Category: Murres

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To Fledge or Not to Fledge: Yaquina Head End of Season Update, Summer 2024

By Hannah Motta, Environment for the Americas Intern at Yaquina Head Outstanding Natural Area

Although it’s not the typical rainy season that signals the end of summer here, we officially wrapped up our Yaquina Head field season on the morning of August 16th. My name is Hannah, and I’m an Education and Outreach Intern with Environment for the Americas, stationed at Yaquina Head. I recently graduated from the University of Oregon with a B.S. in Environmental Science and a B.A. in Spanish, where I focused on environmental education. My goal has always been to inspire people to care about nature through birds, which ultimately brought me here to Yaquina Head.

Figure 1. Environment for the Americas Intern Hannah Motta at Cobble Beach at Yaquina Head Outstanding Natural Area during low tide.

In my current role, I work as an interpretive park ranger and assist our facilities operations manager on the maintenance team at Yaquina Head Outstanding Natural Area. Throughout the summer I assisted Oregon State’s Seabird Oceanography Lab in monitoring cormorant, gull, and murre colonies at Yaquina Head and Depoe Bay.

As we predicted in our earlier posts from this spring, this year was a “bust” for Pelagic Cormorants, while Brandt’s Cormorants had a much more positive outcome. The Common Murres, however, experienced dramatically different results between Yaquina Head and Depoe Bay, largely due to high rates of Bald Eagle predation. As you may have noticed throughout this season, Bald Eagles have taken center stage as some of the main characters.

Since most people prefer to get the bad news out of the way first, let’s start with what happened—or more accurately, what didn’t happen—with the Murres at Yaquina Head. Frequent eagle disturbances caused the Murres to flush for hours at a time, leaving very few eggs laid in visible areas. Of the nests we were able to observe, we followed 38 across three different plots. Out of those 38 nests, only two eggs successfully hatched and fledged. A few Murre chicks may have taken shelter in the nooks and crannies of Whale Rock to avoid predation, but overall, we were left with a mere 5% reproductive success rate—a somber finale for the Murres at Yaquina Head.

Now for the much happier news from Depoe Bay! With far fewer eagle disturbances, the Murres had a much better outcome. We monitored 75 Murre nests across five plots, and an impressive 93% of all chicks survived to fledge! Throughout the year, we documented adults bringing back lots of smelts, flatfishes, and sandlance to their chicks, likely fueling the high fledging success rates we witnessed.

Figure 2. Common Murre chick in Depoe Bay with a Brandt’s Cormorant behind.

And yes, as I mentioned earlier, the eagles were causing quite a bit of drama this year. They even managed to prey on some adult cormorants and chicks, which we don’t typically observe. Back at Yaquina Head, we tracked the progress of 27 Pelagic Cormorant nests and 45 Brandt’s Cormorant nests.

The Pelagic Cormorants nested nearly two weeks later than usual at Yaquina Head (long-term average hatch date: July 11th; 2024 median hatch date: July 28th) later than usual and had low reproductive success. Only 15 of the 27 nest structures visible at Yaquina Head had eggs, and these had an average clutch size of 2.7 eggs per nest. Sadly, only 12% of those eggs hatched in late July, and only two nests managed to fledge chicks.

Figure 3. Pelagic Cormorant nesting on cliffside.

But here’s the good news! The Brandt’s Cormorants had a much more successful season. Out of 45 nests monitored, eggs were laid in 37, with the average clutch size being a very respectable 3.1 eggs per nest. On average, each nest fledged 2.1 chicks, which is well above the long-term average, though slightly lower than last year’s record-breaking 2.4 chicks per nest.

Interestingly, despite variable eagle predation between our two sites (typically high at Yaquina Head, low at Depoe Bay) our cormorants did very similarly at both colonies. Although we observed a few instances of eagles preying on cormorant chicks at both sites, it appears the impact this predation had on cormorant nesting success was either minimal, or more even between sites than disturbance to murres was. We’ll have to watch out next year to see if eagles continue to prey on cormorant chicks and these birds will face any population-level impacts like cormorants in British Columbia have in recent decades (Carter et al. 2018).

