Subject: [Tweeters] Cassin's Auklets question
Date: Jan 10 18:04:12 2015
From: Hal Michael - ucd880 at comcast.net


The scientific consensus is that these are young of the year that are starving. Apparently, while this happens annually this year there was very good breeding production.

There are folks who walk the beach counting dead birds. Possibly they mark birds so that they are only counted once. Since you mention that they were colored I suspect that it is a code for when the birds were first seen. That way you can get a decomposition rate to extrapolate to other beaches.



Hal Michael
Olympia WA
360-459-4005 (H)
360-791-7702 (C)
ucd880 at comcast.net

----- Original Message -----

Out on the WA coast, it is truly disturbing to see in person the sad remains of so many Cassin's Auklets. At one beach access point a few miles north of Copalis we came upon maybe a dozen or so that had what looked like zip ties of various colors around their upper wings, two on each bird. Wondered if anyone knows what this is about? Thanks - Mark
--
Mark Ahlness
mahlness at gmail.com
Seattle, WA

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