Notes from the Field – From the top: Predators, Oceans & Ecosystems

August 22, 2025September 26, 2025

Time for Tufted Puffins: Waiting for Birds with Bill Loads

By Jayden Washington Samuels, 2025 Tufted Puffin Photography Technician

The puffin is arguably one of the most iconic and recognizable seabird species on the planet. It’s one of the very few bird species that crosses over that imaginary chasm out of the birder world into the mainstream, where even those who aren’t in any way interested in birds, know what a puffin is. However, it isn’t exactly common knowledge that there are nesting populations of puffins in the Pacific Northwest. People typically associate the word puffin with only the Atlantic Puffin species, which is not found anywhere near the West coast. Here in Oregon, we have the Tufted Puffin, which happens to be the largest of the four technical puffin species (Tufted, Horned, Atlantic, and Rhinoceros Auklet).

A trio of tufted puffins flying by Haystack Rock, Oregon

The Tufted Puffin is a pretty widespread bird, as its range stretches from the islands and open ocean off of California all the way up to the coasts of Alaska, Russia, and northern Japan. Cannon Beach—a major stronghold for the population in Oregon—is one of the most accessible locations to observe Tufted Puffins, as they utilize burrows they’ve created in the grassy top of Haystack Rock. Unfortunately, the southern population of Tufted Puffins has seen a sharp decline, and due to their typical clutch size of one egg per season, it’s incredibly hard to bolster their populations.

Many individuals—ranging from conservation biologists to local volunteers—have lended a helping hand in observing the Cannon Beach Tufted Puffin population, in order to understand the rate of decline and breeding success. The data gathered from these projects helps spread awareness for the vulnerable status of the Tufted Puffins

This is where I come in! I am a senior studying Ecology and Evolutionary Biology at the University of California, Santa Cruz (UCSC). I have been a birder and wildlife photographer for almost seven years now, and in my years at UCSC I have focused my studies and fieldwork on birds, and I have been able to be a part of incredible bird research endeavors like remote work in the Sierra Nevada mountain range focused on Sierra Nevada Gray-Crowned Rosy Finches, Peregrine Falcon breeding success and toxicology in the Greater Bay Area, and songbird banding at Younger Lagoon.

A photographer standing in the ocean looking towards Haystack Rock.

The goal of this specific project is to figure out the diet composition of Tufted Puffins in Oregon in order to have a better idea of what prey species they depend on, and if there’s any sort of linkage between their diet to their diminishing population status.

The “How” of this project lies within a combination of having the proper gear to capture these amazing birds in flight—with fish in their bills (called a “bill load”), and in my eyes, a bit of luck to be present for said moment. The Sony A9 with the matching 200-600mm lens + the 1.4x Teleconverter gave me an excellent combination of industry leading autofocus and frames per second with the reach needed to see the puffins up close. My experience preceding this project with a similar camera setup allowed me to settle in pretty quickly; so the only variables that controlled my success was the amount of puffins returning fish to their young and tide/weather variation.

This project has been ongoing for three years prior to me, and in two of those three years the average number of bill loads per season was just over 100. Last year had the most bill loads being almost three times these typical numbers. This season, I ended up not getting anywhere near as many bill loads as prior years. According to Tim Halloran, a long time volunteer who has done Tufted Puffin burrow counts for over a decade, many burrows appeared to be left unused or unsuccessful this season, meaning less chicks and in turn, less bill load photo opportunities for me.

In previous seasons the mornings seemed more productive for bill load photos. This year the evenings were significantly more productive, especially an hour or two right before sunset. My highest number of bill loads in a day ended up being 10 bill loads on a mid-July evening, and my lowest were a couple 1-3 day stretches with zero bill loads sighted. If I had to give at least one reason why there would be a lower occurrence of bill loads, I think that the Bald Eagles might have at least some effect. While I never observed one catching a Tufted Puffin, they did repeatedly go for, and catch the Common Murres which also call the rock home. I would say 80-90% of my mornings and evenings out on the beach I at least observed two Bald Eagles, and I documented 12 separate “disturbances” to the colony linked to them attempting to prey on birds sitting on the rock.

A bald eagle holds onto a common murre while in flight.

