Red-legged kittiwakes
Today we started off camp brainstorming about the seabird breeding season. We talked about what birds do during pre-lay, incubation, chick rearing and fledging. Then in teams of two as kittiwake pairs, we acted out the breeding season in the gym. We started by building our nests, and foraging for fish. Then we laid our eggs (a balloon) and once the chicks hatched we fed them fish as they grew. We got a lot of exercise, but we didn’t travel nearly as far as real kittiwakes!
Nest we listened to Rachael and Abram talk about the work they do using GPS loggers to track red-legged kittiwakes. We saw maps from pre-lay and incubation last year and then Rachael tagged a dead black-legged kittiwake. There are currently birds flying around carrying GPS loggers, but none of them have been recaught yet so we don’t know where the birds are going yet this year.
There are a lot of ways to catch kittiwakes and Rachael showed us how to use a noose pole and how to sneak up on a kittiwake. Abram then showed us how a foot snare works and all the climbing gear that he uses. Then we all tried the noose poles out to catch a kittiwake (a sock). Abram set up the rope and harness system in the gym and everyone took turn repelling down the bleachers and ascending back up.
Then we a built a variety of nests using grass and mud. We will see which ones stay in the wind and rain!
We closed the day with some least auklet data entry.
