By Emily Venemon

Nesting colony on Sand Island, a part of Midway Atoll NWR. Photo credit: David Patte/USFWS

I never thought I would end up working for an organization like the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, let alone being allowed to travel to places like Midway Atoll National Wildlife Refuge. Talk about a change of scenery. I spent my first week on Midway Atoll NWR feeling like I was in a strange (but pleasant!) dream. The sheer volume of and accessibility to wildlife there is overwhelmingly amazing. It is beautiful, but also heartbreaking. Life and death are equally visible.

A red-tailed tropic bird and its chick on Midway Atoll NWR. Photo credit: David Patte/USFWS

One day a volunteer pointed out to me an adorable Red-tailed tropicbird chick tucked up underneath its parent. A few minutes later she showed me a Laysan duck that had died of avian botulism. I loved watching the albatross chicks flap their wings; I wanted all of them to grow up healthy and fly out to sea. Every day I saw birds that had died of dehydration, plastic ingestion, and other maladies, however. On Midway Atoll NWR, the struggle for life in the face of natural and man-made adversities is present in a way I have never seen anywhere else.

Working for the Service has been an interesting challenge so far. Being a “lone arranger” (as they call it in the archives field) has been somewhat difficult. There have been many times when I have felt lost and overwhelmed because of the volume, disorder, and unfamiliarity of the records I work with.

In some ways, the missions of records professionals and the Service are linked through the need for preservation. One of the primary duties of archivists and records managers is to preserve what is important from the past so that that information can be accessible in the future.

Laysan albatross at sunset on Midway Atoll NWR. Photo credit: Brenda Zuan/USFWS

The Service works to preserve species and ecosystems so that they will be a part of this planet in the future. I think both fields struggle for recognition because their missions are not always visible and urgent in the day-to-day lives of most people, but the precious things we are trying to preserve will be missed by those people if we cannot continue our work. I am honored to serve the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service in my small way, and I hope that the records that I am working to make accessible will help to continue its mission.

Emily Venemon is a volunteer intern in Honolulu, HI with the Pacific Reefs National Wildlife Refuges and Monuments Complex.  Currently a Masters student for Archives and Records Management at Western Washington University, Emily is on a 6-month internship to lead an ambitious program to organize and digitize decade’s worth of files and records related to the history, management, and research of Hawaiian and Remote Pacific Islands National Wildlife Refuges.  During her 6-month internship, she escaped her desk in the Honolulu file room to spend a few weeks helping with records at the remote refuge station at Midway Atoll NWR.

By: Emily Teachout

Original source: http://wordfromwild.blogspot.com/2013/05/moms-and-daughters-hit-beach-for-birds.html

My daughter, Maggie (age 12), and I participate in a mother/daughter group that wanted to do a community service project. After seeing a series of YouTube videos on marine debris ingestion by albatrosses on Midway Atoll National Wildlife Refuge, the girls were really moved and wanted to find a way that they could help locally. To help address the problem at the source, they wanted to get debris off the beach and out of the ocean ecosystem where it poses a direct threat to seabirds and other animals. “I was motivated by the pictures and stories about the dead albatrosses who eat plastic and die,” said Brynn Dumbeck, a girl in our group.

So on a sunny Saturday, we carpooled out to Ocean Shores to take part in the annual beach cleanup efforts coordinated by Washington CoastSavers. We hit the beach with our handy-dandy picking tools and a stock-pile of collection bags that they provided. Brynn Dumbeck liked the aspect of working as a part of a coast-wide effort. “It was cool that a lot of people all over were doing the beach cleanup,” she said. 

A bundle of balloon found by Maggie Neatherlin

Sophie Danner, Maggie Neatherlin, Luna Lowsky and Brynn Dumbeck with a few of the many bags of trash they collected.

The experience was very rewarding! Parent Anthea Lawrence extracted a plastic bottle cap from the sand and noted, “Here’s one less piece of plastic for an albatross to eat.” In fact, the girls have expressed interest in doing this again. Sophie Danner, reflected that participating felt like the right thing to do, “…making a difference instead of spending your Saturday in bed or in front of the computer or something.” As a wildlife biologist and a mom, I was proud that our group of girls came up with this way to tangibly act as stewards. The fact that we all got spend a day together, in an amazing place, was a bonus. 

Upon return, we received an email from CoastSavers noting that the combined effort of the volunteers up and down the coast on that one day removed 15 tons of trash from the ocean ecosystem! Upon reflecting on the experience with the girls, they all said they wanted to do it again, and they hope that more people join in. Maggie notes that marine debris is everywhere, and always will be, “…unless we choose to do something about it. It’s not just going to fix itself, we have to fix it. We have to clean up our own mess. You could live on the other side of the world and you can do something. Wherever you are, you can help.”

