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Youth Area Watch - Community Restoration
Project - Whittier
1999-2000
It is now the end of the year and we're just
finishing up our work with the kittiwakes. Below is
a recap of our project that we have been working on
for the past few months.
Purpose:
Kittiwakes are an integral part of the Prince
William Sound ecosystem. The second largest
Kittiwake rookery in the sound is located right
across the bay from Whittier. Our worry is that
when the road goes through, the increased tourism
will have a negative effect on the thriving
Kittiwake population. The purpose of this project
is to collect information regarding current
Kittiwake population numbers. In doing this we will
establish a population figure prior to the increase
in tourism that the road will bring. By comparing
current numbers of Kittiwakes to future population
data we collect we hope to find whether or not the
Kittiwake population is negatively effected.
Procedures:
1. During a low or minus tide, go out to the
rookery and measure a designated plot
2. Overlay a grid on a picture we've taken of
the rookery to determine our plot size and estimate
the size of the rookery.
3. On a given day each week we will go out on a
boat and count the birds in our plot using the
attached data collection sheet.
4. Using the simple formula of: (Number of birds
in plot/size of plot=number of birds in colony/size
of the colony). We will estimate how many birds are
in the colony during our collection period.
5. Other observations we will take are: Mating
behaviors, nesting behaviors, and predators.
6. Create a spreadsheet combining all of the
data collected this year with the data collected
last year.
7. Create a web page on the Internet that will
be shown on the YAW web site, in order to enable
scientists to use our research data. (Still
pending. We'll probably get one up next year)
Research:
This year's studies are not very different from
how we did it last year. As you can see from our
procedures, our method of counting and figuring
total population has not really changed. All though
the population of our plot has grown, we use the
exact same plot we did when we started almost three
years ago.
Something new that we have been doing this year
is interacting with real scientists. Earlier in the
year we held a teleconference with Rob Suryan, a
member of the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service. He
became quite interested with our project earlier in
the year and was generous enough to give us a few
pointers on how to improve our studies. Since our
research of the colony is very similar to his, we
agreed to share data. He has been very impressed
with our data, and we enjoy comparing ours to his.
He also suggested keeping an eye out for banded
birds and gave us instruction in how to do so.
Other people from the Wildlife Service band
different kittiwakes form different areas so they
like to hear it when we find their birds in a
different spot.
Results:
After finishing our studies this year, and
combining them with our past years data, we've been
able to finally put together some results. In the
past three years we have noticed a significant
increase in the colonies population. The amount of
birds have increased at least 25% this year. Just
this year alone our plot size has decreased from
one thirteenth of the colony to one nineteenth. By
comparing our total estimate of the whole colony,
the total amount of birds has increased by just
over one thousand. Because of this increase of
population the total area of the colony has also
increased dramatically. We documented this increase
in size by graphing the plot and comparing the size
of our plot to the whole rookery. A copy of this
grid has been included.
Changes Next Year:
As for next year, we do have some plans for some
new things to do. The scientist, Rob Suryan, has
invited us to go out to the Shoup Bay Colony and
study the birds there along side him and other
scientists. This year we've enjoyed working with
the birds. We all look forward to working on our
project again next spring.
Sincerely,
Tamra Esmonde
Nathaniel Moore
Victor Shen
P.S. Also included is our spreadsheet,
graph, and picture of our plot.
1998-1999
Recently, we have been following the population
of Black-Legged Kittiwakes. We chose this project
to see if the number of kittiwakes was declining
and to have reference data for the kittiwake
population before the road goes through. At this
point we still can't tell which way the population
is going.
After chartering a boat to get across the bay,
we chose a plot on the rokery that was easy to
recognize. The plot is located close to the center
of the rookery, and it is approximately 20 feet by
40 feet. Each week, each of us takes a count of the
birds on the plot, three times, once every 10
minutes. We also take counts of the birds in the
air and water around the plot using the same
method. While taking these counts, we also take
note of any kittiwake behavior such as territorial
disputes, nesting, and mating. We also record any
predators in the area and the weather conditions.
After collecting all of this information, we
compile it on to one sheet, averaging all of our
counts to find a final population count.
We started going out on the boat at the end of
March, and we have been going out once a week since
that time. We have our last trip out at the end of
May. We plan to continue this project next year if
possible. We included our school by taking our
classmates out on the boat trips with us. They were
able to count the kittiwakes, and we used their
data along with our own. Our results will be
published in next year's monthly school newspaper.
This paper is handed out to all members of the
community. We also plan to create a web page next
year when the internet is available to our school.
Along with this, we plan to take some pictures of
our project and make a poster explaining what we
have been doing. This poster will be displayed in
the lobby of the B.T.I., where 90% of our community
lives.
This year we accomplished all of our goals. We
are not finished with our project, but we completed
everything we expected to. We enjoyed working on
our restoration project this year, and we look
forward to continuing it next year.
Written by The Whittier Youth Area Watch
Students:
Nathaniel Moore
Sarah Wells
Tim Graham
Michael Grande
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