Figure 4. Brandt’s Cormorant and Common Murre at Depoe Bay through the spotting scope.

The 2024 seabird monitoring season at Yaquina Head was a mixed bag; while we observed poor reproductive performance for both Pelagic Cormorants and Common Murres, the Brandt’s Cormorants had a great season. What’s more, the Depoe Bay Murres thrived, seemingly unaware of the struggle their conspecifics faced just ~15km south! But now, both colonies appear starkly quiet and empty; it’s time to start looking forward to the day the rocks and cliffs are covered by breeding seabirds once more.

I’d like to thank you all for your support of the Yaquina Head Seabird Monitoring Program and want to extend a huge thanks to the amazing team I had the opportunity to work with—Aya, Travolis, and Will. You all made getting up extremely early and standing in the cold by far some of my favorite memories this summer.

Thanks for keeping up, and see you all next year!

Figure 5. Awesome Yaquina Head Seabird Monitoring team. Pictured from left to right: Aya, Travolis, Will and Hannah.

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Notes from the field: Seabird Predators on Oregon’s South Coast

By Travolis Williams, Oregon State University undergraduate

Was sup everyone,

My name is Travolis Williams. I am a Junior currently at Oregon State University. I am originally from St. Louis, Missouri. I came to Oregon to pursue a degree in marine biology and found this once in a lifetime opportunity with VIEW fellowship this past February. I intern with the Seabird Oceanography Lab at the Hatfield Marine Science Center.                    

Seabird Oceanography Lab intern Travolis Williams (right) helps field assistant Colton Veltkamp collect river otter scat samples.

I currently work on two projects within the department. One being monitoring seabirds along the coast at Yaquina head and Depoe Bay surveying the two colonies with Common Murres, Pelagic Cormorants, Brandt’s Cormorants, and the Western Gull (Field work). The data gathered in this project is extremely specific and has been tracked for an extended amount of time making it equally as important as it is relevant and up to date. I have had the wonderful opportunity to work under Rachael Orben, William Kennerley, and his additional intern, Aya Attal to observe the unique behaviors and aspects of each of these species of enticing birds.

The second project is processing fecal matter from otter communities along rivers and estuaries in southern Oregon. The scat, as we call it, is collected so the scat’s compenets can be identified via microscope in order to assess river otter diet. River otters are generalist predators that sometimes feed not just on fish and invertebrates, but also on breeding seabirds. We collect these scat samples because Luke, the cool graduate student whose project it is, surveys the dynamic of otter predation on Leach’s Storm-petrels. Storm-petrels are a very ecologically important species because they play a vital role in being an indicator of the current environmental conditions that they are accustomed to. Furthermore, they are needed to maintain the ecosystems they are a part of.

Recently, I had a chance to go to the Port Orford Field Station, a research facility staffed by OSU (Oregon State University) and USDA, and it was and wonderful experience. I was only there for three days total but had so much fun. As far as work goes, we went kayaking down the Chetco River where I could do fieldwork with Luke S., the graduate student, collecting otter scat along the river’s banks. I learned that otters defecate on rocks called latrines and are also used for socializing and scent marking. It was also my first-time kayaking which was incredibly fun for me.

The next day we did in-land work to give us a break from the water and ran into an amazing group of otters in the water and while collecting scat me, Luke, and his assistant Colton ran into a wild otter that was no more than 6 feet from us before it calmly turned around. The final day we went kayaking down Coos Bay river where we did not find much otter scat, but I did learn that raccoons and otter most likely have some sort of relationship with one another because we found that raccoons and otters use the same latrines. I also learned that waves are not anything to be taken lightly because being on a wave crest a foot off the surface of the water is not all too fun when you are an amateur kayaker.

