Gull Island

Just a short boat ride from the Homer Spit is Gull Island, a rookery for sea birds.  Gull island is home to more than 15,000 birds during the summer months when they come to nest.  There are eight different species that nest on gull island, including puffins, cormorants and murres.  

There are two species of gulls here.  The larger of the two is the Glaucous winged gull and the smaller is the Black Legged Kittiwake whose wingtips are black in addition to their legs.  Though these birds will scatter before an eagle, using their maneuverability they will often harass the predator from above to distract it from its intended prey.

When stirred up by an eagle or raven trying to hunt or steal eggs they will take off, en masse, swirling around in enormous flocks as the air fills with the sound of their keening.  When they squabble amongst themselves on the rocks, bickering over nest space, it sounds eerily like children screaming.

Islands like this form important habitats for nesting sea birds.  They need safe places to raise their young away from terrestrial predators.  Here they only have to contend with Eagles.  On the mainland they would need to worry about bears, coyotes and other smaller mammals like marmots.

The gulls and cormorants prefer to nest on the rock faces.  They glue bits of grass to the rock with their own feces which gives gull island a rather pungent smell.  Other species nest on different parts of the rock.  Common murres prefer to nest on top of the island, and puffins burrow tunnels into the narrow band of dirt between the grass and the hard rock of the cliff face.

Red face cormorants are in the center with
 murres to the right and  gulls to the left.

Though the gulls put on a spectacular show, most people are interested in the Red Faced Cormorants.  These are a fairly rare bird and are difficult to find in the wild.  Homer is the most accessible place in the world to see these birds whose habitat ranges down the Aleutian change and into parts of Japan.  We get birders from all over the world coming to see the cormorants so they can add something new to their bird lists.

 The two species of gulls are strong fliers and will get food by scavenging and diving to grab small fish off the surface. Other spercies, such as the puffin and the common murre, are excellent divers.  The murre can reach depths of over 600 feet.  Though they are poor and awkward flyers, they maneuver extraordinarily well underwater.  Before they nest, they form giant rafts in the water that can number in the thousands.  As a boat approaches, the murres at the outer edge will begin diving to get away; this begins a domino effect and creates a rippling wave of birds disappearing into the water.

Instead of flying to escape, these murres are diving into the water.