By Victoria Sanchez, The Siuslaw News
YACHATS – It’s 4:30 a.m. and the rustle of rain jackets and tents interrupts the otherwise stillness of the Cape Perpetua campsite. Some 25 people roll out of their sleeping bags and hurry to dress for the drizzle that’s beginning to shower the camp.
A red Chevrolet truck’s headlights turn on as the owner looks for something inside, and illuminates soft mist so that it looks like snow falling against the dark camp. Aside from the lights from the bathrooms, the campers are surrounded by darkness.
They make their way to the parking lot for a 5:08 a.m. meeting.
“Perfect murrelet weather,” says Oregon State University researcher Kim Nelson. “They love this.”
The two-week count in July is part of the 14th annual marbled murrelet survey; Nelson is leading the Yachats group as they comb the seashore and nearby forests hoping to spot some.
“It’s start time,” she says at exactly 5:08 a.m. “Let’s get ready to hear some murrelets.”
Everyone’s eyes turn towards the gray sky, hoping to see the elusive seabird.
Nelson has been studying the marbled murrelet since the 1980s. The murrelet’s nesting behaviors were unknown until the 1970s, when the first murrelet nest was found in California. Despite nearly 50 years of study, some breeding behaviors and other details are still unknown.
It was 1990 when Nelson and her survey crew found the first murrelet nest in Oregon. They called in Paul Engelmeyer of Yachats, a member of the Portland Audubon Society and a tree climber by profession, to climb an adjacent tree to set up a camera for recording activity at the nest.
Murrelet caught in logging tug-of-war
Native to the North Pacific, the marbled murrelet has been listed as a threatened by the Federal Endangered Species Act in Washington, Oregon and California and state-listed as endangered and threatened in California, Washington and Oregon, respectively, since the early 1990s. But the populations continue to dwindle. Last year Oregon’s marbled murrelet population was estimated to range between 5,800 to 12,000 individuals.
The central Oregon coast has the largest population of murrelets in Oregon, with Cape Perpetua and its adjacent marine reserve being home to the largest “reserve” for murrelets, according to Nelson. The nearby forests provide good nesting habitat and off Cape Perpetua is a marine reserve, which allows fish to survive and grow into prey for seabirds, creating the best scenario for murrelets. This is why Nelson and her team hold the annual community science survey the last two weeks of July at Cape Perpetua.
In addition, every year various researchers survey murrelet populations off the coast from Alaska to California to get year-by-year comparisons of murrelet trends. At the Cape Perpetua they invite the public to join inland surveys whereby an index of detections of murrelets can be compared year-to-year and related to ocean conditions and climate change factors.
Nelson says this is her favorite part about the surveys.
“The murrelet is a mysterious and hard-to-see bird, so for many this might be their only chance to see the bird,” she says. “People get to learn and participate in science, and it’s really fun to share this knowledge. When someone gets excited about seeing the bird, it’s really fulfilling.”
After 30 years of researching marbled murrelets, Nelson has only found 78 nests in Oregon.
“It’s hard research and every year we end up with more questions than answers,” Nelson says.
Nelson’s research team annually conducts inland surveys of murrelets during their egg-laying season, which is April through July. Her team conducts surveys to determine if part of the forest is “occupied,” which means murrelets exhibit behaviors pointing to a possible nest. Behaviors that might indicate a nest include circling the area and flying low through the tree canopy.
As part of the Oregon Marbled Murrelet Project, Nelson along with Jim Rivers, Dan Roby and Matt Betts focus on demographic monitoring. They go out on OSU’s research vessel, the Pacific Storm, and travel north or south along the shore at night to capture any murrelets in nets to measure and tag them to monitor their movements.
This is crucial research as it helps define murrelet nesting habitat which can aid in forest management. Currently, logging is a major threat to the murrelet, which depends on a dense tree canopy within old-growth forests to hide them as they fly to and from their nests feeding their young.
The Portland Audubon Society, the Sierra Club and Oregon Wild recently brought their concerns about more reduction of the tree canopy to the Forest Service. The agency is looking to reduce the tree canopy to 40 percent coverage in the Deadwood Creek area near Mapleton.
Forest Service representatives say this reduction helps grow trees faster, thus creating more habitable trees for the bird in the future. However, Engelmeyer fears that the short-term impacts of 40 percent coverage may lead to increased predation at murrelet nests.