The field team (clockwise from bottom: Travolis Williams, Colton Veltkamp, and M.S. student Luke Stuntz) on the coast near Gold Beach, Oregon. Offshore is Hunter’s Island, one of the largest Leach’s Storm-Petrel colonies in the region, where predators like river otters have been recently recorded.

Overall, the trip was amazing, and the trip was one of a kind. Even the staff in the facility were wonderful. We had a chance to go free diving and even went everyone was all in from work before bed we would watch a movie that everyone would enjoy.

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Yaquina Head Seabird Monitoring: 2023 Early Season Update

By Will Kennerley, Faculty Research Assistant

It’s once again summer on the Oregon Coast and that means the seabirds are back at Yaquina Head.  My name is Will Kennerley and I’m the newest faculty research assistant in the Seabird Oceanography Lab. Part of my work will include leading the monitoring fieldwork at Yaquina Head this year.  I spent the previous six summers working with seabirds in the Gulf of Maine, including two seasons of fieldwork for my Master’s, which I completed here at OSU in May.  I’m looking forward to applying this experience to Oregon’s large and diverse seabird populations.

Monitoring work at Yaquina Head began towards the end of May with the confirmation that Brandt’s and Pelagic Cormorants were both breeding here this year.  Pelagic Cormorants failed to breed successfully in 2022, so we were anxious to see how they would perform.  Much to our relief, at least 70 Pelagic Cormorant nests have been documented in Smuggler’s Cove, alone, and most have healthy clutches of four eggs. 

Our very first Pelagic Cormorant chick was observed on June 23rd and we’re hopeful that there will soon be many more!  As for Brandt’s Cormorants, we recorded our first chick back on June 16th and most Brandt’s nests so far have at least one hatched chick, with even more on the way!  It seems that the cormorants are off to a good start this year.

Most Pelagic Cormorants remain on eggs at the Smuggler’s Cove subcolony at Yaquina Head.  The first chicks for this species were noted in late June and many Pelagic Cormorant chicks will likely be hatching out over the next week.

In typical fashion, the situation for the Common Murres is a little less rosy.  Starting in the middle of June, murre eggs appeared in a slow trickle that was easily consumed by Western Gulls during the frequent eagle disturbances.  There were a couple troubling weeks in which our monitoring team would observe new nests in our monitoring plots during each visit without any of these eggs ever surviving until the following check, just two or three days later. 

This situation has improved somewhat during the last week, thankfully, and eggs are being laid in greater numbers; hopefully this bump in egg-laying can overwhelm the marauding gulls and allow some eggs to survive and develop.  Overall, I suspect murre productivity will be poor at Colony Rock, where I’ve seen as many six different Bald Eagles roosting at a time, but some of the smaller rocks around Yaquina Head provide better cover for the murres and have thus far avoided most of the disturbances and depredation.  Although the season is advancing rapidly, there’s still some time for murres to be at least somewhat successful – I’m not ready to be pessimistic just yet! If the murres do succeed in hatching some chicks, this year’s median chick hatch date will likely be the latest ever recorded at Yaquina Head.

The complex topography of “Stegosaurus” and the other smaller subcolonies at Yaquina Head may provide sufficient cover from aerial predators for at least a small number of murres to breed successfully.

This year we are also systematically monitoring breeding murres and cormorants at Pirate Cove in the town of Depoe Bay.  We’re employing the same protocols as at Yaquina Head, just with slightly less frequent visits.  While the situation at these two colonies is broadly similar, we’ve documented fewer eagle disturbances per hour of observation at Pirate Cove than at Yaquina Head so far.  Because of this, a small number of murre eggs have now been incubated for at least two weeks and I am hoping that murres at this colony will successfully produce at least a few chicks.

Also of note this year is the consistent Tufted Puffin sightings that we’ve had at Yaquina Head!  As many as three individuals have been observed at once, and we’ve seen the birds circle the murre colony numerous times over the course of some mornings.  One Tufted Puffin even landed on the backside of Colony Rock, where puffins once bred.  While there haven’t been any signs of a nesting attempt, our hopes are high for continued puffin activity throughout this season and next.

