Palmer biologists study, count black oystercatchers

PALMER — A pair of Palmer biologists spent part of their summer surveying the shores of Yakutat Bay to locate pairs and concentrations of black oystercatchers.

Carrie Gray Wolfe, of the nonprofit Wildlifers group based in Palmer, said the study was funded by a grant from the National Park Foundation and National Park Service, and it was the first count of Alaska’s oystercatchers in the Yakutat area.

She said Alaska’s black oystercatchers are among North America’s rarest shorebirds.

“We’re just filling in another piece of the puzzle to try to figure out what these birds are up to,” she said.

Wolfe said the count was conducted as part of a larger effort and was done in partnership with the U.S. Forest Service out of the Yakutat Ranger district.

Carrie and Scott Wolfe formed the nonprofit Wildlifers group in 2006 to do scientific research and education.

“We felt there was a need for a group like ourselves — not for profit and not government,” Carrie Wolfe said.

The black oystercatchers count is one of several projects the two are working on, she said. Others include a Bureau of Land Management plan for monitoring geese in the National Petroleum Reserve-Alaska and a green mapping project for the Mat-Su Borough.

Wolfe said the borough project identified viable areas where larger mammals such as bear and moose are concentrated and habitat for smaller animals, like snowshoe hares.

The aim of the borough study was to identify species that might be affected by human population increases in the Mat-Su Valley, she said. The idea is to plan now to leave green corridors for wildlife so their preferred travel routes are preserved.

“We need to preserve these corridors coming down from the mountains,” Wolfe said.

As for oystercatchers, she said Alaska has one species of the 11 found worldwide.

“And we have 11,000 of this one species left,” Wolfe said.

The species lives along the Pacific coastline between Baja California and Alaska, she said.

According to the Alaska Department of Fish and Game, more than 65 percent of the world’s population is thought to occur in Alaska — with most individuals nesting from the southwestern border of the Kodiak Archipelago to the eastern shores of Prince William Sound.

One species of oystercatchers became extinct in the 20th century and a couple of other species now are listed as endangered or near threatened.

In Alaska, the species are not endangered, but are listed by conservation and government groups as species of “high concern,” Wolfe said.

She said the shorebirds are particularly vulnerable to natural and man-made disturbances.

Natural disturbances are things such as a nest that is built too close to the high-tide mark and is washed away and predation by animals ranging from black bear to wolverine to eagles.

Man-made disturbances are things like wakes from ferry, cruise ship, tanker and smaller watercraft, like kayaks.

“Where oystercatchers nest are really good spots for kayakers to go and camp,” Wolfe said.

She said people getting too near nests also could stress parent birds to the point where they abandon a nest.

These blackish shorebirds — with piercing yellow eyes, bright red bills and pale pink legs — live exclusively on the rocky shores, reefs and islands in the narrow margin along the water’s edge between low and high tide, according to a Wildlifers press release about the project.

“Reliance on this constricted habitat zone makes oystercatchers highly vulnerable to natural and human disturbances such as oil spills and other pollutants, rising sea levels, predation, mining and recreational activities,” according to the press release.

Wolfe said the shorebirds were among the species hit hard by the Exxon Valdez spill on March 24, 1989.

According to Fish and Game estimates, 20 percent of black oystercatchers were killed immediately from oiling. Many more birds died later from eating mollusks, lipids, sea urchin and snail that were also contaminated by the hundreds of thousands of barrels of spilled crude oil, Wolfe said.

“They eat them and the contamination becomes more concentrated,” she said of how the second wave of birds died.

Wolfe said the survey identified key black oystercatcher habitat and added to baseline data for management practices.

For more information, visit thewildlifers.org.

Contact Heather A. Resz at heather.resz@frontiersman.com or 352-2268.