With Wendy up on the ladder, her head was almost level with the edge of the wall. Above her on the hillside, sat our target: a juvenile western gull with a fishing lure stuck in its beak. As I stood below the ladder with a hand net, she slowly raised the Super Talon net gun up over the edge of the wall and pointed it in the direction of the bird and its parents. She pressed the button on the net and BOOM! The net shot out of the barrel. Right when the net went off, our target bird took off and ran up the hill. We just missed the bird we were after and caught one of the parent gulls instead. Our target gull stood for a second staring at us before taking flight and disappearing out over the water. Gull: 1, Wendy: 0.
While at our first Oiled Wildlife Specialist training of the year two weeks ago, I was asked if I would be interested in trying to help the National Park Service catch a juvenile western gull on Alcatraz Island. The bird had been spotted with a fishing lure stuck in its beak a little while ago, but staff hadn’t been able to get close enough with a hand net to nab it. I of course, without hesitation, said I would absolutely love to come try my hand at it! I’ve been trying to get as much time in the field as possible, and this sounded like a fun (and educational) challenge. How often does one get the chance to go to Alcatraz to catch a bird?! After some discussion with Wendy, our special ops responder, we decided this would be the perfect opportunity to practice our netting skills with the Talon net. So, at 5am last Thursday morning the two of us hit the road to Alcatraz island.
We met Tori, the Alcatraz biologist for the National Park Service, at the dock just after 8am and boarded the ship with the rest of the crew. Once on the island, we met Kylie and Paige, the interns that had been attempting to capture the gull the past few days. As they took us to where the bird generally hangs out on the island, we saw it sitting in its usual spot up on the hill with its parents. After our first failed attempt, Wendy and I got another shot about a half hour later when the bird came back. Since we hadn’t yet gotten the first net untangled, we had to use a heavier net for round two.
Once again, Wendy was up on the ladder, ready to redeem herself. Like before, the gull was sitting up on the hillside just above where we were stationed. This time when Wendy fired, the net exploded out of the barrel and then just dropped to the ground half way between her and the gull as there was a slight miscalculation for the heavier net. As soon as the net hit the ground, the bird ran up the hill, watched us for a minute or two, and then flew away and didn’t return until late afternoon. Gull: 2, Wendy: 0.
We had just returned from exploring the island when we spotted the gull for the third time. Just as it had been earlier, it was sitting in the exact same location. We tried to distract it with some bait to give us a better chance at netting it this time. As soon as we tossed it near the gull, it spooked and flew away. We waited for a while longer to see if it would come back, but as late afternoon turned to evening, we realized we had better get going if we didn’t want to spend the night on Alcatraz. But in all honesty, I wouldn’t have minded trying to conjure up the Bird Man’s ghost in cell block D. Wendy and I may have missed capturing our target gull, but at least we caught something, right? Overall it was a great learning experience and both of us are incredibly grateful for the opportunity to partner with the National Park Service in attempting to help a bird in need.
Cheers,
Jennie
Oiled Wildlife Care Network 