The 2nd Annual MaMu Day, a Marbled Murrelet (MaMu) awareness event, was nearly canceled this year as access to the location in the unprotected Central Walbran was blocked by a logging company gate. This event, primarily focused on bird watching, was repeatedly refused access.
The Central Walbran was originally chosen as the location as it remains unprotected with just a temporary logging deferral in place on 15 sq kms of Vancouver Islands remaining Old Growth Forest. MaMu Day was created to draw attention to this area and the murrelets who rely on these forests. We were eventually able to relocate the event to the northern edge of the Carmanah Walbran Provincial Park.
Organized by the Friends of Carmanah Walbran and Old Growth Birders and Bioblitzers, the event was held over the weekend of July 11th-12th. The 50+ attendees were welcomed by Pacheedaht Nation Elder Bill Jones on the Saturday evening. Followed by a learning circle led by Dr. Royann Petrell, various other MaMu experts and activists.
Sunday at 4am we woke in the dark, the rain had thankfully eased and we gathered at the end of the logging road at the park boundary. Wearing rain gear and seated on beach chairs we waited to witness the murrelets on their flight path from the ocean to their nesting sites on the thick mossy limbs of ancient trees.
In the growing light of the early morning a heavy mist drifted amongst the trees in the park. Conditions like this are ideal for hearing MaMus, the old loggers name for them being ‘fog larks’, as in the mist they will call more frequently to each other.
We could hear their keer-keer-keer calls first, then dozens of murrelets appeared moving fast. Pigeon sized with wings distinctively paddle shaped. The wings are dual purpose shaped for both swimming underwater to depths of 30 m to catch small fish and also for flights of up to 30-50 kilometres inland to reach their hatchlings.
The birds darted, dipping and circling above the giant conifers as they avoided predators and located their sheltered mossy nest sites at least 40 m up in the Old Growth trees.
Bernard Schroeder, a long-time bird researcher specializing in endangered species, was there with a state of the art radar antennae detecting the flight speeds (80-90 km/ hr), numbers and whereabouts of murrelets travelling up the watershed.
Peer-reviewed radar counts from 1996 to 2018 established a steady 2.4% annual decrease coast-wide, with the steepest declines concentrated in the heaviest logged watersheds. Another study focused on sea-counts off Pacific Rim National Park Reserve showed higher annual declines of -3.1% per year amounting to an alarming loss of over 50% of the local population over the past 20 years. BC Conservation Data Center gives a 2021 BC population estimate of 74,300 down from 99,100 in 2007, and predicts a short term decline of 30-70% and a long term decline of 50-80%. These population declines raise serious concerns around the species survival, with reduced genetic diversity less able to cope with the threats of climate change, warming oceans and bird flu.
As the morning progressed we watched the spectacle of the birds flight, cameras clicked and hands pointed as the birds circled and flew past, everyone now standing, the surprise and awe in peoples voices comparable to a fireworks display. The last call was heard at around 6.30am and in the quiet after we stayed and talked about this experience, of this rare and endangered bird and what we can do to insure that this incredible species can continue.
As a start please email your letters of support for the protection of critical
Marbled Murrelet Old-Growth Forest nesting habitat to;
Minister of Environment and Parks, Tamara Davidson at: ENV.Minister@gov.bc.ca
Friends of Carmanah Walbran 