That would be a COASST bird. It's an ongoing project spearheaded by UW.

Carl Haynie
Sammamish, WA

On Tue, Sep 24, 2024 at 10:38 AM Lynn Wohlers via Tweeters <
tweeters at u.washington.edu> wrote:


> On Sunday at Bowman Bay (Deception Pass SP), I saw a dead gull on the

> beach with a tag that appeared to be tied around its radius and/or ulna.

> The tag was a small disk with the number "4" inscribed on it. It didn't

> show any wear and appeared to be made of wood. The dead gull seemed to have

> washed up with the last high tide. I was mystified by the tag so I sent a

> message to Tweeters with photos of the bird and tag.

> Because my photo files were too large, the message was rejected. I

> received a nice note from Elaine Chuang explaining what to do about the

> photos and better yet - what the tag was.

> I thought I would tell Tweeters readers about it in case anyone sees the

> same thing and wonders what it is. Elaine explained that this tag

> "indicates that a member of COASST (Coastal Observation and Seabird Survey

> Team, under Julia Parrish at UW) has found, examined and then tagged that

> carcass so as to exclude it from future survey. They are left on the beach

> to allow natural processes to take place."

>

> Here's a link to COASST <https://coasst.org/about/our-story/>- the work

> they're doing to monitor bird population changes is fascinating. They're

> involved in other projects, like monitoring beach debris, too.

>

> Photos of the tagged bird are on my Flickr page.

> <https://www.flickr.com/photos/lynnwohlers/>

>

> thanks,

> Lynn Wohlers

>

> Blogging at Bluebrightly <https://bluebrightly.com/>

> Photography on Flickr <https://www.flickr.com/photos/lynnwohlers/>

> And at Lynn Wohlers.com <http://lynn-wohlers.artistwebsites.com>

>

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