Shoreline residents and visitors from Deception Pass to Possession Point are watching a double-feature this summer.

Part of the show is the annual feeding display of one of Whidbey Island’s most entertaining seabirds, the red-footed, red-mouthed pigeon guillemot. Early in the spring, guillemots mate for life by billing and singing. Later they look for the perfect burrow in the island’s shoreline bluffs. For several weeks they feed their young in those burrows, delivering fresh fish just about every 30 minutes.

The other show is being put on by researchers and volunteers trying to crack the secrets just out of sight in those mysterious burrows. How many eggs did they lay? How many chicks are surviving? What are they eating? When will they fledge? Are their numbers growing or crashing?

Some 30 volunteers have been studying Whidbey Island’s guillemots for several years now, since Langley birder and author Frances Wood brought the guillemot to the attention of the Marine Resources Committee and explained its importance as an ecosystem indicator. Guillemots are near the top of the food chain. Their well-being is a sign of the health of Whidbey Island’s marine habitat.

Observers are lovingly recording every move these birds make with notebooks, binoculars, pole-mounted spy-cams and global positioning (GPS) equipment, working from both boats and shore.

One of those observers is Houston Flores, a Western Washington University student in environmental sciences. He was hired by Whidbey Audubon and the Island County Marine Resources Committee to gather data on the birds.

“Since June 21 I’ve spent dozens of hours at the Mutiny Sands and Harrington Lagoon colonies to determine the number of active burrows and identify the primary fish species delivered to the nests,” Flores said. “I conclude that a burrow is active if an adult is observed entering it with a fish.”

But Flores says the high-tech, pole-mounted spy cam poses challenges. “It’s of limited usefulness because it is difficult to maneuver when extended above 15 feet. There are few burrows below that height. Mutiny Sands currently has two that are low enough, but the entrance to one is blocked by an obstruction.”

Flores and a volunteer maneuvered the camera into the other burrow and observed an adult guillemot at the back, but no young birds. He is hoping to get luckier at some of the island’s other colonies and find new ways to employ the camera.

Meanwhile he is gathering a wealth of data. He observes the colonies for extended periods, studying intensively. As he develops more data, Flores will suggest improvements to the project’s protocols that will enable volunteers to use their time more effectively in the future.

Guillemots dive to catch small fish. Then they sit on the water near the colony for several minutes with a fish in their bill before delivering it to the burrow. “This gives me a chance to identify the fish being brought to the burrow,” Flores says. “In most cases they appear to be gunnels,” small, greenish, eel-like fish found mostly near shore.

Flores will spend the rest of this summer visiting as many as possible of Whidbey Island’s 18 known guillemot colonies. Last year 28 volunteers counted 792 guillemots and identified 153 burrows. Flores will map them with GPS equipment and take photographs.

Breeding season is the only time of year when pigeon guillemots move ashore on Whidbey Island, says Phyllis Kind, a member of both the MRC and Audubon. “After the chicks fledge, the colony disperses and the birds spend the rest of the year on the water. We are not sure where they all go. We know at least some stay in Puget Sound all year but others may go elsewhere.”

Whidbey Audubon and the Marine Resources Committee are interested in guillemots because they are the only true seabird to breed on Whidbey Island. “If guillemots have trouble finding enough food or habitat, it would be a sign that something was out of balance,” Kind says.

One thing is sure. The little-known pigeon guillemot is the new rock star of Whidbey Island birding. Wood and Kind have been working behind the scenes on that. Earlier this year island gift shops and birding stores began selling custom note cards featuring guillemot photography by local birders Craig Johnson of Freeland and Celia Bartram of Coupeville. The guillemot even has the beginnings of its own local website, “Lots and Lots of Guillemots,” www.pigeonguille

mot.org.

“We’d love to see it become the icon bird of Whidbey Island, much like the puffin is for some other parts of the world,” Wood said.

Dan Pedersen works for the Island County Marine Resources Committee.