Life & times of the Ancient Murrelet

August-September 1995

This is an article from WaveLength Magazine, available in print in North America and globally on the web.

Project studies 'birds that go thump in the dark'

by Kevin Borserio

Project Limestone 1995

Each spring the sky above East Limestone Island in South Moresby's Laskeek Bay literally rains with Ancient Murrelets -- the birds that go thump in the dark.' Approximately 70% of the world's population of these marine seabirds nest and breed in the old growth forests of Haida Gwaii. In unlikely cavities and crevices they burrow themselves an average of 75 cm beneath the thick moss, soil, logs, rocks, and live root systems of the forest floor. They enter their colony like drunken pilots destined to collide with the ancient Sitka Spruce and Western Hemlock trunks and branches. Then with their unorthodox and clumsy landing they magically disappear into their burrows. There they lay their two eggs, usually eight days apart, and begin the 28-29 day incubation period.

When these precocial (capable of high degree of independent behaviour from birth) chicks hatch, they average 31 grams, and stay in the burrow for one to two days with a four gram weight loss during their stay. Normally both parents are present when the chicks leave the burrow, and there is much vocalization between the whole family. The parents then fly off to the sea and stage on the water 50-200 metres from shore and continue to call to their young while patrolling up to 400 metres along the shore. Using the slope of the hill, the 27-28 gram, tennis ball-size chicks run rapidly towards the light and sound of the ocean and the call of their parents. They scramble, spring, fall, roll, squeeze their way through an obstacle course of forest floor that seems to be an insurmountable path.

But near the end of their journey in the forest they are briefly interrupted by the Biology and Kayak Club students of Queen Charlotte Elementary Secondary School. For each of the past five years our students have spent four nights (10:00 pm-3:00 am) working alongside trained volunteers and staff of the Laskeek Bay Conservation Society with the trapping, banding, and releasing of Ancient Murrelet chicks and adults.

After the chicks are caught by hand and carefully placed in small cloth bags, our students take the chicks to the banding station where they are quickly weighed, measured, and banded. We then walk the chicks down to the waters edge to release them on the hard limestone shore. The cheep-cheep call to their parents, and the tinkle-tinkle of their stainless steel band on the rocks assures us that they are on their way again soon to be reunited with their parents. Our brief walk back to the banding station and our short kayak paddle back to Vertical Point at 5:00 am seems inconsequential to the remaining night of an Ancient Murrelet chick. Over the next six hours they travel an average of thirteen kilometres out into the Hecate Strait at an average speed of two kilometres an hour.

Project Limestone has been a key part of the Laskeek Bay Conservation Society's interpretative program since 1991. Over the last five years, sixty eight students and twelve teachers have made the annual spring trek to our base camp at Vertical Point to participate in the study. Our students also spend interpretive time on East Limestone Island learning about the interconnectedness of the marine and forest ecosystems, predator prey relationships, the impacts of introduced species (racoon, deer, squirrel) on native flora and fauna, and reproductive biology of a variety of seabirds.

During our stay this year in Laskeek Bay we not only captured, banded, and released adult and chick Ancient murrelets, but we completed a beach clean up of plastic and glass from Breaker Creek Beach to Vertical Point, encountered a pod of orcas, a grey whale, two Pacific white sided dolphins, ate ling cod, black rock fish, mussels and sea urchins, identified many sea and forest birds (pigeon guillemots, marbled murrelets, cassin's auklets, saw-whet owls, red-breasted sap suckers), enjoyed the eerie but vibrant Northern Lights, spent many hours in our kayaks exploring the shoreline, negotiating sea caves, and paddling along the shore at low tide identifying chitons, leafy thorns, bat and leather stars, kelp crab and sea anemones. Our stay in Laskeek Bay always seems so short, but long enough to create a deep appreciation for the rich biodiversity that thrives on these islands.

But again our main species of interest is the Ancient Murrelet. Project Limestone at Q.C.E.S.S. is committed to assisting in the research and learning about this small diving bird whose population has decreased substantially over most of its range across the North Pacific. These seemingly drunken pilots who enter their dark ancient forest each spring and produce their agile, tenacious young, continue to inspire and excite all who visit their colony. And with this fascination, it therefore seems appropriate to record their biology and ecology as it exists now, so that a firm baseline is available against which future investigators can measure the effects of change, whether it be fisheries, oil developments, tourism, pollution or the increase in global temperatures.

The students and staff who have participated in Project Limestone 1995 would like to thank the following people and companies for making this trek of ours possible, enjoyable, safe, educational, and inspirational: Peter Corcoran; L.B.C.S.; Husband Charters (Terry & Charlotte); Harbour Air ; Queen Charlotte Island Adventures; Colin French, Ginny Collins, and Chris Bowman.

Kevin Borserio is a teacher at Queen Charlotte Elementary-Secondary School