A key part of this project that I enjoyed was the public interaction. I was able to engage with many visitors and locals alike, and I loved educating the public on the Tufted Puffins. My conversations ranged from giving out tips for telling the difference between puffins and murres in flight, to giving people their first look at some on the rock by lending them my binoculars. Even though this project focuses on Tufted Puffins, I was able to get a pretty decent number of Common Murre bill loads, as they also return full prey to their colonies! Something interesting about the murres is that they only carry one fish in each bill load, which is in stark contrast to the puffins who can have countless fish in their bills at once.

I am incredibly grateful to have been selected to be a part of this project, blending two of my greatest passions—birds and photography—into a research endeavor. I never thought I would personally be able to use my skills in Wildlife Photography in a dedicated research setting!

I would like to sincerely thank Dr. Rachael Orben and Will Kennerley for this incredible opportunity.

Acknowledgments: In 2025, the Tufted Puffin Internship was supported by the Oregon Conservation and Recreation Fund. The Friends of Haystack Rock supported this project by providing intern housing in Seaside and Cannon Beach.

July 31, 2025July 31, 2025

Yaquina Head Mid-Season Update, Summer 2025

By Cherish Lyda, Seabird Monitoring Technican, OSU Seabird Oceanography Lab

An image on a sunny day of an off-shore rock, Main Colony Rock at Yaquina Head, covered with guano. The nesting seabirds are small and hard to see.

Hello everyone!

My name is Cherish Lyda, and I’m a senior at Oregon State University, majoring in Fisheries, Wildlife, and Conservation Sciences with a focus on avian conservation and management. This summer, I’m the Yaquina Seabird Monitoring Technician for the Seabird Oceanography Lab. This is my first season working with seabirds – and it has been amazing so far!

Despite frequent Bald Eagle disturbances, Yaquina Head Outstanding Natural Area is once again bursting with new life! Although nesting started late this year, the birds have shown resilience and are beginning to proudly display their chaotic nests and adorable chicks. We are currently monitoring 13 plots and following 93 Common Murre nests, 36 Brandt’s Cormorant nests, 28 Pelagic Cormorant nests, and 13 Western Gull nests.

Western Gulls hatched first and are already wrapping up the season with seven successfully fledged nests. (Take a look at the top of Colony Rock and you’ll see these brown spotted fluff balls wandering around!) Brandt’s Cormorants started hatching on July 2^nd and 21 nests have hatched so far with more on the way. Pelagic Cormorants have taken up their usual spots at Smuggler’s Cove and Whale Rock, and we saw our first chick on July 9^th.

A close-up image of a mixed species seabird colony with clusters of nesting common murres and a few Brandt's cormorants. — Common Murres and Brandt’s Cormorants at Pirate Cove, Depoe Bay. Note the chick in the center cormorant nest.

As for the Common Murres, their season started out tough but is now looking very promising. Frequent early-season eagle activity hit the south half of Colony Rock and top of Whale Rock hard, clearing multiple plots of eggs. For a couple days, two immature Bald Eagles were seen perching continuously on the rocks. However, as eagle activity dropped off in late June, the murres regrouped and began laying again (along with lots of Brandt’s Cormorants) in the center and south parts of Colony Rock. The decrease in disturbances seems to have bolstered the murres’ courage, and they are starting to stay on their eggs during disturbances. Instead of flushing in panic, they’re standing their ground. It’s risky, but it seems to be paying off with fewer eggs being lost to the surrounding gulls.

We confirmed our first murre chicks on July 14^th and we are now up to 25+ hatched with many more on the way. The parents are now busy bringing fish to colony, and it’s been cute watching the murres attempt to feed their eggs small fish – a sign that they are getting close to hatching!

A view through a scope of common murres, centered on a murre chick and its parents. — Young Common Murre chick at Depoe Bay

As for other avian species, Tufted Puffins continue to make occasional, delightful fly-bys. We’ve seen both single birds and a pair flying loops and heading north. The noisy Black Oystercatchers have been busy with nests at both field sites and Pigeon Guillemots are on their nests tucked deep into the cliffs of Smuggler’s Cove. Listen for their high-pitched, squeaky whistles coming from the rocks!

In addition to Yaquina Head, we have been keeping a close eye on Pirate Cove in Depoe Bay. With almost no eagle disturbance (none since mid-June), the birds have been doing great. As of this writing, 42 of our 97 murre nests have hatched. Amazingly, every one of our 31 Brandt’s Cormorant nests have hatched chicks! Although our Pelagic Cormorants have been nesting in some hard-to-see cliffs, we were able to confirm their first hatches this last week as well.

