Book Description

Twenty-three natural and dredged material islands were examined in seven locations from Anacortes, Washington, to Coos Bay, Oregon, to establish the relationships between plant communities and use by colonial nesting waterbirds for both types of islands, as well as the actual bird use of dredged material islands in the Pacific Northwest. Nine islands were found to be used for nesting by one or a combination of glaucous-winged gulls, western-glaucous-winged (hybrid) gulls, ring-billed gulls, Caspian terns, and common terns. Colonies of great blue herons were found on two islands 61 and 97 km from the mouth of the Columbia River. Habitat maps were prepared for each island studied and detailed floristic descriptions of each bird colony evaluated. Colony location, breeding phenology, and nesting success were analyzed with respect to existing flora, environmental stress, island physiography, and human disturbance. Results showed that although dredged material deposition influenced an island's physical dimensions, topography, and substrate, plant communities were physiognomically similar to natural islands. Seabird colonization occurred irrespective of dredging history.