May 20, 2014

Tern and cormorant colonies, East Sand Island, Or.


Some of you may remember my adventures on West Sand Island a few weeks back (if not you can CLICK HERE). It was a quiet, peaceful, mostly empty place. Last week I was among a contingent that went out to East Sand Island to view the colonies of Caspian terns and cormorants. A very different experience.


The tern colony is under examination due to the fact that they are eating an inordinate amount of juvenile salmon, which you can see clearly below. All these photos were taken from bird blinds set up in the colonies.







And then there's the cormorant colony, which we had to "sneak up on"


And crawl through long man-made tunnels to get to


Dante forgot this level of hell when writing the Inferno (I'm still covered in bug bites). When crawling through the dark on your hands and knees it's a bit unnerving to hear the dinosaur-like sounds of these birds all around you.




-DKM

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