Saturday 24 June 2017, week 6: Buldir Island

I take such joy in naming crevices that I’ve decided to revisit this topic from last year. Once again I’ve chosen to follow the creative route, this time choosing themes for each of my work areas.

Like I said last year, finding new nests is one of my favorite activities. Up until this point in the season – because eggs are hatching and finding nests is unnecessary – my rounds usually took longer than Kevin or McKenzie’s because I just couldn’t help but poke my nose everywhere. With the lack of predators on Buldir, crevice nest sites are a whole lot easier to find than on say, St. George, where foxes are always on the prowl for an egg. Birds don’t need hard-to-access nests here. In much the same way that Conservation Canines are so dedicated to finding scat and then getting to play fetch, I’m fully addicted to the satisfaction of finding a quality nest site and then getting to name it.

Main Talus is the home of crested, least, and whiskered auklets, as well as horned and tufted puffins. For my work on this active boulder field I chose to name crevices after my hobbies and various outdoor activities.
– RUN, BIKE, READ, COOK, WRITE, HIKE, CAMP, SKI, SAIL, SLEEP, BAKE, TRAVEL, DREAM, CLIMB, MUSH, PHOTO, HUNT, DRIVE, EAT, THINK, WANDER, KAYAK, CAVE, SWIM, SURF, SKATE, RAFT, CANOE, FISH, TRAP, YOGA

Since I actually ran out of ideas for that theme, I had to turn to my sports teams for the last few.
– SPARTANS (Michigan State, of course), TIGERS (Detroit baseball), REDWINGS, (Detroit hockey), ABLACKS (short for NZ rugby All Blacks), NANOOKS (U of Alaska Fairbanks), LIONS (Detroit football)

I forgot to give former employer Trailbreaker Kennel a crevice last year, so today a whiskered auklet became TBK.

Northwest Ridge has a lot less activity than Main Talus, but it hosts whiskered and parakeet auklets, plus some horned and tufted puffins. I’ve also found a few ancient murrelet nests, but they’re a species we don’t monitor. This steep, grassy slope now has new sites named for…
– Countries from which I’ve hosted exchange students: GER (Germany), POL (Poland), BEL (Belgium)             – Countries that adopted Teri MEX (Mexico) or me NZEA (New Zealand) for awhile                                                – Other countries I’ve been to in Europe: FRA (France), SWI (Switzerland)

Bottle Hill is on the Spike Camp side of the island, and we head over there every 4-5 days for the horned puffins and parakeet auklets. My best naming scheme of the year can be found here, for this is the land of Lord of the Rings (hobbits) and Star Wars.                                                                                                                        – SHIRE, FRODO, SAM, MERRY, PIPPIN, BILBO, ROSIE
– LUKE, LEIA, HAN, VADER, CHEWIE (JEDI and SITH or REBEL and EMPIRE will be joining this crew)

Earlier this week I was pretty proud to find that SAM was one of the season’s first parakeet auklet parents. These days we’re having an eruption of eggs hatching on Main Talus. It’s a busy time with lots of cute new life around here!