SEABIRDS OF ALASKA, BRITISH COLUMBIA, AND WASHINGTON 



79 



Fig. 5. Photograph of Destruction Island off the coast of Washington. 



Willoughby Rock, Destruction Island, Cake 

 Rock, Carroll Island, and Bodelteh Island. 

 More intensive censusing, especially of noc- 

 turnal burrowing species will undoubtedly 

 raise the population estimates for these and 

 other islands off the coast. About 54% of the 

 total coastal population is composed of the 

 common murre and rhinoceros auklet. 



San Juan Islands 



There are about 86 actual or potential sea- 

 bird colony sites in this area; 25 (30%) are now 

 considered important. Eleven islands are 

 under Federal protection as National Wildlife 

 Refuges. Part of Protection Island is owned 

 by the Washington State Game Department 

 to protect the largest rhinoceros auklet colony 

 in the State. Most colony sites are on small is- 

 lands with poorly developed soil which pre- 

 vents burrowing species from using them. 

 Consequently, the dominant species are sur- 

 face nesters (such as gulls and cormorants) 

 and rock-crevice nesters (like the pigeon 



guillemot). In all, about 31,000 seabirds of 7 

 species breed in the San Juan Island area. 

 Breeding seabird population estimates for 49 

 of the 86 nesting sites are given in Table 6. 



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K 



1 X 



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STRAIT OF JUAN DE FUCA 



Fig. 6. Map of the San Juan Archipelago showing 

 sites of major seabird breeding colonies: 1 Viti 

 Rocks; 2 Colville Island; 3 Smith Island. 



