Gulls are generalists, which means they will eat almost anything they can fit in their beaks. On the other hand, eiders are specialists. They only eat from a small menu of mollusks, crustaceans and sea urchins.
Ready to join me for a day in the field?
Today, we’re heading to a lobster reserve. With help from researchers, the Norwegian government has protected this part of the ocean from trapping to allow the lobster populations here to recover! Areas like these that limit human activity for ocean conservation are called Marine Protected Areas (MPAs). We want to check in on the gulls that are raising their chicks in this area to see if these MPAs are helping the ecosystem as a whole. First, my research team and I gather our gear. We’re bringing a wildlife camera, unique identification bands, cloth bags, measuring tools and tools to collect a tiny sample of blood from the birds.
Next, we head to the boat! The parents have built their nest on a small, rocky island. We pull up and walk to the nest as quietly as we can to capture the chicks. They are only fifteen days old! We don’t want to cause the young birds any unnecessary stress, so we keep them in special cloth bags that allow them to breathe while still feeling as safe and secure as possible. Then, we weigh them and measure the length of their head and wings. We take a small sample of blood to analyze back in a lab, which will allow us to discover what the chicks have been eating and their nutrition levels. Finally, the chicks get a new piece of jewelry! Each bird we measure gets a small band around their leg with a unique code that allows us and other researchers to identify them in the future.
