Monitoring seabird reproduction:

Alaska Maritime National Wildlife Refuge
As part of a long-term effort to monitor seabird reproductive trends and population dynamics, the Alaska Maritime National Wildlife Refuge (AMNWR) places biologists and volunteers at field sites on the coasts of Alaska every spring and summer. These biologists monitor the seabird reproductive season from nest-building through chick fledging, tracking the fate of hundreds of individual nests, as well conducting population counts, assessing growth rates, seabird diets and any other useful information they can gather. This yields a yearly index of reproductive success (number of chicks successfully fledging per number of eggs laid)
Jackie McDonough monitoring seabirds on St. George
Jackie McDonough (UWFWS) watches kittiwakes on St. George Island. Kittiwakes watch back.
AMNWR is collaborating with the ReFERII project, allowing us to match up data about seabirds physiology and diet with the ultimate outcome of the season: how successful were the birds at producing chicks?
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