KILBUCK AND AHKLUN MOUNTAIN BIRDS 



77 



Fig. 17. Glaucous-winged gull colony; Shaiak Island, l4 June 1973. Photo by 

 M. H. Dick. 



predation (Petersen 1982) and many fledging in other years when no 

 foxes were present. Predation by humans probably occurs regularly. On 

 14 June 1973, several boats of people from Quinhagak en route to Togiak 

 stopped at Shaiak Island. They gathered (Fig. 18) at least 10 boxes and 

 buckets of eggs, totaling several thousand. An estimated 5,000 glaucous- 

 winged gulls were present on Shaiak Island in 1976, and comparable 

 numbers were present other years. Gulls nested sparsely along the cliffs 

 at Cape Peirce; one nest had a downy young on 10 August 1970. 



Foods eaten by adult gulls and fed to their chicks at Shaiak Island 

 included eggs and chicks of other seabirds (especially murres \Uria 

 spp.] and kittiwakes [Rissa spp.]), salmon, sandlance (Amtnodytes sp.) 

 and other small fishes, harbor seal (Phoca vitulina) placenta and car- 

 casses, and clams. Hatching year gulls were occasionally seen feeding 

 on berries (Vaccinium spp.) in fall. 



