MARINE BIRD SURVEYS in QC STRAIT-Final
MARINE BIRD SURVEYS IN QUEEN CHARLOTTE STRAIT AND ADJACENT CHANNELS, AUGUST-SEPTEMBER 2020 December 2020 2 MARINE BIRD SURVEYS IN QUEEN CHARLOTTE STRAIT AND ADJACENT CHANNELS, AUGUST-SEPTEMBER 2020 Anthony Gaston, Mark Maftei, Sonya Pastran, Ken Wright, Graham Sorenson, Iwan Lewylle Cite as: Gaston AJ, M Maftei, S Pastran, K Wright, G Sorenson and I Lewylle. 2020. MARINE BIRD SURVEYS IN QUEEN CHARLOTTE STRAIT AND ADJACENT CHANNELS, AUGUST-SEPTEMBER 2020. Raincoast Education Society, Tofino, BC. 3 1084 Pacific Rim Highway, Tofino, BC (https://raincoasteducation.org/) 4 CONTENTS Introduction 7 Methods Field methods 10 Analysis 13 Results Distribution by zones 16 Total numbers of birds present 17 Timing of arrival/migration Sea ducks 18 Phalaropes 18 Auks 20 Gulls 20 Loons 21 Grebes 22 Petrels 23 Cormorants 23 Comparison with other studies 24 Marine Mammals 26 Discussion Total numbers of birds 28 Timing of arrival/migration 29 Summary 29 Acknowledgements 31 References 32 Appendices 35 5 6 INTRODUCTION Queen Charlotte Strait, a funnel-shaped passage extending ESE from the open waters of Queen Charlotte Sound, separates northern Vancouver Island from the mainland of British Columbia. It is connected, via Johnstone Strait, Discovery Passage and associated channels, with the more or less enclosed waters of the Salish Sea (Figure 1). Anecdotal information from eBird lists suggests that this area supports a high diversity of marine birds in winter and during the periods of northward and southward migration (https://ebird.org/canada/ accessed 7 November 2020; hereafter “eBird”). In addition, this area is important for marine mammals, being used regularly by the Northern Resident Orca stock, and by Humpback and Minke Whales, Dall’s and Harbour Porpoises and Pacific White-sided Dolphins, and supporting several permanent haul-outs of Steller’s Sea Lions (Ford 2014).
[Show full text]