To take part in the next beach cleanup visit Washington CoastSavers: http://www.coastsavers.org/

To learn more about marine debris ingestion by albatrosses see the video series by Chris Jordan:http://www.midwayjourney.com/film-trailer/

Or: http://www.fws.gov/midway/

Read the entire blog series from the millerbird team at: http://www.fws.gov/pacificislands/nihoamillerbird.html

Millerbird carrying nesting material. Photo: Robby Kohley

By Michelle Wilcox

After being closed since November 2012, the camp on the 1,016-acre coral atoll known as Laysan Island was reopened in late March 2013 and is now staffed with five USFWS personnel and two millerbird biologists. I was lucky enough to return to Laysan Island along with Megan Dalton, the newest biologist. Together we will continue monitoring the newly translocated millerbirds to try to determine how many survived the winter and then monitor them throughout the summer.  We hope to discover how many new chicks have fledged, and where on the island they are living. In the first couple of weeks we have already seen more than 38 individual millerbirds and are expecting to find even more in time.

The birds began nesting on Valentine’s Day last year, so we predicted they would be nesting when we arrived this year. The birds are indeed busy and Megan and I have found six pairs nesting so far - three pairs have nests with chicks in them and three pairs are building nests. Additionally, we have found males defending new territories adjacent to the area they favored last year. The naupaka shrubland on the north end of the island appears to be the millerbirds’ favorite area.  

Although millerbirds are our focus here on Laysan, our ‘Nature Sight of the Week’ has to go to the tens of thousands of Laysan Albatross chicks sitting all over the island. Their parents had just started arriving in the fall when we left and the island is now a very different place, so much more full of life and activity.  There is a grey, downy chick the size of an overweight bowling pin under my clothesline. During the heat of the day he waddles unsteadily into the shade of my weatherport platform, but he must return to the patch of ground where he hatched or his parents will not feed him with regurgitated fish, fish eggs and squid when they return from foraging flights, which can cover 1,000s of miles. The Laysan Albatross do not begin breeding until around their eighth year of life, but starting at age three they begin to return yearly to Laysan during the breeding season to practice their courtship dance, to find and defend a territory (males), and to find a life-long mate.  This means that in addition to the chicks and their itinerant parents there are tens of thousands of young adults on the island who spend most of their days calling, clacking, and dancing.  What a life.

Laysan albatross chick. Photo: Robby Kohley

In addition to the Laysan and Black-footed Albatross, there is one lone Short-tailed Albatross who returned again this breeding season to what we call the “northeastern desert”.  Along the brine lake edge we have seen two Ruff, four Long-billed Dowitchers, two Red Phalaropes, 12 Sanderlings, in addition to the large numbers of Wandering Tattlers, Pacific Golden-Plovers, and Ruddy Turnstones. We have seen one Cattle Egret near the grove of coconut tree snags and we have seen a good number of Bristle-thighed Curlews around the island.

Our plan is to post these blogs every two weeks.  We will include updates on the status of the millerbird population, stories about specific individuals and information on all the other natural and unnatural wonders on Laysan.

Laysan Island population and monitoring team. Photo: M. Dalton 

Protecting the rare streaked horned lark through partnerships

By Amanda Fortin, outreach specialist, External Affairs, USFWS Pacific Region

Photo credit: David Maloney

The streaked horned lark, a rare subspecies of the horned lark found only in small parts of Oregon and Washington, has been confirmed for the first time on Tenasillahee Island—thanks to partnerships and the help of “the Lark Defenders.”

Situated in the middle of the Columbia river, Tenasillahee Island is part of a series of small islands that make up the Julia Butler Hansen refuge for the Columbian white tailed Deer. The island is also a disposal site for dredging operations run by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers and the Port of Portland to maintain proper channel depth for ship passage.

As Rob Beringer, the shore superintendent of Dredge Oregon for the Port of Portland, scanned the sandy island terrain where his crew would soon dump tons of silt from the bottom of the Columbia River, he saw a brown and white blur out of the corner of his eye.

The blur turned out to be a bird. Beringer quickly realized, however, that this was not just any bird, “I knew it was a juvenile streaked horned lark and that they are both rare and fragile.” Beringer identified the bird thanks to his own online research and training from partnering agencies.

Beringer contacted one of those partnering agencies and spoke to Jon Gornick, dredge operations manager for the Corps. Gornick reasoned that, “the presence of a juvenile bird indicated the presence of a nest,” and felt a buffer zone should be established, “to be mindful of the breeding site but still allow the work to be done.”

Gornick reached out to Hannah Anderson, regional rare species program manager for the Center for Natural Lands Management and expert on Columbia River larks. Anderson “recommended that they have a buffer of 100 feet.”

