This article was written for Frances' presentation at Sound Waters 2009, but provides good background information. This year, she will be presenting: "Birding from Our Shores and Bluffs" (A2)
The beaches and waters around Whidbey Island offer summer breeding and winter feeding to many seabirds. Through photos and videos we will track the yearly cycle of guillemots, those lively, red-footed clowns of our summer beaches. And we’ll discover how our island waters attract murres, murrelets, auklets and the occasional puffin.
Author and naturalist Frances Wood has been studying Pigeon Guillemots of Whidbey Island since 2002. Along with volunteers from Whidbey Audubon she has conducted a yearly survey of the approximately 900 guillemots that breed on Whidbey. She is the author of three books including Brushed by Feathers: A Year of Birdwatching in the West. Wood writes an award-winning birding column in local newspapers and has contributed over 100 programs for BirdNote, which airs daily on public radio. Adapted from an Article by Dan Pedersen
Published in the Whidbey Examiner
Published in the Whidbey Examiner
Every spring, Whidbey Island's icon seabird goes apartment-hunting. It is the first step in a journey that typically ends in August with many baby birds tumbling 100 feet down a cliff and walking to the water.
Residents around Penn Cove and the west side of Whidbey watch the clownish, red-footed adult Pigeon Guillemots flying back-and-forth toward the rims of the higher, erosional bluffs, says Frances Wood of Whidbey Audubon Society. The birds look for existing holes several feet deep in which to feel reasonably safe from predators while raising one or two chicks during the summertime.
In April and May, people walking the beach observe groups of Guillemots standing on rocks just offshore, billing (more-or-less kissing), flapping their wings and putting on a show of courtship. June finds most of the Guillemots moving into the burrows to incubate their eggs, which will hatch in July.
Wood, along with Phyllis Kind of the Marine Resources Committee (MRC), has been leading a breeding study of Guillemots for several years. "Thanks to the support of Whidbey Audubon and the MRC we have learned a great deal about these playful, entertaining birds," she says. About 1,000 Guillemots typically reside in local waters, of which many will breed in shoreline colonies. In addition to burrows, Guillemots find places to nest in the rocky crags of Deception Pass and the old pier at Keystone, two especially good spots to observe them with binoculars. They are easily recognized by their black, pigeon-like profile and white wing patches as they swim in groups offshore.
Guillemots are superb underwater swimmers, using their wings to propel themselves 150 feet deep for food. "Flying is a different story," Wood says. "They are somewhat clumsy, often coasting to a water-landing that amounts to a 'splat.'"
When the eggs start to hatch in about four weeks, Audubon volunteers take up their posts nearby to wait and watch. They watch for adult birds to deliver fish to the burrows, revealing how many breeding sites are "active" with chicks. In the waters around Whidbey the adult Guillemots catch mostly Blennies and Sculpins to feed their young. To volunteer to help in the survey, e-mail Frances Wood at wood@whidbey.com.
Breeding is tricky, Wood emphasized. Only about 1/3rd of the adults breed. Those that do breed lay only one or two eggs. Predators such as raccoons, crows and other birds will try to reach into the burrows and eat the eggs or chicks. Too much human disturbance can stop the whole process in its tracks.
"The greatest threat, by far, is dogs running loose on the beach," Wood says. "They often chase and put stress on the birds, causing them to move offshore, away from the burrow and their young. The adult birds' instinct is to save themselves from danger, so if this happens too often they will simply give up and leave." She asks dog owners to keep their dogs on leash to give the birds a chance.
But perhaps the most remarkable part of the Guillemot breeding story is how it ends. Wood explains:
"In about August, when the fledglings are ready to leave, they walk to the opening of their burrow and tumble down the cliff to the beach. They can't fly. They won't be able to fly for about two weeks. After falling and rolling about 50 or 100 feet down the face of the cliff, they pick themselves up, walk across the beach, get into to the water and swim happily away."
