Join the Pigeon Guillemot Citizen Science Team this summer and spend one beautiful hour on the beach each week observing Pigeon Guillemots flying aerial displays, playing in the water, competing for the top spot on a rock, and/or delivering fish to chicks in burrows.
The 2018 season (Year 6!) for the Pigeon Guillemot Breeding Survey is coming up! Volunteer training will be held on Saturday, May 5, from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. at the Nisqually Reach Nature Center, 4949D Milluhr Rd. N.E., Olympia, 98516. Pigeon Guillemots are black birds with a white wing patch and red feet, one of the few seabirds breeding in South Sound. They are a Vital Sign Species, an indicator for the health of Puget Sound. Citizen science volunteers sit on the beach one morning hour a week, June to August, to record social and burrow activity, including fish deliveries to chicks. Volunteers are organized in teams to allow for flexible scheduling. Breeding colonies for this survey are located on Salish Sea shorelines between Nisqually Reach and Totten Inlet, including Eld and Budd Inlets, Dana Passage and Anderson, Ketron, and Harstine Islands.
If you are interested in volunteering, please let us know, even if you aren’t available for the training. Contact Anne Mills, millsa804@nullgmail.com or 360-888-9417, or Terence Lee, terencelee@nullnisquallyestuary.org or 360-459-0387 to register for the free training or for more information about volunteering. (Photo by Dick Daniels (http://carolinabirds.org/), Wikimedia)