be our first recorded prey deliveries of the season. Woohoo! Has anyone else seen fish yet? It is interesting that some PGs are still copulating this week, while others already have chicks in their burrows—and still others might be feeding into early September. That’s quite a spread!
One thing I left out of my SSGN June monthly meeting recap was the link I promised to the State’s Puget Sound Indicators, Abundance of Marine Bird Population page. The Pigeon Guillemot is one of four Puget Sound seabirds which have been identified as Vital Sign Indicators to the health of Puget Sound. Population data from aerial surveys, in addition to breeding survey data from the Salish Sea Guillemot Network, help inform reporting to the state by Scott Pearson of WDFW on PIGU population trends. It’s a testament to our standardized survey methods and the long-term commitment of our extraordinarily dedicated volunteer base, that our citizen science program has earned the attention and trust of the state in using our data! You can read more about the Pigeon guillemot as a Vital Sign Indicator and follow Scott's Pearson's trend reporting here: https://www.pugetsoundinfo.wa.gov/Indicator/Detail/3
I will keep the update short this week, since I already covered most of the week’s happenings in the SSGN meeting recap. But I’ll leave you with some beautiful photos of PGs being PGs taken by Hillary Smith at her Isthmus Beach Colony last week. Which reminds me...help me identify your photogs! I would love to reach out to them and start collecting photos and albums that we might share internally, or perhaps on social media and outreach material (with attribution, of course!).
I hope you all have fun and eventful surveys this week and enjoy your time out on the beach, connecting with nature! I can't wait to hear more stories!!
Take care!
— Shannon