Seabird Camp Day 4
Seabirds and people! Today we explored the different ways that St. Paul’s seabirds are important to people. Destiny facilitated a discussion about the relationship people have had in the past and in the present with seabirds, what and how they are harvested, and what she learned growing up. She emphasized that it is on everyone to continue to learn and pass on cultural knowledge, encouraging each camper to learn as much as they can about their island and their traditional practices to support a healthy and thriving culture. An egg hunt followed that involved piecing together an illustrated story about harvesting murre eggs. And then we baked. Seabird eggs have long been used in baking on St. Paul, and while we weren’t able to include any this year, we still very much enjoyed measuring and mixing under Destiny’s watchful gaze as she shared tips she’s learned from helping her Kooka in the kitchen.
Seabirds are also important to researchers and wildlife managers. Yesterday we spent some time with Ellie and Emerald who are spending the whole summer making careful and regular observations of the breeding status of St. Paul’s seabird community. Kendra introduced the seabird report card, an annually published summary of the reproductive success of seabirds around Alaska, made from data collected by biotechs like Ellie and Emerald. To get a better idea of the experience behind the smiling or frowning egg faces we went outside and played Nest Quest, a game designed for seabird camp by recent Virginia Tech graduate Frankie Lilly. After building nests, incubating eggs, losing eggs to a fox, weathering storms, dodging a gull, re-laying, and feeding their chicks our thick-billed murres and red-faced cormorants managed to have way above average and average reproductive success. Whew! Raising seabird chicks is no joke.
We concluded our day trying on our costumes for the play, practicing our parts and refining the script, and going over our dance routine. We still have some props to make but the seabird campers have some sweets baked and some entertainment prepared, we are nearly ready for tomorrow’s end-of-camp performance!