this past summer was spent on the coast of washington performing seabird surveys for the dept of fish and wildlife. the marbled murrelet is an endangered seabird species that nests inland in old growth forests along the coast. until 1974 it was unknown where these little fellows bred, after the discovery they became a major focal species in the protection of these disappearing forests. i worked with a habitat delineation crew in 2006, surveying potential logging stands in the northern cascades. i returned this season to conduct more work which took the crew and i from the northern most point of wash to the columbia river mouth on the border with oregon. the work entailed traveling along the coast and systematically scanning for these little birds (25cm), documenting numbers, distance from the boat, plumage, etc all from a heavily rocking boat. i hope you enjoy the video.