A pelagic cormorant brooding a very tiny chick on a large well built nest of vegetation and guano. — Pelagic Cormorant with its first chick nesting at Smuggler’s Cove, Yaquina Head.

Now that murre chicks have arrived, we’ll soon be conducting all-day nest watches to observe how often adults deliver food to their chicks. We’re also continuing to collect bill load photos of their prey items for diet analysis.

Working alongside Dr. Rachael Orben, the interns, and other researchers on this project has been amazing. I’ve gained so much knowledge about seabird life history and current research from our conversations and time together in the field and lab. Being able to wake up each morning at sunrise to the salty wind in my hair, the raucous calls of the murres, and the flaring brilliant blue throats of the cormorants has been an incredible way to spend my summer.

I can’t wait to see what the rest of the season brings — stay tuned!

June 21, 2025July 14, 2025

To the Lighthouse: Another Year of Monitoring Breeding Seabirds at Yaquina Head

By Will Kennerley, Faculty Research Assistant, OSU Seabird Oceanography Lab

The 19^th consecutive year of Yaquina Head monitoring is upon us. A local naturalist, Chris Fox, first reported murres occupying Colony Rock in mid-March but the returning murres were met with Bald Eagle disturbances almost immediately. While eagle disturbance likely contributed to the rather sporadic murre attendance throughout April and May, it seems that delays in upwelling (or at least a delay in consistent upwelling?) likely limited seabird breeding activity during the spring. While I’m still waiting for more formal, quantitative summaries of spring ocean conditions here, we observed warmer sea surface temperatures (12°C/54°F) off the central coast during much of May. During this time, we witnessed murres and cormorants attending the colony, but only half-hearted cormorant nest building on May 21^st, the date on which we had our first Brandt’s eggs the year before.

Then, during the last week of May, the satellite maps I was monitoring began to show plumes of cool water moving northward from the California line. Sea surface temperatures dropped below 10°C/50°F close to the coast, suggesting the onset of strong upwelling and, presumably, increased ocean productivity. With surprising speed and synchronicity, we noted both of our cormorant species and murres quickly began nest building and/or egg-laying. By the first week of June we had our first Brandt’s Cormorant and Common Murre eggs, and our first Pelagic Cormorant eggs were laid before June 11^th.

As May faded into June, colder ocean temperatures (at left, with cold temperatures shown in purples and dark blues) appeared along the central Oregon Coast, suggesting the onset of summer upwelling and increasing ocean productivity. Shortly after, Brandt’s Cormorants (right) began collecting nesting material, constructing nests, and laying eggs.

This level of synchronicity was exciting to see and stands in stark contrast to observations over the last few years. In 2024, Pelagic Cormorant breeding phenology was several weeks behind that of Brandt’s, while in 2023 both cormorant species were closely synced but they were a month or more ahead of the Common Murres! The reasons behind the highly variable breeding phenology are likely a complicated mix of ocean conditions and predation pressure, with the timing of murre egg laying regularly more aligned with Brandt’s Cormorants at our less eagle-disturbed site in Depoe Bay. This year, however, murres even at Yaquina Head seem to be laying eggs in sync with both cormorant species, and are doing so at dates closer to (though still later than) historical norms.

Now that we’re into the middle of June, most seabirds at our sites are busily incubating full clutches. Eagle disturbances continue but so far appear to be comparatively mild, with fewer whole colony-clearing disturbances observed. Still, eagles have regularly swept murres from the south end of Colony Rock and Flat Top, and we’ve rarely observed eggs at these exposed sites persist more than a few days. Elsewhere, such as our Lower Colony Rock and Whale Rock subcolonies, which offer more protection against aerial predators, some murres have been incubating for over a week already; this means that we could have murre chicks by July 10^th, if all goes well! The first Western Gull chicks, meanwhile, have already begun to hatch, and visitors should keep an eye out for fuzzy, speckled heads poking up from the stones and sparse grasses atop Colony Rock.

Common Murres began to lay their speckled, blue-green eggs at both Yaquina Head and Pirate Cove/Depoe Bay during early and mid June this year.

Our lab also just welcomed a new set of interns and research assistants for the summer – Caitlin (NSF-REU), Cherish (OSU undergraduate), and David (EFTA intern at BLM’s Yaquina Head Outstanding Natural Area). It’s always convenient when the bird’s breeding phenology aligns well with OSU’s quarter system, and I’m hopeful our full team will get to observe the complete egg to fledgling progression! Although it’s early days, the strong, synchronized reproductive effort, relatively mild eagle disturbances, and regular appearance of rockfishes and large sandlance in murre bills (as display fish), all give me hope that our breeding seabirds have a successful season ahead of them.

