Program Notes

Coastal and Estuarine Research

Bay Area Wetlands Ecosystem. PRBO is participating in a region-wide effort to identify the types, amounts, and distribution of wetlands and related habitats needed to sustain diverse communities of wildlife in the San Francisco Bay Area. This ambitious endeavor is embodied in the San Francisco Bay Area Wetlands Ecosystem Goals Project (WEGP). Initiated in 1994, the WEGP emerged from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency's San Francisco Estuary Project, which recognized the need to produce scientifically valid, regional wetland goals. Participation in the WEGP has provided PRBO a unique opportunity to collaborate with various federal and state agencies, consulting organizations, and private researchers toward a common vision of wetland preservation and restoration in the region. Each participant brings to the process a complementary component of a broader understanding of this dynamic urban/wetland interface. Data from PRBO's Pacific Flyway project is helping us provide an understanding of shorebird use of San Francisco Bay Area wetlands. Watch for a full report in the next Observer. - Catherine Hickey

Point Reyes Plovers. Well into our second year of a Snowy Plover restoration project in Point Reyes National Seashore, progress in 1997 is encouraging. The goal is to double the breeding plover population each year by protecting nests with exclosures. With last year's success (Observer 108, p.7), many birds returned to breed this year. More than double last year's initial population began this season, with 18 nests on Point Reyes Beach and 8 on Limantour Spit (pairs often renest). We have set up 19 exclosures, ten of which have hatched 26 chicks. Without our nest exclosures, Common Raven predation and human disturbance would likely have caused nearly complete nest failure; four nests were depredated before we could protect them. Overall, we look forward to surpassing last year's results in 1997. - Jennifer White

Terrestrial Research

Important Riparian Grants. To support riparian conservation throughout California's Central Valley, the David & Lucile Packard Foundation has approved a grant to PRBO for $148,000 over two years, and The William & Flora Hewlett Foundation has provided a grant for $150,000 over three years. This major funding enables us to begin examining landscape effects on bird populations across riparian habitat throughout the state. At present, PRBO staff biologist Grant Ballard is working with U.C. Davis professor Jim Quinn to gear up our computer capabilities in geographic information systems. The two generous grants increase PRBO's capacity to work scientifically for riparian conservation, in projects to be detailed in forthcoming Observer's.

Riparian Bird Populations. Demand is increasing statewide for PRBO teams to assess populations of breeding birds in riparian areas. In a new project this year in Lassen National Forest and Park, led by PRBO biologist Anne King (formerly Keiner), we are finding healthy and diverse bird populations very close to degraded ones on the Sacramento River. We have also begun work this year with the Bureau of Reclamation to assess land uses (grazing and restoration activities) at East Park Reservoir near Willows in the Central Valley. - Geoff Geupel

Marine and Farallon Island Research

Ocean Variability. In 27 years on Southeast Farallon Island (SEFI), PRBO has developed a powerful database on oceanographic variability and its effects on seabirds. We evaluate differences between years in seabirds' reproductive performance, food preferences, and other factors. Recent expansion of our work provides a more comprehensive view of broad-scale oceanographic influences on seabirds of the California Current marine ecosystem, oceanic habitat stretching from British Columbia to Mexico. Preliminary information from 1997 reveals remarkable consistency in relative breeding dates from all seabird colonies we study - on Santa Barbara Island (SBI), Ano Nuevo Island (ANI), Alcatraz Island, and at Point Reyes Headlands, as well as on SEFI. Xantus' Murrelets on SBI, Rhinoceros Auklets on ANI, Brandt's Cormorants on Alcatraz, and Cassin's Auklets, Common Murres, and Brandt's Cormorants on SEFI all initated breeding relatively early. From this we infer that oceanic conditions are generally favorable, with strong upwelling, cold water, and abundant prey. In fact, there were early indications of a banner year for seabird productivity in California. But an El Nino event appears to be advancing on the California coast. This periodic ocean warming typically triggers a collapse of local prey populations upon which seabirds subsist. In May and June, sea surface temperatures near the Farallones indicated that El Nino may be arriving sooner rather than later. Even so, seabirds on SEFI and elsewehere in California are faring well, with healthy chicks growing and fledging. The prospective 1997-98 California El Nino apparently arrived after the coastal food web had developed sufficiently to support breeding seabirds.-William J. Sydeman

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