If you walk Brickyard Beach regularly, you might, at some point,
notice a dead bird with a metal tag attached to its wing. If so,
don’t be alarmed - there’s nothing fishy going on! In fact,
you’re seeing a scientific research project in action. Brickyard
is one of over seventy-five BC beaches monitored by Beached Bird
Survey volunteers. On Gabriola, that’s Dennis and me. The
purpose of the Beached Bird Survey, a program of Bird Studies
Canada, is to collect baseline information on the causes and
rates of seabird mortality. Seabirds can die from oil spills,
entanglement in fishing gear, predation, and because of habitat
loss and climate change. Good indicators of marine ecosystem
health, they can serve as an early detection system for changes
in ocean conditions and oil spills. As Beached Bird Survey
volunteers, we do a monthly beach walk along Brickyard looking
for seabirds that have died and washed ashore. If we find one,
we inspect the carcass and send the data to Bird Studies Canada.
Last month we found a