Finding evidence of streaked horned larks breeding on Tenasillahee Island came as a “pleasant surprise” to Cat Brown, wildlife biologist with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and the streaked horned lark lead in Oregon. “We detected larks there in the past but not regularly,” said Brown.

The streaked horned lark is a candidate species, and the Service is currently reviewing its status to determine if it warrants protection under the Endangered Species Act. Regular surveys for the last several years have found a small but persistent population of larks on the sandy islands in the lower Columbia River.

The crews cordoned off the area as Anderson recommended. It was a little problematic because it was in the middle of our disposal area so we could only run one disposal pipe instead of two around their perimeter,” said Beringer. The Corps continued its work despite reduced capacity and space, giving Anderson the “warm and fuzzies” because, “they could have easily dumped on the larks and no one would have known.”

The streaked horned lark couple and their young continued nesting undisturbed, and Gornick and Beringer were dubbed “the lark Defenders” by Anderson. “Their teams really went the extra mile to protect these rare birds,” said Anderson. “You can almost imagine them in superhero outfits!” said Brown.

While Gornick and Beringer don’t think they will be donning capes anytime soon, they are both pleased at the collaborative help they provided for the streaked horned lark. “We are coordinating with the Fish and Wildlife Service on what to do to help, altering our operation to get work done and not impact the birds,” said Gornick. “I think we did the right thing. It slowed us down but we were able to both dispose on the island and save the baby larks, a twofold win,” added Beringer. 

Rob Beringer, shore superintendent for Dredge Oregon, stands next to the vehicle that inspired his nickname - “Lark Defender”

Photo credit: Hannah Anderson

(Source: fws.gov)

Snowy Plover Recovery Trends Upward

Initial Numbers Indicate Record Year

CORVALLIS, ORE. – Early population survey results of the Pacific coast western snowy plover indicate another highly successful year towards recovery of the species listed as threatened under both federal and state Endangered Species Acts.

Numbers from this year’s field count indicate there were a total of 315 nests, the highest number of nests found in a given year.  Roughly 173 chicks fledged from those nests, one more than last year’s total, and the highest number since monitoring began in 1990.

“This is really fantastic news,” said Dave Lauten, a wildlife biologist with the Oregon Biodiversity Information Center, Portland State University. “Overall, despite a pretty wet spring through most of June, the plovers did very well,” he added.

Snowy plover habitat ranges from Baja, Mexico north to the southern beaches of Washington. Numbers surveyed include only plovers nesting in Oregon.

While many variables figure into improved numbers, predator management and public support play a large part in ongoing recovery of the species.

A lot of thanks go to beach visitors who help out by observing signs and leashing their dogs to give plovers space to successfully nest and rear their young. One of the biggest challenges to ongoing recovery of the species is keeping plover nests intact through the breeding season—safe from walkers, dogs, and vehicles.

While there is much to be pleased about, there still remain some individual breeding sites that were not very productive, so there is room for improvement.  Luckily, the number of adult plovers – 290 for 2012, the highest estimate since intense monitoring began in 1990 - is gradually increasing and they can produce enough young birds to keep heading towards recovery of the species.

“Volunteerism is invaluable to plover management on the Central Oregon Coast,” according Cindy Burns, wildlife biologist for the Central Coast Ranger District and Oregon Dunes National Recreation Area. “We have help cleaning the nesting sites of winter storm litter, roping off nesting areas, and having people staged to make contact to help explain the importance of plover recovery,” Burns said.

In 2012 seven volunteers staged at nesting sites on the Oregon Dunes to alert visitors of dry sand closures and answer questions about the plover.

Graph Trend

Nesting Season

The nesting season for the western snowy plover ended mid-September and access restrictions put into place on Bureau of Land Management (BLM), U.S. Forest Service and state lands last spring was lifted, granting visitors access to the dry sand portions of area beaches.

Dry sand closures ended for habitat sites at Sutton Beach, Siltcoos Estuary, Oregon Dunes Day Use, Tahkenitch Estuary, Tenmile Estuary (northern Coos County), the North Spit of Coos Bay, Bandon Beach State Natural Area, and New River area beaches. The access restrictions affected 18 miles of beach in Oregon.

Even though the official nesting season is over, biologists caution plovers are still active and ask people to pay attention when they are on the beach.

About eighty percent of plovers that nest in Oregon stay here year around, according to Burns.

“Wintering birds trying to maintain fat reserves to survive the winter can still be affected by human activities,” she added. “Birds that maintain energy reserves during the winter will be healthier when spring nesting resumes”.

The Snowy Plover

The western snowy plover is a small shorebird, about 6 inches long, that lays its eggs and raises it young in the open dry sand. The Pacific coast population of the western snowy plover was listed by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service as threatened in 1993.