Our crew consists of Sonia Merculief, Courtney Lestenkof, and Maxim Zacharof working under the supervision of crew leaders Kendra Bush and Tonia Kushin. Our crew has been actively preparing for the Seabird Camp. We developed and practiced lessons to present to campers and learned about and participated in the seabird productivity monitoring that the Alaska Maritime National Wildlife Refuge (AMNWR) conducts each year. We did bird attendance surveys on the various cliffs of St. Paul Island. Our crew has gotten in lots of “steps” surveying the cliffs, but have been disappointed at the low numbers of most species on the cliffs at this point in the summer season. At Polovina Cliffs, we were able to see one Cormorant nest whose adult graciously stood up after only a short time, and showed us one whitish, slightly mint greenish egg. After seeing this we were able to conclude that the egg shell we had just found near some fox scat was likely from a cormorant.
The crew also got their hands dirty (or slimy) as we did paper mache and other hands-on activities to prepare for this year’s theatrical productions.
Seabird Camp starts Monday June 4th at 1 pm in the science room, and we hope to see lots of kids participating in the great activities we have planned.