More to come!

November 12, 2024April 15, 2025

“Professional Puffin Paparazzi”: Photographing Tufted Puffins at Haystack Rock

By Eliza Wesemann, Summer 2024 Tufted Puffin Bill Load Photography Technician

Pacific Herring, sardine, larval fish, salmon, smelt, squid, and lamprey. What do these ocean creatures have in common? They were all on the Tufted Puffin’s menu this summer, and this season the puffins ate like kings. My name is Eliza Wesemann, and this summer I worked for OSU’s Seabird Oceanography Lab as a Tufted Puffin Bill Load Photographer at Oregon’s iconic Haystack Rock in Cannon Beach.

**Eliza Wesemann, summer technician for the Seabird Oceanography Lab, photographs Tufted Puffins at Haystack Rock in Cannon Beach, Oregon**

A little bit about me – I am a senior studying wildlife ecology and management at Utah State University. I am originally from Brookline, Massachusetts, and am pursuing a career focused on wildlife conservation and research. Over the years I have aided research projects on a variety of different species including Pinyon Jays, Greater Sage-Grouse, Mountain Goats, and American Pika, but Tufted Puffins hold a special place in my heart for their outrageously cute appearance and mannerisms.

Tufted Puffins are little black football-shaped birds with two long white/yellow eyebrow tufts, and a bright orange beak and webbed feet – in other words, a very silly looking bird! The Tufted Puffin population is thriving further north in Alaska, but they are struggling in the southern part of their range, from southern British Columbia to Northern California. Historically, Haystack Rock supported the second largest Tufted Puffin breeding colony in Oregon, with an estimate of 400 breeding birds in 1978. However, recent work by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service report, the Haystack Rock population has dropped to just 102 breeding birds in 2024¹.

**The decline of Tufted Puffins at Haystack Rock over 1978 to 2024**
(data from Naughton et al. 2007 and USFWS, unpublished)

Reflecting this decline, Tufted Puffins are listed as ‘Endangered’ in Washington state, ‘Sensitive’ in Oregon, and a ‘Species of Special Concern’ in California. Efforts to list the bird as federally Threatened or Endangered under the Endangered Species Act have unfortunately fallen short, as the Species Status Assessment came to the conclusion that the listing is “not warranted” despite the decline of coastal colonies throughout the southern range².

Haystack Rock is 236 feet tall, with steep grassy slopes home to all sorts of species of seabird nesting and rearing young. Beyond Tufted Puffins, Pigeon Guillemots, Black Oystercatchers, Western Gulls, Brandt’s and Pelagic Cormorants, Common Murres, and Rhinoceros Auklets all call Haystack their home during the summer months. While most seabirds nest on the open slope, Tufted Puffins have earthen burrows hidden among the grass, making it difficult to keep track of active burrows and breeding pairs. In the recent Oregon Fish and Wildlife Monitoring Study, they found an estimated 51 occupied burrows with 102 breeding birds.

**A Tufted Puffin returns to its burrow on Haystack Rock’s grassy slopes among nesting Common Murres**

My goal was essentially to document the diet of Tufted Puffins by taking pictures (using a Sony A9 camera with 200-600mm lens) anytime I spotted a puffin with fish. I did the same for murres and pigeon guillemots with bill loads as well when the opportunity arose. Although the Tufted Puffins were generally the most active from sunrise to noon, their feeding schedules and Haystack appearances were elusive and inconsistent, often hard to predict. The puffins could be active and visible on the rock or in air flying laps, but not feeding; or completely hidden away in their burrows only leaving to collect fish, depending on the day. I made sure to be stationed at Haystack every morning to make sure to catch the puffins on their good eating days, as they were unpredictable.

My day-to-day schedule would be to wake up an hour before sunrise, prepare the camera and make my way down to the rock just as it was bright enough to shoot images. I would adjust the settings to the conditions of the day, stand as close as I could get to the rock given the tide, stare at the horizon, and wait until a puffin flew in towards the rock. In the time it took to spot a puffin, haul up my camera and zero in on the bird, they had often already disappeared into their burrows! Otherwise, they might fly an absurdly long lap around the rock, seemingly displaying their fish proudly! It was usually hard to tell if they had fish in their beak until after I had already taken the picture, so I would end the day sorting through hundreds of images of puffins in flight with only a small portion carrying bill loads of fish.

