Bald eagles have also hammered the island's gulls. Yesterday, our search for gull nests in a place on the island we call The Saddle revealed just a single chick. Throughout the decade I've worked on this island, bald eagles and peregrine falcons have kept seabird populations in check. Peregrines take the smaller auklets and the storm petrels. Neither predator nests on Tatoosh, but eagles are regular visitors.
Murres find safety in numbers whether nesting on cliff tops or in crevices on the cliff face.
We measure the intensity of eagle activity and its effect on the murres in several ways. First, we count the number of eagles we can see from our lookout on Burning Barrel Point. Juvenile eagles are easily distinguished from adults by their dark plumage and dark beaks. In their fifth year, juveniles molt into the traditional white head and tail plumage, but their heads are still streaked with brown around the eye and the tail has a dirty band along the trailing edge. Using these variations in plumage, and noting missing wing and tail feathers, we can almost identify our eagle visitors individually.