Wildlife & Habitat
Willapa National Wildlife Refuge preserves a number of unique ecosystems
including salt marshes, muddy tideflats, rain drenched old growth
forests, and dynamic coastal dunes and beaches. Freshwater marshes
and grasslands are found along the southern shoreline of Willapa Bay.
Visitors to the Refuge can enjoy viewing a diversity of wildlife, such as Roosevelt elk, black bear, shorebirds, and spawning salmon. The refuge
is home to several threatened species including the
snowy plover and marbled murrelet. Other birds
that are frequently spotted in the refuge include bald eagles,
great blue herons, peregrine falcons, red-tailed hawks, marsh wrens,
and golden-crowned kinglets.
Western Snowy Plover
The western snowy plover (Charadrius alexandrinus nivosus)
is a small shorebird distinguished from other plovers (family Charadriidae)
by its small size, pale brown upper parts, dark patches on either
side of the upper breast, and dark gray to blackish legs. During the breeding season (March through September),
plovers can be seen nesting along the shores, peninsulas, offshore
islands, bays, estuaries, and rivers of the United States' Pacific
Coast. Plover nests usually contain three tiny eggs, which look like sand and are barely visible to even the most
well-trained eye. Plover nests are simple depressions in the sand and may be next to kelp, shells, driftwood and rocks.
Snowy plovers have natural predators such as falcons, raccoons,
coyotes, and owls. There are also predators that humans have introduced
or whose populations they have helped to increase, including crows, ravens, red fox and domestic dogs. Humans can be thought of as predators
too. People drive vehicles, ride bikes, fly kites and bring
their dogs to beaches where the Western Snowy Plover lives and breeds.
All of these activities can frighten or harm plovers during their
breeding season.
Energy is very important to this small bird. Every time humans,
dogs, or other predators, cause the birds to take flight or run away,
they lose precious energy.
Often, when a Plover parent is disturbed, it will abandon its nest,
which increases the chance of a predator finding the eggs, sand
blowing over and covering the nest, or the eggs getting cold. This
can decrease the number of chicks that hatch in a particular year. The Western snowy plover has been living
on the Pacific Coast for thousands of years, but was listed by the
U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service as threatened in 1993 due to low
population and decreased habitat. Click here to read more about refuge efforts to help the western snowy plover.
For more information about how you can share the beach with Western snowy plovers, click here (634 KB).
For more information, please go to US
Fish & Wildlife species profile.
Marbled Murrelet
Nesting high up in the old-growth conifers of the Pacific Coast,
these small seabirds were one of the last North American
birds to have their nests discovered. Marbled Murrelets are strongly
tied to a narrow strip of land and water along the West Coast, usually
nesting within 30 miles of the ocean and foraging at sea within
three miles of the coastline. These birds face a variety
of threats--logging, gill-net mortality, nest predation and oil spills--and have
experienced dramatic recent population declines.
Marbled Murrelets are small, puffin-like birds with short bills,
long wings, and short tails. Adults in breeding plumage are brown
overall, with the head and upperparts darker brown and the underparts
mottled lighter brown. In contrast, adults in non-breeding plumage
are a mixture of black, white, and gray with black heads,
white collars, white underparts, grayish backs, extensive white
on the sides of the rump, and black wings.
Marbled Murrelets are strictly birds of the Pacific Coast of North
America. These birds nest in a narrow range along the Pacific Ocean, from
the Aleutian Islands of Alaska south through British Columbia, Washington,
and Oregon, to central California. Marbled Murrelets are generally
found in nearshore waters (within about three miles of shore) near
their nesting sites on a year-round basis, although in certain places
in Alaska and British Columbia, birds move to more protected waters
during the winter. This species can also be found wintering south
of its breeding range, along the coast of southern California to
extreme northwestern Baja California.
NEW! Mysterious Marble Murrelet video.
Lamprey - Living Links to the Past
Something strange lurks in the fresh water streams of Willapa National Wildlife Refuge. Scaleless and cartilaginous (lacking boney jaws, backbone or ribs), lamprey are specialized survivors whose ancestry dates back to 450 million years ago. Lampreys may look like eels, but the resemblance stops there. Lampreys have a circular shaped mouth in place of jaws and they use it to hold onto rocks and prey. Like the famous salmon, most lamprey species are anadromous; meaning they spend their adulthood in the ocean and return to the freshwater stream where they were born to spawn.
The Lamprey of Willapa National Wildlife Refuge:
Three species of lamprey have been documented in Bear River – Pacific lamprey, river lamprey and the western brook lamprey. The western brook lamprey is small compared to its relatives, ranging from 5-7 inches in length. Unlike the Pacific lamprey (up to 30 inches long) and the river lamprey (average of 12 inches long), the western brook lamprey is not a parasite and does not have an ocean-going phase in its lifecycle. Western brook lampreys only have small, non-functional teeth as adults. The other lamprey species found at the refuge use sharp teeth to feed on several species of fish while living in the ocean. Scars from the Pacific lamprey have even been found on whales!
Forever Young - The Quirky Lifestyle of the Western Brook Lamprey: Western brook lampreys spend most of their lives as blind teenagers and only live a few, short months as adults; so short that the adults don’t eat at all. During the months of April, May and June, adult western brook lampreys seek shallow water with a bottom of coarse gravel and pebbles and a moderate current to build a nest. Males and females pair, then they use their sucker-like mouths to grasp and move sediments creating a depression, or nest, 4-5 inches in diameter in which the female lays her eggs. It is not uncommon for large groups of western brook lamprey to spawn together in a tight cluster. Refuge staff has counted as many as 12 adults together over one nest.
A Lot of Lamprey:
As many as 3,700 eggs may be produced by a single female western brook lamprey. These tiny oval eggs are adhesive which helps prevent them from being washed downstream. Eyeless larval lampreys, called ammocoetes, hatch after approximately 10 days. These baby western brook lamprey drift downstream and burrow into the stream sediments of backwater areas or quiet eddies. Ammocoetes are filter feeders, using a hood-like extension of their oral disc to take in and filter mud and water. Through this filtering process they collect and consume microorganisms and detritus (decaying plant and animal matter). As many as 170 ammocoetes per square meter have been documented in coastal streams. Western brook lamprey may stay in this teenage form for up to 5 years before they change into eyed adults and seek mates.
Discover about what the refuge is doing to help lampreys.
Learn about the USFWS Pacific Lamprey Conservation Initiative & follow Luna the Lamprey's return from the ocean. |
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