Disturbance project

We made yet another trip to Lookout to check on the nests and do some disturbance work, the weather was yet again not on our side. Lookout, due to the high level of disturbance is not doing well at all. There are fewer nests than I expected, despite the many gulls that roost there. Of the 4 original nests that I marked, only 1 seems to still be tended, the other 3 being abandoned. While I was wandering around looking for new nests Shirley was busy with the disturbance work, which is shaping up to be a cool project, data collected from incubating birds is going to be very interesting!

Beauty in death.

Measuring from roosting spot to the markers.

Walkway to heaven?

The next day dawned beautiful and clear, and so a repeat trip to Lookout was made to do some more disturbance work. As we were arriving at the colony we came across a gull eating an octopus head, its bill black with ink, a very cool sight! We managed to do another 9 disturbance trials, and as we were moving through the colony I saw a pair of gulls around nest 1, happiness!

A messy meal.

Hopefully this pair will breed at this nest site.