One of the more difficult skills I learned over the summer was distinguishing puffins approaching distantly from the sea from the other seabirds, which was even harder if the weather was overcast. Without the sun to illuminate the tell-tale white belly of the murre, the red feet of the Pigeon Guillemot and the orange glint of the puffin’s beak, the sky becomes a whirling mass of unidentifiable black flapping specks. In those moments, I would rely on the fact that puffins are slightly larger and darker against a gray sky, and hope for the best.

One of the most exciting highlights of the season was the feeding frenzy on July 23rd, where I captured a whopping 131 individual puffin bill loads on the camera. It was a very rare moment where the three variables of good puffin photos overlapped; low tide, partly cloudy but not overcast, and high puffin activity. I couldn’t put the camera down; the sky was filled with puffins with fish. Most puffins were bringing in multiple large smelt at a time, suggesting these fishes were just offshore, perhaps in a spawning aggregation. A few puffins were visibly rounder after that day – they evidently ate like kings!

**A Tufted Puffin with a bill filled with smelt flies back to feed its chick during the July 23rd feeding frenzy**

At Haystack, I had the opportunity to network with other wildlife photographers about “Birds with Fish”, a citizen science project exploring the diets of Oregon coastal birds using community-sourced, non-invasive photography. One of the highlights while working at Cannon Beach was engaging in side conversations with fellow photographers about puffins, conservation, and life in general. Helping visitors tourists identify puffins from Murres, introducing the ‘Birds with Fish’ initiative, and general wildlife public education were other valuable aspects of the position that I looked forward to during fieldwork.

Another highlight of the season was assisting Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife biologists with their burrow counts of the puffins on Cannon Beach. Together, we tag-teamed the process: I pointed out puffins and tracked them into their burrows, then marked on a map the area of the rock the puffins flew into. It was exciting to be able to contribute the skills I learned over the season for research to uncover more about the Tufted Puffins at Haystack Rock.

Puffins have always held a special place in my heart, as I initially became passionate about wildlife conservation from photographing Atlantic Puffins during a trip in Iceland five years ago. So, this position was a perfect culmination of my interests–wildlife research and photography–an incredibly valuable ecological research experience, and all while experiencing the beautiful Oregon coast.

I would like to thank Dr. Rachael Orben and Will Kennerley at OSU’s Seabird Oceanography Lab for the amazing opportunity, as well as Friends of Haystack Rock and Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife for the support at Haystack Rock. This was a dream job and an experience I’ll never forget.

Acknowledgments: The Oregon Wildlife Foundation provided funding to support field work in 2024. The Friends of Haystack Rock supported this project by providing housing in Cannon Beach. Thank you!

Stephensen, S.W. 2024. Tufted Puffin monitoring study at Haystack Rock, Cannon Beach, Oregon 2010-2024. U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service Unpublished Report, Oregon Coast National Wildlife Refuge Complex, Newport, Oregon 97365. 35 pp. ↩︎
U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (Service). 2020. Species Status Assessment Report for the Tufted Puffin (Fratercula cirrhata), Version 1.0. Anchorage Fish and Wildlife Office, Anchorage, Alaska. ↩︎

October 14, 2024November 13, 2024

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.**

August 15, 2024November 13, 2024

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.

February 16, 2024February 16, 2024

Notes from the Field: Ross Island, Antarctica

By Suzanne Winquist

Have you ever wished you could see what the world was like before humans?

Living in a penguin colony in Antarctica as part of the Penguin Science team is the closest I have come to getting that experience. My first season “on ice” felt like stepping out of a time machine straight into this other, animal world.

A group of Adélies standing on the sea ice at the Cape Crozier colony. Ross Island, Antarctica.

Many seabird colonies buzz with activity in the breeding season, but an Adélie penguin colony has a unique bustle filled with outsized personalities and industrious swaggers. When you multiply this by 500,000 (roughly the breeding population of the Cape Crozier colony) it is easy to be swept up by the drama and dazzle of a big penguin city.

I’ve recently arrived back from my third season studying Adélie penguins for my graduate research with OSU’s Dugger and Seabird Oceanography Labs. I spent most of this past season at Cape Royds, a much smaller colony with ~4,000 breeding adults. Any Antarctic history buffs reading this might recognize this as the site where the explorer Sir Ernest Shackleton and his crew made their home during their 1907-1909 Nimrod Expedition.

