CALFED 2005
Flock of Black Necked Stilts
We worked in the salt ponds around San Francisco Bay, primarily in South Bay, in the town of Alviso, but also up past the Dumbarton Bridge.
The basic gist of the project is that we were looking at how contaminants, specifically mercury, move through the bay ecosystems. To do this, we tracked a bird using radio telemetry to find out where it foraged and where it nested. When we caughth the bird to attach the radio transmitter, we took blood samples. Using this information we collected samples of their food, and we also searched the nesting area to monitor nest success and collect a few eggs for more contaminant analysis.
There is a project on Surf Scoters that is up and running and is looking at these questions in that trophic line. Our project looks at piscivores (fish eaters) – Forsters Terns, and insectivores (specifically, benthic invertebrates) – Black-necked Stilt & American Avocet.
A project of this magnitude has many facets, my crew was responsible for capturing the birds, banding them, and performing radio telemetry. The crew consisted of a project lead, two graduate students, five research assistants, and four interns. In addition, F&W had numerous people from their contaminants division, at least five of which I saw on a weekly basis.
In the following four pages you’ll see pictures of what our work entails, and get a little more detail.
Stilts & Avocets
Forster’s Terns
Chicks
Chick Murder Mysteries
Forster’s Tern
American Avocet pages:
USGS species account.
Cornell species account.
Black-necked Stilt pages:
USGS species account.
Cornell species account.
Desert USA description.
Forster’s Terns: USGS species account.
Cornell species account.
San Francisco Bay Salt Ponds & restoration PRBO explanation.
South Bay Restoration a bit dry, but tons of info.
Save the Bay a private organization.
Return to the My Adventures page.
