The Foxinator
The last day of Seabird Camp on St. Paul culminated with two incredible theatre performances. […]
Thick-billed murre video
The last of our videos put together by students on St. Paul during Seabird Camp 2015 The thick-billed murre (Uria lomvia)… […]
Black-legged kittiwake video
There are two species of kittiwake, and both breed on the Pribilof Islands. Learn more about the black-legged kittiwake (Rissa tridactyla) with this short video put together during [...]
Least Auklet video!
The second in our series of Seabird documentaries made during Seabird Camp 2015 The smallest seabird species that breeds on the Pribilof Islands- the Least Auklet (Aethia [...]
Crested Auklet video
We’re continuing to learn about the amazing seabirds that breed on the Pribilof Islands. After a great field trip to the cliffs, kids attending Seabird Camp split [...]
That’s all folks!
We are out of candy, so we are heading in to Wainwright. Well, we are out of candy, but that’s not why we are heading in to [...]
Charismatic microfauna
Seabirds are charismatic megafauna—they are large animals that have popular appeal due to their cute or beautiful appearance. So what about all the little critters out there? [...]
At Anchor
Early Tuesday morning, we left our study area to head up to Pt. Barrow. Why? Because the marine forecast for our region was calling for 35 [...]
Walruses, auklets, and brittle stars, oh my!
Walruses are part of that special group of animals that are so ugly they are cute. In more scientific terms, walrus are part of the pinniped [...]
The Night Shift
While the seabird and marine mammal observers sleep at night, other scientists are afoot. At every sample station (red dots on the map), they are on deck [...]
Life on the R/V Norseman II
When you are living and working on a boat, two things stand out—you are stuck on the boat, and that boats can move in multiple directions at [...]
Commander Island wildlife
The kids attending the Commander Island summer camp have just sent some wildlife portraits they've been working on. Horned puffins, fur seals, and a raven. Thank you, [...]
The Wheelhouse Gang
We have been transiting from Prudhoe Bay to our first sample station for the past several days (yellow star in location map above shows current location), and were [...]
Aglakh
The kids on the Commander Islands have just returned from their summer camp. We're really excited to hear about the camp activities, it sounds like it was [...]
Kick-off
What is the Arctic Marine Biodiversity Observing Network (AMBON) project? The AMBON project is one of three pilot projects whose goal is to help establish a national [...]
Checking nest-boxes
Seabird activities continue on St. George. Abram gave a talk about the red-legged kittiwake project, that included using Google Earth to check out the small hand-full of [...]
Foggy Start
Seabird Camp on St. George had an unplanned start. The plane carrying Ann and Peter circled the island a few times, but it was too foggy to [...]
Seabird Portraits
Kids participating in the recent Seabird Camp on St. Paul Island have created some beautiful portraits of the local seabirds to share with the students on the [...]
Commander Island Summer Camp
Where are the Commander Islands? The Commander Islands are located at the end of the Aleutian Islands, and about 110 miles east of the Kamchatka Peninsula. Funded [...]
Wrap-Up
The wrap-up for this year's camp started with finding a place for all of our big animal masks. We can thank Mr. Mac at the St. Paul [...]
The Grand Finale!
The day of the plays! Even with the extensive prep work we had done, everything came down to the wire Saturday. Masks, props and the background mural [...]
LAST DAY OF CAMP
The last day of this year’s seabird camp! Our plays and goodbyes will happen tomorrow at 7:30 at the Rec Hall. We started the day by hearing [...]
Seabird Camp Day Four
We started another big day at Seabird Camp with a presentation on “Seabird Capture: How and Why. “ Some of the students, including Chauncey and Ethan, were [...]
Seabird Camp Day Three
Day three of Seabird Camp started in the microscopic world as we looked at slides of zooplankton. Some kids had studied plankton the night before and found [...]
Seabird Camp Day Two
Thirty three kids packed the science room as Kendra started the day by talking about the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and what it does on the [...]
Seabird Camp Day One
Seabird camp on St. Paul started with a bang! Teams of campers raced to collect all of the things that seabirds need to raise a chick. The [...]
