Site Fidelity:Oyster Catchers & Seals

Based on my previous wildlife jottings, I am reminded that Hay Harbor is a destination for a very few American Oyster Catchers winding down their spring migration.

Yesterday in blustery gusts, I hid in tall reeds trying to still my camera and record this summer resident’s earlier return.

Site Fidelity is something I first heard of and learned about in the Pribilof Islands.

By early summer, I was routinely hunkered in tundra grass, placing a check mark in data sheet columns as tagged female Northern fur seals completed their arduous journeys across the Bering Sea. Amidst the thunderous roaring waves, hundreds of glistening brown and very expectant mother “sea bears” coasted gracefully, then waddled clumsily to shore. Within hours, they “pupped” (not popped!); each delivery adding a precious family member to a declining species.

It has been researched and scientifically noted that female pups born of that seal species will be faithful to the same site-that same craggy rookery, returning in future years to bear their own young.

Back here on Fishers Island, I read a bit about Philopatry (Greek for “home loving”) It is an ecology term for Site Fidelity.  By returning to the same nesting and feeding territory, American Oyster Catcher populations maintain their species adaptation to specific environs.

I found a tad of humor reading that the term can also describe nesting animals that don’t remain in their home nests during an “unfavorable” season…..

As I see more and more familiar faces journeying across the choppy Sound by ferry to Fishers Island these days of spring, I think truly, that same Site Fidelity is often exhibited -loving summer homes and expecting wonderful family time.

** Seal photo credit to my friend John Hocevar of Greenpeace