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Leach's storm petrels nest on a number of off-shore rocks and islands along the Oregon Coast. These colonies are hard to visit so very little is known about these populations. We are developing alternative monitoring methods including remote cameras, and acoustic monitoring in order to better inform managers of population changes. - Rachael Orben
Leach’s storm-petrel are one of the most abundant seabirds on the Oregon coast, but they are rarely seen by people because storm-petrels nest in underground burrows on off-shore islands and are only active around their colonies at night. This makes it very difficult for resource managers to determine changes in population size. Dr. Rob Suryan’s lab is collaborating with Conservation Metrics, Alaska Biological Research, and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service to test remotely operating cameras, acoustic recorders, and radar technology for long-term monitoring of storm-petrel populations. - Rob Suryan
Did you know? They are a very small bird that feeds far offshore and returns to the colony at night to avoid predation. They are also among the largest egg to body size ratio among birds.
Suryan, R.M., A.J. Gladics, B. Bridgeland, S.W. Stephensen, R. Swift, R.W. Lowe, **I. Throckmorton, D.D. Roby. 2015. Testing acoustic recorders and remote cameras to monitor breeding populations of Leach’s storm-petrel. Pacific Seabird Group Meeting, San Jose, California.
Gladics, A.J., R.M. Suryan, B. Bridgeland, S.W. Stephensen, R. Swift, **I. Throckmorton, R.W. Lowe, D.D. Roby. Testing acoustic recorders and remote cameras to monitor breeding Leach’s storm-petrel populations. The 2nd World Seabird Conference, Cape Town, South Africa.
Jacobs, J., T. Deguchi, K. Ozaki and, R.M. Suryan. 2012. Moving and Rearing Chicks: Efforts to Establish a New Short-tailed Albatross Breeding Colony (or: If you move them, will they come?). 5th International Albatross & Petrel Conference, Wellington, New Zealand