Contaminant Research
Veronica Padula and Misty Libby from the University of Alaska, Anchorage (UAA) are on St. Paul this summer studying contaminants in birds. Chauncey (one of our Seabird [...]
Momentum is building
Count Down: Only two days until the start of Seabird Camp! Preparations have been rolling along here on St. Paul. We continued to build paper mache masks [...]
CAMP PREPARATION BEGINS
St. Paul Seabird Camp starts next week, and students and leaders are busy preparing. The two interns have started work, and Ram and students have been busy [...]
Field season is coming!
I had a great time talking with you all via Skype in April. Thanks for all your awesome questions, and to Ms. Kushin and Mr. Fay for [...]
Seabirds at sea
Catherine looking for seabirds near the ice, photo by Alex Andrews Why study seabirds at sea? Catherine Pham is a student at Hawai’i Pacific University. She [...]
Invasive Species
Least Auklet and Rat (above) © Ian Jones What is an invasive species? An introduced species, also called an alien or exotic species, is any species [...]
Seabird Migration
We hear that Miss. Kushin’s class is learning about migration this week: butterflies; mammals, birds… Don’t forget about Seabirds! Seabirds return to land to build nests, lay [...]
Cold Feet?
Miron, a student on St. Paul Island, asks, “Why don’t kittiwakes get frostbite on their feet if their legs and feet are in the cold water all [...]
Red-legged Kittiwake Ecology
Red-legged kittiwake photo (above) by Caitlin Kroeger There are two species of kittiwake, the black-legged kittiwake (Rissa tridactyla) and the red-legged kittiwake (Rissa brevirostris). The red-legged kittiwake is [...]
Meet the Team
Instead of working independently and alone, it is more and more common for a group of scientists to work together to figure out answers to a question [...]
Red-legged Kittiwake Behavior
The Pribilof Islands are an important site for many seabird species, including 70% of the world’s red-legged kittiwake population. The Refuge’s annual seabird monitoring program provides essential information [...]
Bering Sea Days 2014
Veronica Padula (University of Alaska, Anchorage) recently traveled to St. Paul to teach students about seabirds and marine pollution during Bering Sea Days (above photo shows students learning [...]
Yellow-billed Loons
The Colville River Teen Video Crew (left to right): Sam Bernitz (Anchorage), Sam Tocktoo (Shishmaref), and Andrew Kennedy (Fairbanks). The trio wrapped up filming yellow-billed loons last week [...]
Plastic Pellet Experiment
Students attending Seabird Camp set-up a plastic pellet experiment. Trevor Haynes explains more… University of Alaska Scientist Veronica Padula had a challenge for the seabird camp students [...]
Day 3 of Seabird Camp
Here is a blog entry written by our student intern, Diamond, about her trip to the cliffs with Refuge biologists and the third day of Seabird Camp. [...]
4th July on St. Paul!
Wow, what a 4th of July! (Or June-July as they say here.) We started with a (rather wet) parade, and continued with games on the ball-field. Both [...]
PARTY PREPARATIONS
The Camp Team has been busy making super cool seabird masks for the 4th July parade! I wouldn't want to mess with these puffins!
KIDS DON’T FLOAT
Ram and Trevor have made safely to St. Paul, and everyone is busy preparing for Seabird Camp. On their first day, they attended a "Kids Don't Float" [...]
How many birds?
It’s a POPULATION COUNT YEAR on the Pribilof Islands. What is a “Population Count Year”? The Alaska Maritime National Wildlife Refuge (AMNWR) counts the number of seabirds [...]
Marine Debris
“Ophelia” octopus created out of marine debris by Kodiak High School students. One of the main focuses for the 2014 summer Seabird Camp on St. Paul Island is [...]
Don’t Throw it!
“Stow it-don’t throw it” is a youth debris and ocean conservation program dedicated to protect marine environments. As part of this cool project, youth make recycling bins [...]
Pribilof Debris
Is there marine debris on the Pribilof Islands? [separator type='transparent' color='' thickness='1' up='' down=''] YES! The main risks of marine debris on the Pribilof Islands are the [...]
FOOD STRESS
We took blood samples from least auklets caught during Seabird Summer Camp last year. These blood samples were spun (using a centrifuge) to separate the plasma from [...]