ENHS Nature Trails December 2005 Article 1

This month's speaker: Dr. Jan Hodder

Since so many of us share an interest in birds and birding, including slogging together through the West Eugene Wetlands in the early morning drizzle on Bird Count Day, the ENHS devotes December to the birds. This year we welcome speaker Dr. Jan Hodder who will share with us her research on the Oregon pelagic cormorant. (I think we will hear about other pelagic life along the Oregon Coast as well.) Dr. Hodder, currently an Associate Professor and the Academic Coordinator at the Oregon Institute of Marine Biology (OIMB), is popular with her students not only because she's a an excellent educator, but also because her love of her chosen field spills forth as she speaks. And, she is yet another biologist with fine photographic skills and an interest in nature that stems from her youth, this time in England:

"Yes, I grew up in rural England where I lived on a farm, so we played outside a lot. Our holidays were spent at the beach, either close to home or in the Channel Islands where my mother's family lived. I had an elementary school teacher who would take us on regular nature walks to learn the plants and animals of the area. As a high school student I went to marine biology camp on the Isle of Man and that experience cemented my ideas that I wanted to be a marine biologist. I love to hike and explore natural areas as well, a perfect side for a biologist.

"I did my UG [Under Graduate] degree at the University of Liverpool then came to Oregon as a Rotary Scholar where I was accepted to the PhD program. I have been here ever since.

"I have been fortunate to explore various areas in the world. A highlight was a month long research cruise in the Humboldt current off of Peru and Ecuador studying marine birds and mammals.

What will we hear about Friday night?
"I plan to talk about the biology of cormorants common to the Oregon coast. I will highlight a long term monitoring project I have been working on with my students in the marine birds and mammals class that I teach at OIMB every summer and will include some interesting research that Monika Parsons, a UO undergraduate biology student completed for her honors thesis."

Bring your questions and observations about Oregon's cormorants as well as other Oregon coastal life to Friday evening’s lecture, as Dr. Hodder's research interests are not just devoted to the cormorant. She tells us on the OIMB website: "My research interests are diverse, ranging from the ecology of marine birds and mammals, to the biological consequences of introduced species.” I think we're in for a great talk Friday evening on the past, present and future of Oregon cormorants through their breeding biology.

A Little About Colorful Gulars and the Identification of the Pelagic Cormorant, Phalacrocorax pelagicus From the Patuxent Wildlife Research Center, Laurel, MD:
http://www.mbr-pwrc.usgs.gov/id/framlst/i1230id.html

All adult cormorant species in the U.S. are separable by the shape and color of the gular areas (between the chin and the foreneck). Only P. pelagicus has a small red gular region. It shares its Pacific Coast range with the double-crested cormorant and Brandt's cormorant.

Adult double-crested cormorants have orange gular regions and Brandt's have yellow-bordered, blue ones. Immature double-cresteds and immature Brandt's both have paler underparts than immature pelagics. The pelagic cormorant is noticeably smaller and slimmer than the other species.

Another cormorant, the red-faced, overlaps the range of the pelagic in Alaska. It's gular region is blue and bordered bright red with red onto the forehead.

Sometimes a loon can be confused with a cormorant when it's on the water; however, cormorants have hooked bills and angle them upwards when swimming, and most loons hold their bills level while swimming. When just out of the water, cormorants often perch with wings spread to dry.

Reading a little more about the pelagic cormorant online, I came across the American Bird Conservancy Green List (ABC Green List). "The list includes all the 'highest priority birds for conservation' in the continental United States and Canada. It builds on the species assessments conducted for many years by Partners in Flight (PIF) on landbirds, expanded to include species of all taxa. ABC has taken PIF standards and applied them to all taxa to produce the Green List. This is the first time that a single, consistent set of guidelines has been used for all birds in order to produce a comprehensive set of priority species for conservation."

The list is divided into three broad categories. The birds named in the first group are classified as being of the "Highest Continental Concern." They suffer from multiple problems and include many of the birds listed under the Endangered Species Act. The second group lists "Moderately Abundant Species with Declines or High Threats." Birds on this list are still found in relatively high numbers but are declining alarming rates. (I found the pelagic cormorant listed here.) And the third group lists "Species with Restricted Distributions or Low Population Size" and covers birds with stable populations and few threats, but the species is limited in number or range.

It's an interesting list to peruse and ponder as one sees so many familiar friends on the lists, including species of hummingbirds, warblers and woodpeckers from our neck of the woods. Just Google "American Bird Conservancy Green List" to find who's on and who's not.

- Editor

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