If you’re around at Yaquina Head in the mornings, come introduce yourself!  I’m typically joined by a great team comprised of Jacque (REU intern), Neci (Doris Duke scholar), and Ricardo (Environment for the Americas BLM/YHONA intern) and we’d be happy to say hello.

A Bald Eagle seizes an adult Common Murre at Pirate Cove.  This disturbance caused the rest of the colony to flee, leaving the eggs vulnerable to predation by Western Gulls (note the gull with its mouth full, just to the right of the eagle).
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Yaquina Head Seabird Monitoring: July 2022 Update

By Yaya Callahan, NSF REU INTERN

Hello everyone!

The Seabird Oceanography Lab is almost midway through the field season here at Yaquina Head Outstanding Natural Area. The murres have not been able to incubate eggs this year and we are expecting a year of no reproductive success. We are continuing our monitoring effort and are anticipating starting diet photography efforts soon at the small colony located in Depoe Bay. 

When observation began in late May at Yaquina Head, we saw the murres repeatedly flushed from the main nesting site Colony Rock by eagles. Often two sub adult and two adult eagles would also flush Lion’s Head, Seal, and Stegosaurus Rock, and the murres would not return to these areas as quickly. By June, later then we expected, murres began to settle and we spotted birds with eggs on Colony Rock. Although the majority of Colony Rock was covered with birds, two locations at the eastern side closest to eagle’s roost remained unoccupied. 

About a week later the avian predator disturbances spiked again. The first one that led to considerable undoing of nesting progress was on June 13th, when three separate groups of turkey vultures flushed murres from the colony. Only one of these groups of vultures was accompanied by bald eagles. These disturbances allowed western gulls to opportunistically take over 30 murre eggs – even dropping some on the ground around the lighthouse. The gull flock continued to grow as on the 17th, we estimated over 50 gulls flying overhead. From then on – apart from the chaotic observation day on June 22nd — it only took one disturbance each observation period for the murres to be completely cleared off. Each time their numbers on colony rock dwindled. When they were present on the rock many were standing and not in their nesting position.

In early July we typically have murre chicks, but this year Colony Rock has been devoid of adult murres and eggs for over a week now. Murres are continuing to raft in the water nearby the colony. There have been some murres attending Stegosaurus Rock and South Headland however they aren’t nesting. Normally, eagle disturbances decline through June, but this year they have been continuing. Additionally, winter conditions persisted through May and upwelling was delayed until June. This likely contributed to the inability of the murres to settle and incubate eggs. Upwelling brings cold nutrient-rich water to the surface that fuels primary productivity and the forage fish murres depend on. Upwelling typically initiates in mid-April prior to when murres lay their eggs. 

A subadult bald eagle attacking a murre adult on Colony Rock.
Photo: Sofia Franco Cruz

Unfortunately, the number of nesting Brandt’s and Pelagic cormorants are low this year. Eagles do not disturb them like they do the murres though many gulls roost on Flat Rock where the Brandt’s are nesting. Flat Rock has quite the dynamic rise and fall in nests; On July 6th we had spotted 35 nests. On June 29th we realized that almost half of these had been abandoned – mostly on the Western and top half of the rock. We are currently following 17 active Brandt’s nests. Additionally, we have two Pelagic cormorant nests on Stegosaurus Rock and we are following 15 Pelagic cormorant nests on South Headland. 

The rocks at Yaquina Head, Oregon.

On the bright side there are three healthy looking chicks on South Headland and we are expecting more on Flat Rock. We’ll make sure to monitor these chicks and keep an eye out for murres though. 

See you again for our next update in August!

Brandt’s cormorants feeding a chick on South Headland (July 8th). Photo: Yaya Callahan
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Yaquina Head Seabird Monitoring: July 2021 Update

By, Laney Klunis, NSF REU Intern

Hello everyone!

