Marbled Murrelet Lecture

Marbled Murrelet in flight.\Photo courtesy of the Washington Environmental Council.

Kim Nelson, an expert on seabirds, will speak on Oregon’s Marbled Murrelet population, and efforts to assure the bird’s survival, on Saturday, Nov. 3, 1 p.m. in the Cape Perpetua Visitor Center (2400 Hwy 101, about three miles south of Yachats).  The talk is free and open to the public, although a day pass is required to park at the visitor center.

Marbled Murrelets uniquely connect land and ocean habitats.  They are seabirds that forage in the ocean, but nest inland in old growth forests.  Monitoring the local murrelet population has been a focus of the conservation groups that make up the Cape Perpetua Area Collaborative.

Nelson is a Research Wildlife Biologist in the Department of Fisheries and Wildlife at Oregon State University.  The current focus of her research is on the ecology and habitat associations of seabirds, specifically using modeling and habitat data to better understand and help resolve wildlife conservation and management issues.  She has studied the nest-site characteristics, stand and landscape associations, abundance, and nesting behavior of forest birds and seabirds of the Pacific, including Marbled Murrelets, Long-billed Murrelets, Caspian Terns, and a variety of species in forests of the Pacific Northwest and at mixed seabird colonies in the Bering Sea.  She has published more than 50 scientific papers on her research.

For more information contact capeperpetuacommunications@gmail.com