Today, on the 23rd day of May, we ventured into The Morua Estuary to survey the different species of birds along with their nests and eggs. For those that may not know and Estuary is the meeting point between a river and an ocean. The river produces large amounts of sediments and nutrients into the Estuary while the ocean provides tides and salinity, both of these aspects together create a very successful natural habitat for many species. This is why we decided to go see some of the migrant bird species that nest there during certain times of the year. We saw three main species during our survey, the American Oystercatcher, Wilson's Plover, and the Least Tern.
This egg was laid by an Oystercatcher. The easiest way to distinguish these from the other two species is their size. The other two species' eggs are generally very small, usually around half the size of a chickens egg, while this one, as you can see, is around the same size possibly even slightly larger than a chickens egg.
While exploring the Estuary we noticed a few dead birds and we had a theory that these birds were dying because they were eating too much plastic. After a short time we decided to basically do a field autopsy on these birds.
Fortunately, after we opened two birds, there was no evidence of plastic in the birds stomach ruling that out as a cause of death. However, it is important to be aware of this problem because many marine animals are found with plastic in their stomachs and it's causing a decline in population.
-Brandon Gutierrez
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