The Magic of Seabird Colonies, and One Scientist’s Unique Way to Mitigate the Crises They Face

In early April, I had the chance to see a wetland flourish on what was once a golf course in Santa Barbara, and smell sweet hummingbird sage and sticky monkey flower where there was once barren land under a Eucalyptus grove in Morro Bay. I was visiting California’s Central Coast and went birding with two California chapters, Morro Coast Audubon and Santa Barbara Audubon. Both trips showed me the helping hand that people can play in supporting our birds and ecosystems. 

Unfortunately, I also heard stories of witnessing starving seabirds and other wildlife along the shores. Surfers expressed how unusually warm the ocean was for this time of year. By the time I was back in Sacramento, more reporting seemed to be coming out about this. I was feeling down about it, but luckily, I had an upcoming call with Aspen Ellis. Ellis is a PhD candidate at the University of California Santa Cruz (UCSC) who has studied seabirds for more than a decade. When I mentioned this issue, she knew it all too well.

While she had not seen the recent news, Ellis recognized that this dire phenomenon had been happening increasingly in many regions. In her time as a field biologist before coming to UCSC, Ellis worked on projects restoring and studying seabird colonies on islands across the U.S. Many of those projects had rich conservation legacies; working for Audubon’s Project Puffin, she spent time on islands in the Gulf of Maine where seabird colonies that were once entirely lost due to historic overhunting were now once again thriving thanks to incredible dedication of biologists across decades. But despite their efforts to conserve these populations, Ellis and her colleagues were seeing alarming new trends in many of the colonies they were studying – and many of them seemed to be in response to climate change. 

In some years, this meant that Ellis spent weeks watching seabird chicks starve, apparently in response to changing distributions and timing of the fish that seabirds rely on to raise their young. Ellis also recalled her time in Half Moon Bay in 2019 when she was studying a seabird colony during a heatwave, “I was watching birds faint from heat stroke on their nests, or leave their eggs exposed to the beating sun and predators as they left the colony to cool off,” she said, “So few chicks made it that year, just because it was too warm.” 

This was difficult to watch for Ellis, who described being in a seabird colony like experiencing magic. The immersion of being surrounded by hundreds of seabirds in a remote area is what drew her to become a researcher, but again and again documenting the effects of climate change on these incredible places began to take a toll. After ten years working on these projects, Ellis was concerned that there was only so much that could be done for seabird conservation without addressing climate change itself. 

That’s how Ellis ended up in the offshore wind space, to “address the threats to seabirds in a more holistic way.” Now at UCSC, Ellis uses her experience as a seabird biologist to help find ways to develop the renewable energy we need to hit global climate goals without harming wildlife populations in the process. Specifically, she works on understanding the potential impacts of offshore wind energy developments on seabirds and developing mitigation strategies that can be used to help development progress responsibly. 

While the potential immediate impacts of offshore wind energy on wildlife receive a lot of press, and are critical to understand and respond to, Ellis reminds us that it’s important to also remember that offshore wind can benefit birds on a broader scale as a renewable energy source that reduces our reliance on fossil fuels. While this can be difficult to quantify, Ellis says, “Anything we can do to fight climate change is critical—its impact on global ecosystems can’t be understated.” 

Ellis is therefore actively involved in research and mitigation framing to help move past the uncertainty around seabirds and offshore wind impacts. She recognizes the need to close research gaps, particularly around species who have not come across offshore wind where it is developed elsewhere. Still, she knows the certainty of the threats of oil spills and climate change, and the more pressing need to change our energy sources.

Ellis says that when wind developers invest in intentional and effective mitigation from the start, it can do a lot of good for species. Developers need to work with scientists and agencies to do everything they can to prevent impact from happening—that can look like selecting areas to build turbines where there are fewer vulnerable species, or studying how turbines might be constructed to make them more visible to birds. But still, it’s unlikely to be possible to prevent 100% of impacts on all species. In these cases, she says, one option is for developers to fund projects that work to reduce other existing threats to the species of concern. She mentioned onshore wind energy developers funding projects to retrofit existing power lines to reduce electrocution risk for Golden and Bald Eagles as one example. It’s shown that retrofitting existing power poles to provide 60 inches of horizontal clearance and 40 inches of vertical clearance reduces electrocution risk significantly for these species. Not only can lines be updated, but new power lines can make this change prior to installment. These small changes do not impact the efficiency of the lines, but make a big difference for birds, and funding from offshore wind projects can make a lot more of those projects happen.

In Scotland, offshore wind provides its grid ~6.3 GW of energy – enough to power 6.3 million homes. To ensure seabird populations are not threatened by the potential additional impacts from offshore wind developments, they are funding efforts to remove invasive predators currently threatening seabird colonies. In doing so, they are protecting the young seabirds and ultimately supporting better outcomes by increasing population sizes. This unique approach is something Ellis is interested in California adopting.  

While offshore wind is not yet developed in California, there are plans in motion to do so in Northern California and in the Central Coast. And Ellis is not the only scientist excited about this and planning ahead. The Ocean Protection Council is actively working to bring groups together through the West Coast Science Collaborative to provide recommendations to support wildlife throughout the process. They anticipate this to begin in the fall, when their subcommittee meetings, including one on birds and bats, will be open to the public. 

Like Ellis and Audubon chapters, we all have a role to play in supporting birds in the face of climate change. Here are a few ideas on how to get started:

• Consider what you’re good at or what you enjoy, and think about how you can utilize this skill in climate action. 
• Meet with elected officials and encourage them to support responsible renewable energy development. Let them know you value efforts to include birds and mitigation funding in their plans to do so. 
• Support renewable energy projects that are responsibly sited in your area by providing public comments. 
  Spend time with others in nature and around birds. 
• Share why you value the planet we get to call home and why you think climate action is worthwhile. 
• Reach out to your local Audubon chapter to learn what kinds of projects they are involved with. 

I was thrilled to get to witness two teeny hummingbirds in a nest and Great Horned Owl babies waiting for their mother to return, while I was out birding with folks on the Central Coast. There is biodiversity all around us waiting to be supported and appreciated. While the road to a decarbonized world is challenging, the solutions are all around us—and the birds tell us it is necessary. It is my hope that by advocating for renewable energy and supporting the scientists working on these issues, we can support a better future for those baby birds, the beautiful coasts that sustain them, and the planet that we all need.