“I want to err on the side of conservation,” says Engelmeyer, who recommends maintaining a buffer or screen that will help keep murrelet predators — crows, ravens and jays — out of the occupied murrelet habitat. The 1997 murrelet recovery plan gives clear direction to maintain buffers adjacent to occupied stands, Engelmeyer said.
Murrelets move between ocean and forest
The marbled murrelet is in the puffin, auks and murres family of birds. About the size of a robin and weighing about 8 ounces, they have a 15- to 20-year lifespan within their major ecosystems of both the ocean and forest. Murrelets forage in the ocean, diving up to 100 feet to find food such as anchovies and crustaceans.
Nelson says that ocean conditions lately have been horrible for murrelets because of a lack of what’s called “upwelling,” which brings cold water from the deep ocean towards the surface to replace the water that has been pushed away by winds. This cold water is rich in nutrients that fertilize the surface waters, making it perfect for schooling fish to feed, and typically occurs in the spring and summer.
Murrelets feed on these schooling fish normally within a half mile of shore during breeding season. Because they can only dive up to 100 feet into the water, they rely on these fish coming close to the surface.
Research indicates ocean temperatures are rising, primarily due to climate change. This affects the distribution abundance of prey as warmer water temperatures and changes in wind direction don’t allow for upwelling.
“The best ocean conditions for the past two years have been down in California — and the worst conditions were off Oregon and Washington,” says Nelson.
On land, the murrelet nests on large old-growth tree branches in conifer trees, making old-growth and older-aged forests in Oregon vital to the murrelet’s survival; the older the tree, the larger and more stable the branch. Murrelets don’t actually build nests, but rather lay their eggs on mash or other material on large branches. The birds fly as far as 50 miles inland to nest and can fly at speeds up to 100 mph, which makes watching for the murrelet a bit of a challenge.
Adding to that challenge is the fact that murrelets tend to fly during low-light times, such as early morning, in order to avoid being sighted by predators — peregrine falcons, various hawks and owls, ravens, Steller’s jays, American crows and Canada jays. That’s why Nelson surveys the murrelet so early in the morning.
Volunteers help spot bird and spread their message
The mid-July morning fog made murrelet watching ideal, due to the birds flying closer to the ground.
“I like birds because, if you pay attention, any day is special. It makes my life richer,” says Em Scatterajia, a camper at last Tuesday’s survey, who was eagerly awaiting a marbled murrelet sighting. “I introduced my two boys to birdwatching when they were little. Now, they’re expert bird watchers. It’s a way to stay connected to my boys even though they’re far away.”
Marbled murrelets are unique in that they don’t begin breeding until two to three years of age, and only lay one egg per season — unless the egg fails early enough in the season, such as May or June, at which point they will sometimes but rarely lay another. However, 70 percent of all murrelet nests fail annually primarily due to predation. Nelson says this is not sustainable for the population.
So far this year, the Oregon Marbeled Murrelet Project has found only four nests in Oregon; one contains a chick, but the other three have failed.
Meg Ruby, another public survey participant, says the marbled murrelet is especially interesting to her because of its connection to both the forests and the sea.
“The marbled murrelet occupies a special niche of the sea with their food and nesting in the old-growth forests. I find that fascinating,” she says. “I love learning about the ecosystems through birds, and Oregon is rich in ecosystems.”
Fortunately, campers were able to spot murrelets easily during their survey.
“I hear one!” Nelson says. Shortly after, straight down the middle of the clearing between the trees, a small brown body with pointed wings zooms across. Volunteers who had been waiting anxiously craned their necks, turning in circles slowly to not miss a single angle where a bird could fly by.
“Oh wow, there’s one! Oh my gosh there’s three!”
Searching for life in the sky, campers spent about two hours helping Nelson to record any detections of murrelets, whether through a sighting or hearing a call.
“These birds are important because we know very little about them,” Nelson adds. “It’s exciting when we have new questions and when we continue to learn new things about them.”
Because the area provides the ideal land-sea connection, the Cape Perpetua Marine Reserve has formed a collaborative with numerous state parks, Audubon’s Ten Mile Creek Sanctuary, U.S. Forest service areas such as the Siuslaw National Forest, and many other organizations and sites that provide habitats for seabirds, marine animals, native fish and wildlife.
Together, they plan to coordinate conservation efforts and help inform the public about the value of the region to Oregon and all its beings. More information on Cape Perpetua and how to get involved can be found at www.oregonmarinereserves.com/reserves/cape-perpetua/.
A version of this story appeared in the July 26 edition of the Siuslaw News. Victoria Sanchez can be reached at vsanchez@thesiuslawnews.com