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.

It's good to be back

I've been back in Alaska a little over a month now and while some things have changed, everything is still very familiar.  We've had our first round of groups and were lucky to have had phenomenal conditions; the sun was shining and we've already had the biggest tides of the year.  These ultra big tides give us a twenty eight and a half foot tidal variation which really must be seen to be believed.  Generally, over two days of tidepooling with good negative tides we will find anywhere between 65 and 100 different species.  These species can range from giant sunflower stars more than three feet across to tiny little tube worms the size of a rice grain.

Our dock on a big negative tide (you can touch the tops
 of those pilings on a really high tide).

We've had a few days off this past week for the Easter break; during the spring time we cater exclusively to school groups so our breaks coincided with Alaska's schools.  The timing couldn't have been better as Lene arrived from Norway shortly before Easter and just in time for both of our birthdays.  While I've been in town it's been fun catching up with people I haven't seen since I was last here and showing Lene around.  She's gotten herself a good used bike and is starting to learn her way around town.  I also took a refresher course for my cpr and first aid since my last course was a couple years ago.

Nearly full moon framed by the ghost forest

 We've also been checking out some of the bars and seeing some great live music, most notably from the Holy Santos Gang, a really amazing local band here in Homer.  I first saw them two years ago when I was last here and they were a great band then.  They are truly excellent now and I'm looking forward to seeing them play more often now that I'm back in Homer.

Sara posing for pictures instead of tidepooling

We are coming up on our big stretch of the season where we do most of our work and I'm hoping that everything goes smoothly.  The job is a lot of fun but it can be exhausting.  Our usual schedule has us getting up and starting to work with the group around 7:30 and though not obligated to, we often take the kids on evening hikes or arrange games for them to play by the campfire until they are in their yurts around 9:30pm.  School groups normally come out for two night stays at our field station and we will often work three groups in a row.

Pelagic cormorants and gulls in front of Poot's Peak

It's pretty funny when you've finally managed to tire a class out on their last day at the station and the boat that picks them up drops off a brand new school group full of energy.  As long as you stay healthy everything is good; getting sick is the biggest worry while working here since everyone is so busy it's hard to take a sick day.  Losing your voice is the worst since it becomes so much more difficult to control a bunch of fifth graders outside if you can't make yourself heard.  But I wouldn't keep coming back for more if I didn't love it and I do love living and working across the bay.

Transects! Go Data!

p.s.  I know I've been a little slack about updating, I'll try to keep the updates coming a little more frequently in the following months.

Hundreds of murres in the water off Gull Island
(enlarge this picture to see them all)