BREEDING STATUS OF CASSIN’S AUKLET (PTYCHORAMPHUS ALEUTICUS)
AND RHINOCEROS AUKLET (CERORHINCA MONOCERATA) ON CASTLE ROCK
NATIONAL WILDLIFE REFUGE, DEL NORTE COUNTY, CALIFORNIA.' appears to be the only significant write-up of their use. Thanks Abhishel Raj for leading me to it.
Hi Michael, we are now using a thermal camera to try and identify occupied Black-vented Shearwater burrows and we have not had positive results either. The temperature difference with the surroundings is minimal, and only when you put the camera inside the burrow (30-40 cm) you get a difference between occupied and non-occupied. We stopped doing that as we don't want to break a camera that is several thousand dollars.
We used the same camera to record nocturnal activity of the same species. We identified the rafting zones and placed the camera pointing towards that area and recorded a very nice flux of seabirds towards the colony.
Hi Nic, back in the late 90s I used star-scope night vision gear to count little penguins returning to nests with Peter Shaunessy. This was an image intensifier rather than thermal imaging. It worked quiet well, providing counts of birds that were not illuminated but lights for tourists vs those that were. I'm not sure if Peter every published this however.