2008 Field Season!!
It's May and that means we're gearing up for the new Field Season! Hurray!! 8 months of being in one place has been a little strange for us, and we're both really, really, really looking forward to getting outside for a few months, to wander in bird colonies, catching them, watching them and generally having a good time. Our season in Nunavut doesn't start until June (we fly to Resolute on 12 June), but I got a chance to head out to Machias Seal Island (MSI), the flagship island of my profs' work here in New Brunswick, to help set up blinds and the like for this years' attempts at gleaning info on the colony of birds that live there. You can click on any of the photos below to be transported to the world of MSI (via my photos on the flickr site).
Unlike most seabird islands, which are closed to the public in favour of leaving the birds to do their nesting thing in peace, this island allows tourists at a rate of 30 per day during the nesting season. As such, it is set up with nicely equipped visitors blinds, which are a far cry from researcher blinds! The Visitors Blinds are tall (you can stand up!), spacious, have many windows and are set up on the same level as the birds, so when you open the window, a puffin or razorbill could be less than a meter from you. Contrast this with researcher blinds which are short (about 4' or less) small (4' square, generally) and hover above the birds on platform which allow the researchers to observe as many nests as possible. I'm saying all of this tongue in cheek: obviously, the researcher blinds are much more useful for gathering data and observing as many birds as possible, but it was neat to be able to go into a blind and be able to walk around in it, AND see the birds extremely close-up!
While there, we set up the researcher blinds, set up fences to catch tern chicks should they actually hatch this year on this island (the 2000 nesting terns failed miserably in the last 2 years and nobody knows why yet), searched for nests iof Atlantic puffins and Razorbills (both new birds to me; though we've worked for 4 years largely with seabirds, we've never been on the East coast where these guys live!) who nest in burrows and crevices of rocks respectively, banded puffins (well, I didn't since the 2 who are staying for the season needed to learn as much as possible while we were there) and generally had a good time. Grubbing, or sticking your arm down a burrow up to your shoulder feeling for a puffin and its egg, was a blast, as usual, and there were lots of eggs already laid and being incubated!
This puffin burrow was between the rocks and down a hole. I got stuck trying to get back out again, but luckily, the puffin residing in this hole wasn't too feisty and didn't bite.
This is Kirsten, the new grad student in the Diamond lab, who will be spending her first summer working with birds out on this island. She's out there with Manuel, a researcher from France who's previously worked on penguins and albatross...ironically alongside one of our friends from France who we met in Barrow, Alaska!
Manuel:
Despite the rain (one full day and part of another out of the 4 we were there), we got great looks at the birds. On one of the rainy days I went and hung out in the visitors blind taking photos of the auks. A bunch of them are posted on the flickr site, along with more photos of the island and its buildings.
Leaving was tricky in dense fog (the fog horn on the island started up at 3:30am, and isn't quiet!) and seas that were getting rougher by the minute, but we got off successfully, leaving the birds in the hands Kirsten and Manuel. It was great to get that first taste of a field season again...too bad Josh couldn't make it (he had to work), but today's his last day: with a few days of packing ahead of us, we'll be coming home soon!!
Unlike most seabird islands, which are closed to the public in favour of leaving the birds to do their nesting thing in peace, this island allows tourists at a rate of 30 per day during the nesting season. As such, it is set up with nicely equipped visitors blinds, which are a far cry from researcher blinds! The Visitors Blinds are tall (you can stand up!), spacious, have many windows and are set up on the same level as the birds, so when you open the window, a puffin or razorbill could be less than a meter from you. Contrast this with researcher blinds which are short (about 4' or less) small (4' square, generally) and hover above the birds on platform which allow the researchers to observe as many nests as possible. I'm saying all of this tongue in cheek: obviously, the researcher blinds are much more useful for gathering data and observing as many birds as possible, but it was neat to be able to go into a blind and be able to walk around in it, AND see the birds extremely close-up!
While there, we set up the researcher blinds, set up fences to catch tern chicks should they actually hatch this year on this island (the 2000 nesting terns failed miserably in the last 2 years and nobody knows why yet), searched for nests iof Atlantic puffins and Razorbills (both new birds to me; though we've worked for 4 years largely with seabirds, we've never been on the East coast where these guys live!) who nest in burrows and crevices of rocks respectively, banded puffins (well, I didn't since the 2 who are staying for the season needed to learn as much as possible while we were there) and generally had a good time. Grubbing, or sticking your arm down a burrow up to your shoulder feeling for a puffin and its egg, was a blast, as usual, and there were lots of eggs already laid and being incubated!
This puffin burrow was between the rocks and down a hole. I got stuck trying to get back out again, but luckily, the puffin residing in this hole wasn't too feisty and didn't bite.
This is Kirsten, the new grad student in the Diamond lab, who will be spending her first summer working with birds out on this island. She's out there with Manuel, a researcher from France who's previously worked on penguins and albatross...ironically alongside one of our friends from France who we met in Barrow, Alaska!
Manuel:
Despite the rain (one full day and part of another out of the 4 we were there), we got great looks at the birds. On one of the rainy days I went and hung out in the visitors blind taking photos of the auks. A bunch of them are posted on the flickr site, along with more photos of the island and its buildings.
Leaving was tricky in dense fog (the fog horn on the island started up at 3:30am, and isn't quiet!) and seas that were getting rougher by the minute, but we got off successfully, leaving the birds in the hands Kirsten and Manuel. It was great to get that first taste of a field season again...too bad Josh couldn't make it (he had to work), but today's his last day: with a few days of packing ahead of us, we'll be coming home soon!!