...to live with the seabirds in Buldir World. Actually I was with four other humans and our job was to collect data on 14 of the 32 species of breeding seabirds on the isolated western Aleutian island known as Buldir. We worked practically every day since, well, it was the most interesting thing to do there. The observations were scattered around the island so we were required to dawn boots and rain gear daily in the damp summer climate and make our way through the shoulder-high herbaceous layer, up valleys, through tundra covered saddles, across broad basins, along boulder laden beaches and up fern covered and block talus slopes. The different species we monitored nest in earthen hillside burrows, on cliff faces, open beaches and high tundra, or within the blocks and rocks of massive talus fields. We'd travel to their locations to count them, to track the stages in their breeding processes ("chronology" ie. the timing of egg lay date to hatch date to fledge date, and whether or not pairs are successful or not in producing fledglings), to map the burrows in existing plots to see how many persist and what changes are made from year to year, and later, see how many of them are occupied; to catch adults to see what prey they've collected to feed their young, to measure and weigh chicks to track growth rates, and to float eggs to determine the stage of embryo development. Also trapped fish as part of a colonization study and collected insects.
Above are two glaucous-winged gull chicks, 2-3 days old in their beach nest. As cute as they were, you can't sit around and watch. The adults are very defensive and their constant calls irritate, their group diving behavior confuses, and they will (and did) make contact with your head.
This is an adult Leaches storm-petrel just led out from it's burrow. Patrick has a solid hold in the bird for if it flies the chances are high that it will be killed. Storm-petrels feed at sea in the day but during breeding, which only occurs on land in the summer, they maintain a nocturnal life. It is their strategy for avoiding predation from gulls and falcons.
A wandering tattler.
Crested Auklets
A horned puffin. Like most birds, Puffins replace their feathers after the breeding season. Puffins also shed the outer mantle of their bill when the breeding season ends. Puffins are fairly heavy and their skeletons are surprisingly compressible. I held puffins a few times, to remove them from a net after we trapped it, and to apparently rescue them when they were lost in the thick vegetation tens of meters from the nearest take-off point (cliff top). We regularly found dead puffins and murres in the heavy vegetation, having starved because they were unable to get flight and find the ocean.
In August, we set up the mist nets at night and used a bright lamp to attract fork-tailed and Leaches storm-petrels. At night is when they return from their day-time oceanic foraging to bring the partially digested krill back to their developing chicks. It's been found that storm-petrels approach lights at night. Ships at sea often find that their decks are littered with stunned birds at first morning light. The yellow streak is a storm-petrel Kevin is attempting to draw into the net.
A peregrine, chief of the bird hunters on Buldir. Far less numerous then the gulls (the other bird hunter), it was a joy to watch these masters of flight soar, dive, and play. And thrilling to watch the occasional take.
A mixed flock of Least and Crested auklets. Flocking is at least partly, maybe mostly, a defensive behavior. Crested auklets especially give off a unique musky citrus odor. Motoring though flocks in our skiff the smell was strong, and we found it difficult to describe. Within weeks of this photograph, the Least auklets followed by the Crested auklets left Buldir, their chicks having fledged or perished, their responsibilities on land thus concluded for the year. Auklets spend the rest of the year in large groups in the waters north and south of the Aleutian chain. Buldir, unlike most other Aleutian Islands lacks a sea shelf, the waters deepening rapidly around the island. This allows several populations of seabirds to remain unusually close to land while still finding 'oceanic' prey.
A pair of least auklet adults socializing while their developing chicks mature amidst the rocks below them. The need to socialize must be important since by "hanging out" these birds are risking predation. They are constantly on the alert for gulls and falcons. They do have one inherent trait on their side: their small size makes them less attractive as a meal. From our observations, gulls have a distinct preference for the meatier Crested auklets.
