Storm-petrels in Haida Gwaii

July 2019

Storm-petrels are the most widespread species of procellariiform in the Northern Hemisphere, but due to their cryptic nature both in their breeding areas and while at sea they are also some of the least understood.

I spent a month on Petrel Islet, a small seabird colony island on the West coast of Haida Gwaii, studying the two species of Storm-petrels that nest on the island, Fork-tailed and Leach’s Storm Petrels.

The main focus of our work was the deployment of GPS and GLS tags on the adult birds, in order to gather data on their foraging and migration behaviour. This project was a part of Environment and Climate Change Canada’s ongoing research on seabirds off the West coast of BC, as a part of their Ocean’s Protection Plan.