We are excited to share with you an update on our nest monitoring of the common murres and cormorants at Yaquina Head Outstanding Natural Area (YHONA). Although our updates were on hiatus in 2020, we are happy to report were able to conduct monitoring. However, there was colony wide reproductive failure as a result of high rates of predator disturbance (bald eagles, 0.58/hour). At one point 15 bald eagles simultaneously hunting at Yaquina Head; a group size that has not been recorded at the site before or since.

This year, we began monitoring efforts in late May. In early July we were monitoring 161 common murre nests, 93 of which had eggs, and 11 of which had chicks. The first chicks hatched on June 28th on Lower Colony Rock and Satellite Rock.

Main colony rock at Yaquina Head Outstanding Natural Area, Newport, Oregon

Eagle Disturbances

As observed in recent years, bald eagle disturbances were fairly frequent within our Colony Rock nesting plots during the months of May and June. Beginning in July we have seen a noticeable decrease in disturbances. From June 2 – 30 June, 2021 we recorded 41 disturbances. Murres nesting in larger colonies appear to be holding their ground in all plots except for the top eastern half of Colony Rock where adult/sub-adult bald eagles perch periodically, allowing for gulls and turkey vultures to pillage unattended eggs. Flat Top Rock has remained nearly empty for the duration of the breeding season and was not included in this year’s monitoring efforts.

Cormorants

Along with common murre monitoring, we are also monitoring Brandt’s and pelagic cormorants. We are currently monitoring 22 Brandt’s cormorant nests and 37 pelagic cormorant nests. Chicks began hatching the week of July 5th and the majority of our nests for both species now have chicks.

We look forward to updating you on the success of our nests in August.

NSF REU Intern, Laney Klunis monitoring at Yaquina Head on a foggy morning. 
This year, we’re delighted to have the addition of several new (and returning) lab members including Laney Klunis, a 2021 Research Experience for Undergraduates Intern from California State University Monterey Bay; Edward Kim, the 2021 Intern at Bureau of Land Management; Alyssa Nelson, USFWS Intern and former undergraduate lab member; and Noah Dolinajec, student in the Graduate Certificate in Wildlife Management (OSU) program are conducting field work for the 2021 YHONA season. We are pleased to be up and running with a full field team this year!

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Welcome!

By Rachael Orben

Welcome to the blog of the Seabird Oceanography Lab. We engage in seabird science research along the Oregon coast, and worldwide. This blog will be used to provide updates on fieldwork, research, and anything seabird related! We may occasionally discuss seals. Please visit us again!

Previous Blog Posts

Over the past few years, our members periodically wrote blogs about our research for other venues. Follow the links below to blog posts written by members of the Seabird Oceanography Lab.

A series of blog posts written in collaboration with the Seabird Youth Network about red-legged kittiwakes (link). Followed by updates by Seabird Youth Network interns that includes resighting banded red-legged kittiwakes (link). Our recent project with red-legged kittiwakes occurred during three years of successively worse breeding success. This blog posted in 2017, was written by Rachael Orben as she contemplated why the red-legged kittiwakes nesting on St. George Is., AK did not lay eggs.

A blog describing Stephanie Loredo’s research on common murre movements on the Oregon coast.

The common murre capture crew from 2017.

Thoughts on western gull foraging preferences by Stephanie Loredo (link), along with a summary of western gull at-sea distributions relative to coastal marine reserves authored by Rob Suryan (link).

A tagged western gull sits on its nest after eluding the noose carpets placed strategically near-by.

Midway Atoll is home to the largest albatross colony in the world. A visit there can be more than overwhelming. Here are links to two blogs written by Rachael Orben after two, two-week visits to study albatross foraging ecology. Blog one and blog two.

Midway Atoll, 2015.

For more information about these projects and much more, our lab website can be found here: https://hmsc.oregonstate.edu/seabird-oceanography-lab