Mike and Brian Smith taking a blood sample from a Pigeon Guillemot chick.

My fascination with seabirds began during my undergraduate days at the University of Alaska, when I really wanted a summer job as a field assistant. I found a grad student who needed someone who could rappel to Pigeon Guillemot nests in Kachemak Bay, and I was in. My fascination with seabirds continued the next year as graduation approached and I really wanted a job as a biologist. I found John Piatt, who needed someone who knew where all the guillemot nests in Kachemak Bay were, and I was in. I’ve now been studying guillemots for five years, and over that time I really have become fascinated by seabirds, which just shows how careful you should be when asking around for jobs.

That’s not a Pigeon Guillemot! Mike hanging out in a murre colony.

We see marine birds when they’re flying or sitting on the water or on shore breeding, so we tend to think of them as animals that live above the surface of the water. But guillemots and other auks are accomplished divers that spend a very important part of their lives under water, hunting for food. I’m interested in studying this part of guillemots’ lives – what kind of sea floor they hunt on, what kind of food they capture, and how much energy they use to get food for themselves and their chicks.

Litzow, M.A. and J.F. Piatt. 2002. Variance in prey abundance influences time budgets of
breeding seabirds: evidence from pigeon guillemots. Journal of Avian Biology, in press.

Litzow, M.A., J.F. Piatt, A.K. Prichard and D.D. Roby. 2002. Response of pigeon
guillemots to variable abundance of high-lipid and low-lipid prey. Oecologia 132: 286-295.

Litzow, M. A., J. F. Piatt, A. A. Abookire, A. K. Prichard and M. D. Robards. 2000.
Monitoring spatial and temporal variability in sandeel (Ammodytes hexapterus) variability with pigeon guillemot (Cepphus columba) diets. ICES Journal of Marine Science 57:976-986.

Seiser, P. E., L. K. Duffy, A. D. McGuire, D. D. Roby, G. H. Golet and M. A. Litzow.
2000. Comparison of Pigeon Guillemot, Cepphus columba, blood parameters from oiled and unoiled areas of Alaska eight years after the Exxon Valdez Oil Spill. Marine Pollution Bulletin 40: 152-164.

Litzow, M. A. 2000. Food limitation in a generalist seabird: reproductive consequences
of food quality and prey switching in the pigeon guillemot Cepphus columba. M.S. Thesis. University of California, Santa Cruz. 36 pp.

Litzow, M. A., J. F. Piatt, and J. D. Figurski. 1998. Hermit crabs in the diet of pigeon
guillemots in Kachemak Bay, Alaska. Colonial Waterbirds 21: 242-244.

Litzow, M.A. 2002. Surveying the marine fish community of Glacier Bay. Oral presentation, annual U. S. Geological Survey / National Park Service Glacier Bay science meeting, Gustavus, Alaska.

Litzow, M. A., J. F. Piatt. and G. H. Golet. 2002. Dive behavior of pigeon guillemots
during midwater and demersal foraging. Oral presentation, 29th Annual Meeting of the Pacific Seabird Group, Santa Barbara, California.

Litzow, M.A. 2000. Food limitation in a generalist seabird: reproductive consequences
of food quality and prey switching in the pigeon guillemot Cepphus columba.Oral presentation, Ocean Sciences seminar series, University of California, Santa Cruz.

Litzow, M. A., G. H. Golet, J. D. Fischer and J. F. Piatt. 2000. Foraging effort of
breeding pigeon guillemots: are high-quality prey harder to catch? Poster presentation, 27th Annual Meeting of the Pacific Seabird Group, Napa, California.

Litzow, M. A., J. F. Piatt and D. D. Roby. 1999. Implications of food quality and
predictability for breeding pigeon guillemots. Oral presentation, 26th Annual Meeting of the Pacific Seabird Group, Blaine, Washington.

Litzow, M. A., J. F. Piatt and D. D. Roby. 1999. Food availability limits reproduction by
pigeon guillemots. Oral presentation, Symposium on the 10th Anniversary of the Exxon Valdez Oil Spill, Anchorage, Alaska.