I am a member of the Nisqually Reach Aquatic Reserve Citizen Stewardship Committee and Project Coordinator (self-appointed) for the South Sound Pigeon Guillemot Breeding Survey, preparing for year 2 of the survey.
Volunteers for the survey spend a little more than an hour a week in the morning (finished by 9 am) at one of our beach sites observing and recording numbers and behavior of pigeon guillemots as they deliver fish to their chicks in burrows on bluffs (June – August).
For any students wishing to do a project or a thesis on pigeon guillemots, if they can volunteer at one of our sites, we are happy to share data from year 1 (2013) and this year. We also can use substitutes – covering different sites when volunteers need to be away. I am also looking for a summer term intern to help with the survey.
We surveyed 16 sites in 2013. 14 of these were active breeding sites. We identified 50 active burrows.
Deanna Donovan is in the first year cohort and is helping to distribute info. She is a member of the Stewardship Committee as well.
For more information about Pigeon Guillemots see pigeonguillemot.org
And this link will take you to a map of last season’s sites with some data – – – –
http://bit.ly/H68u3U
Thanks for sharing this with the MES cohorts.
Anne Mills, Project Coordinator
South Sound Pigeon Guillemot Breeding Survey
360-867-1487 home
360-888-9417 cell