Shackleton’s hut, built for his Nimrod expedition 1907-1909.

I felt a camaraderie with Sir Ernest Shackleton and his men each time I passed by their snug cabin on my short walk from camp to the penguin colony. Despite Shackleton’s crew being some of the earliest humans to set foot on Ross Island, our rustic camp life echoed the ways they lived – no running water, eating the same canned and dried foods, journaling about the same surreal landscape, and wearing enough wool to prompt thoughts of needing a personal flock of sheep. Unlike Shackleton and crew, I could pick up my satellite phone and call any corner of the planet. McMurdo Station, the US’s largest Antarctic science base, is now just a 20-minute helicopter ride away – assuming the weather is good.

My yellow Scott tent at Cape Royds. We sleep in these sturdy canvas tents and use a larger RAC tent for cooking, data management, and warming up by the propane heater. In the background is Mt. Erebus, a 12,448 ft active volcano. At 77° S, it is the southernmost active volcano in the world.

An Adélie penguin equipped with a video logger and dive tracking device ready to head out to sea.

Advances in technology in the past century mean it is much easier to explore and measure changes in this harsh and remote environment. The navigation, motion sensing, and image capture technology that has become small enough to fit in our pockets is, as it turns out, also small enough to be carried by a penguin.

For my research, I am using miniature video loggers and dive tracking devices to get a new perspective into how penguins use their underwater habitat. These devices are taped to the feathers of breeding birds for a single foraging trip, lasting from 1-5 days. These birds are recaptured when they return to their nest to feed their chicks and the devices and the data they carry are retrieved.

With the addition of this past season, our project will have foraging video from over 60 penguins collected across three years and at two different colonies. We have already learned a lot from these videos. We have observed penguins perusing the seafloor for amphipods, snatching up bioluminescent krill in the dark of their deeper dives, and encountering dense swarms of krill, fish, and squid in extremely shallow water when foraging along the underside of the ice. Now that I am back in our human world, I will combine all this video with diving and movement data to answer more specific questions about how penguins use sea ice while foraging, the number and types of prey they capture in different underwater habitats, and the energetic costs of different foraging strategies.

Penguins diving in a crack that formed in the sea ice near the Cape Royds colony, Dec 2023.

Through changing climates and extractive fisheries, our human societies are increasingly connected to even the most remote corners of our planet, like the Ross Sea. It is too late to find out what this ocean looked like before the first whalers arrived. With the tools we have now, the penguins are able to aid us in exploring their underwater home, refining our understanding of what exists today so that we can be better advocates for the protections they will need to continue thriving in the future.

Adélies returning with full bellies from a foraging trip in the Ross Sea. Ross Island, Antarctica, Dec 2023

July 27, 2022July 27, 2022

Notes from the Field: Columbia River Estuary, Oregon, USA

BY ALEXA PIGGOTT

In early July, the Cormorant Oceanography Project seabird team, myself (Alexa Piggott), Adam Peck-Richardson, and Rachael Orben, traveled to the Columbia River Estuary, at the border of Oregon and Washington, to capture and tag adult Brandt’s cormorants. Our goal was to test the performance our latest GPS/GSM biologging tags made by Ornitela.

Brandt’s cormorants’ nest, roost, and forage near the mouth of the Columbia River. We were specifically targeting cormorants roosting on estuary channel markers, as these can be relatively easy locations to catch birds during the day. Over two days, we successfully deployed 6 biologging tags. Preliminary data, shows the cormorants moving and foraging near the mouth of the estuary and spending time at Cape Disappointment, WA.

We also spotted one of our newly tagged birds on the second day, resting on pilings with other cormorants and close to actively foraging Brandt’s and double-crested cormorants.

These tagged cormorants will collect detailed location and movement data, along with high quality profiles of water temperature, bottom soundings, surface currents (based on bird drift), and IMU data used to recover wave statistics. The data collected by these cormorants will be used to estimate bathymetry and circulation in the estuary and help calibrate and improve nearshore modeling.

Visualizations of these and previous tag deployments on cormorants in the Columbia River can be found on the Animal Telemetry network’s data portal.

The Cormorant Oceanography project is based at Oregon State University and funded by the Office of Naval Research.

