Caught in the Act

Penn Cove Beach
COASSTers pay attention to the
tide lines (green lines on the rocks)
 to document important information
about location of debris or birds. 

Penn Cove Bluffs

I was fortunate enough to tag along with Whidbey COASST volunteer Linda today on her monthly beach survey in the lovely Penn Cove area of the island. Linda showed me the ropes while sharing about her time with COASST, which involves conducting monthly surveys at not one, but two beaches.  To my delight, Penn Cove hosts another Pigeon Guillemot colony, a group that Linda monitors for the Guillemot Research Group. Come to think of it, I’ve yet to meet a COASST volunteer who doesn’t give of his/her time to multiple citizen science projects as well as other charitable programs.  It is true what the locals say, Whidbey is practically run by volunteers! What a great spirit of community and camaraderie that exists here.

This Pigeon Guillemot is waiting
for the right time to deliver food
(in mouth) to its young on the bluffs.

Select trash items collected on
our survey. The flat circular item
on the bottom is a mussel disk
from the nearby mussel farm.

 Although Linda has found several birds at this site, including a couple of Snow Geese, no birds today. We didn’t come up empty handed, however. As is custom for Linda, we hauled out a small collection of trash – a subtle act of stewardship that helps maintain the beauty of this place.