Checkout our latest story! Cool New Nesting Boxes Help Save Seabird Colony

Having trouble viewing this email? View it as a Web page. Check this out! Cool New Nesting Boxes Help Save Seabird Colony The Cassin's auklet (above) is an unusual bird. But its uniqueness also makes it vulnerable to changing weather conditions. With a breeding population on Farallon National Wildlife Refuge that had shrunk to a quarter of its 1970s numbers, staff from the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and their research partners from Point Blue Conservation Science knew they had to account for this new climate reality on the islands if the Cassin's auklets colony was to survive. Credit: Duncan Wright/USFWS   By Doug Cordell April 28, 2017 By 8 a.m. on an unusually hot morning in May 2008, surface temperatures on Farallon National Wildlife Refuge, a rocky outcropping of small islands 30 miles off the coast of San Francisco, were already breaking records. Cassin's auklets, one of the species that make the islands a globally critical seabird breeding site, were dying in their nests. Research biologists and refuge staff had augmented the auklets' natural nests with man-made wooden ones to promote breeding for a population that had shrunk to a quarter of its 1970s numbers. Now, as temperatures climbed, they scrambled to shield nests from the heat and rescue as many of the dying birds as possible. The Cassin's auklet is an unusual bird for a number of reasons. It uses its small wings to swim underwater and stores food in a throat pouch to carry to its young. It also feeds on krill, microscopic plankton-like organisms in the ocean—which makes the auklet an important indicator of ocean health and productivity for many other species. Continue to full story... Stay Connected with U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service Pacific Southwest Region     This email was sent using GovDelivery, on behalf of: U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service Pacific Southwest Region · 2800 Cottage Way · Suite W-2606 · Sacramento, CA 95825