The Astoira-Megler bridge and view towards the mouth of the Columbia River Estuary

May 16, 2022July 14, 2022

Notes from the Field: Hawar Islands, Bahrain

By Adam Peck-Richardson

The Cormorant Oceanography Project made its first visit to the Hawar Islands, in the northern Arabian Gulf, in early December 2021. Myself (Adam Peck-Richardson) and collaborator Dr. Sabir Bin Muzaffar (United Arab Emirates University) spent four days visiting the Socotra cormorant colony at Rubd Al Shariqiya, a 1.5 km wide desert island surrounded by expansive shallow seagrass beds (and the world’s largest dugong aggregation). Unfortunately, the timing of our visit was later than originally planned and most of the cormorant chicks (10s of thousands) were very large and very mobile. This made it difficult to capture and tag adults at nests, but we were able to deploy four tags and gained valuable insights for further tagging work in 2022.

Two adult Socotra cormorants attend their nests at the Hawar Islands colony as large juvenile cormorants mass in distance (photo: Adam Peck-Richardson).

Data from the four tags immediately began streaming back to us (data are transmitted through cell phone network connections) and we are using this preliminary deployment to further improve tag design and performance. These GPS/GSM biologging tags, made by Ornitela (Vilnius, Lithuania), collect location and movement data and take detailed water temperature and depth measurements when the cormorants dive. Meanwhile, our oceanographer teammates at Oregon State University, led by Dr. Doruk Ardağ, have been spinning up a model of water temperature and circulation in the Arabian Gulf. The oceanographic data collected by cormorants are now being used to help calibrate and improve these complex regional models.

Scenes from the Hawar Islands, Bahrain, clockwise from top-left: local fishing boats at dawn; an adult Socotra cormorant feeds a pair of juveniles; a small group of adults still attending nests with eggs; Sabir waits patiently to capture a cormorant to tag; Adam with a tagged Socotra cormorant; the BBC team scouts potential shots with the colony in focus.

In 2022, we are planning to deploy additional oceanographic tags on Socotra cormorants at several colony sites throughout the region. These deployments will provide valuable data on population movements of Socotra cormorants and improve oceanographic modelling in the Arabian Gulf.

Juvenile Socotra cormorants gather and wait for adults to return from foraging in the northern Arabian Gulf (photo: Adam Peck-Richardson).

The Cormorant Oceanography project is based at Oregon State University and funded by the Office of Naval Research. Our work in Bahrain is made possible by logistical support from Dr. Abdulqader Khamis (University of Barcelona) and Dr. Humood Nasser (University of Bahrain), and administrative support from H. E. Sh. Ebrahim Alkhalifa and Rawan Suleiman (UNESCO – Arab Regional Centre for World Heritage). Local travel and logistics were coordinated with Sam Rowley and Nick Green (BBC – Natural History Unit) who are scouting for an upcoming project, Asia. Check out the brief clip below, from BBC’s Planet Earth, for an overview of how the Hawar Socotra cormorant colony fits into the Arabian Gulf’s desert-marine ecosystem.

March 2, 2022July 31, 2024

Notes from the Field: Midway Atoll (Pihemanu)

By Scott Shaffer

This was the rainiest and windiest conditions we’ve experienced at Midway over the years. Despite the weather, the albatross field crew of myself (Scott Shaffer), Henri Weimerskirch, Sarah Youngren, and Dan Rapp deployed nearly 80 data logging devices on Laysan and black-footed albatrosses over two weeks during the last half of January 2022. Our primary goal was to record albatross and fishing vessel interactions using GPS loggers enabled with radar detection sensors.

A Laysan albatross pair. The bird on the right is carrying at GPS data logger enabled with marine radar detection. The tags are taped to the feathers with a water-proof tape and are easily removed when the bird is recaptured.

Preliminary data show one Laysan albatross passing within range (but not interacting) of a fishing vessel upon its return to Midway after 10 days at sea. Stay tuned for more updates as we start analyzing the rest of the dataset. We plan to cross-reference the vessel detections with the AIS dataset amassed by Global Fishing Watch to better understand when and where albatrosses are encountering fishing vessels.

A few images from Midway in January. We were incredibly lucky to be able to get a field team out to the island!

This project is funded by the National Fish and Wildlife Foundation with support from NOAA to support the mission of conserving natural resources of the Papahānaumokuākea Marine National Monument, Northwest Hawaiian Islands. Photos were taken under permit: PMNM-2021-012. All field personnel were vaccinated against covid-19 and underwent a period of quarantine on arrival to Midway.