On May 1st, we headed to East Limestone Island by skiff and Jeremie Hyatt’s sail boat, the Kode Isle. Boating alongside the Reef Skiff on a sunny, calm morning, it was an awesome start to the field sea-son! We were lucky to set up our camp and Ancient Murrelet funnels in remarkably good weather. The camp is still in good shape after the winter, and the few trees that came down in Cabin Cove missed all the major infrastructure once again
Volunteer director Keith Moore was the first to see an ANMU chick this season! It came down funnel 6 on May 11th at 12:25 am, and weighed 27 grams. With a few quick calculations, Keith learned that over the last 26 years of monitoring, May 11th is the most common night for first chick arrival. In fact, last year, our first chick was also very timely on May 11th! However, we were surprised to find that a camera lens was actually the first to catch sight of a chick in our monitoring season. At 4:49 am on the night of May 9th/ 10th, an infrared camera captured a photo of a chick in funnel 6.