Cassin's Auklet

So one of the big excitements so far on the island has been the nesting Cassin's Auklets. (A few of the others might have included helicopters removing gear, illegal jet skis near the island (totally wacky given the rough seas and our distance from San Fran), seeing my first dorsal fin (Russo's Dolphin), seeing epic waves, and perhaps the various desserts that people have made around dinner time.)





Although it is an el nino year and the Cassin's traditionally would not do as well. They have been nesting early on the island. The initial excitement was to find one in a box the first week I was here. The next was to find a few with eggs in a few boxes and the most recent is to find numerous in many boxes. Although they technically do not need to nest in the boxes, they naturally use old burrows and the boxes mimic natural crevices to the definite satisfaction of the birds.

In any case, whenever we find a bird in the box, we verify if it has been banded (if not, we band). Next, we measure bill depth and wing length. Lastly, we measure the egg size from the box, weigh the bird, and return the bird to the egg. Pretty simple procedure, however each bird is a bit different and it definitely takes time to check each box. (There are approx. 500 Cassin's boxes).