2019 Seabird Camp Day One
On our first day of the 2019 Seabird Camp we explored themes of seabird survival. Campers from last year refreshed their memories by playing seabird memory. The [...]
St. George, thank you!
The APICDA seabird intern work is coming to an end. Thank you to the community of St. George for your warm welcome, and to all the wonderful [...]
last couple of days on St. George
Friday’s weather was foggy, windy, and wet. A good morning for pancakes and data entry at the hotel for Thomas and Ann! […]
St. George: Kittiwakes, traps, and nest-boxes
A full day. Thomas, Ann and Karin joined the Refuge team for red-legged kittiwake resighting and capture. Wind had dropped, and all the birds were settled and [...]
St. George Island: Day 6
Back to high wind, but no rain. Thomas and Karin kept charging on the rat-trap checks, and they moved some of the far-away stations to more strategic [...]
St. George: Day Five
We woke up to dry weather! St. George is a rat-free island, and we’re working hard to keep it that way. Thomas and Karin spent a chunk [...]
St. George: Day Four
We had a full day on St. George. Thomas started the day learning more about excel and entering the least auklet count data from yesterday. We plotted [...]
Least Auklet Attendance Watch
Seabird biologists use the word “attendance” to describe the amount of time birds spend at the colony. Attendance data can provide insight into how the birds are [...]
Rain, cameras, and masks
Cordell joined us over at the harbor, and we spent a couple of hours figuring out a good plot to do an all-day Least Auklet attendance count [...]
APICDA Seabird internship: Year Two
It’s the end of May, and birds are already starting to nest on St. George Island. The kittiwakes are busy collecting nesting material, stomping on their nests, [...]
Origins of Northern Fulmar bycatch
In the spring, commercial fishing boats spread out in Alaskan waters (all the way from the Gulf of Alaska to the Aleutian Islands to the Bering Sea) [...]
Where have the puffins spent their winter?
The seasons have shifted, and birds everywhere are preparing for the nesting season by migrating back to their breeding grounds. For Tufted Puffins, seabirds of the central [...]
Connecting fulmar bycatch to colonies
Each spring and fall, the North Pacific groundfish and Pacific halibut boats ramp up for their peak seasons at sea. These fisheries catch a variety of fish [...]
Summer 2018 on St. George
Sarah Guitart was part of the Alaska Maritime National Wildlife Refuge’s field team working on St. George Island this past summer. Many thanks for sharing this report, [...]
Seabird Report Card 2018
Background Although seabirds spend most of their life out at sea, all seabirds return to land to lay their eggs and raise their chicks. Breeding sites are [...]
Tufted Puffins
Tufted Puffins spend their winters far from land throughout the North Pacific, but scientists don’t know much about their life out at sea. […]
The point of a murre egg
Tim Birkhead and colleagues have spent the last 6 years examining different hypotheses (possible explanations) for why common murre (also known as the common guillemot in the [...]
Commander Island Summer Camp 2018
The summer ethno-ecological camp “Aglach 2018″ on the Commander Islands was another great success. Students explored Bering island, covering over 130km on foot! Natalia Formina, camp [...]
Catching Red-legged Kittiwakes
Ann’s stuck on St. George… again. With an extra week on the island, we’ve been able to do a couple of good hikes with the kids, more [...]
Showtime at the Rec Hall
On Saturday we enjoyed what may have been our best theater shows yet! Many of the younger kids arrived early and went straight to their spots. In [...]
Last few days on interning at St. George
It’s been a busy last few days on St. George. We’ve put some long hours in down at the red-legged kittiwake cliffs looking for banded and geolocator [...]
Weekend on St. George
It’s been a stormy weekend, and a good time to catch up on things. Maurice, Thomas, and Ann met on Saturday afternoon and entered Rachael’s kittiwake resighting [...]
Friday Seabird Fun
We started Seabird Camp today with an exploration of bird eggs. Campers tried to match a wide variety of birds to the eggs placed around the Science [...]
Trouble in the Arctic
We started camp Thursday with a rousing game of Habitat Relay. Each team had to collect all aspects of their seabird’s survival and habitat needs and then [...]
Will the red-legged kittiwakes breed this year?
The St. George Seabird Intern team re-sighted the red-legged kittiwakes again today. After three hours watching for banded birds, we ended up with eight birds with colored [...]
Day Two…Continued
Tuesday night we moved forward with the auklet nest boxes by doing more construction and putting a solid grey stain on four of the assembled units. The [...]
Walrus Day!!!!!
We changed plans for the start of camp to go see a very rare visitor. All the campers slowly and quietly crawled to the edge [...]
St. George Seabird Intern work continues
The second week of St. George Seabird Intern work has begun. Yesterday we had a long day in the field. We started off down below the red-legged [...]
Tuesday Seabird Camp
After showing impressive memory skills in our seabird matching game, it was time for the older kids to go on their research field trips. One group found [...]
A very busy first day of Seabird Camp.
After an introduction to the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, we played a fun playground game that left everyone with a solid understanding of the different aspects [...]
This year the USFWS research vessel Tiglax will be sailing to St. Matthew Island
Several scientists arrived on St. Paul by plane to meet up with the boat. They were gracious enough to come to our Seabird Camp kickoff on Saturday [...]
Summer 2018 has started full swing for the Youth Conservation Corp (YCC)
Our crew consists of Sonia Merculief, Courtney Lestenkof, and Maxim Zacharof working under the supervision of crew leaders Kendra Bush and Tonia Kushin. Our crew has been [...]
St. George: paper plate art, nest boxes, and garden club
Friday was beautiful weather. We had two pre-schoolers for the morning art session. We talked about puffins and red-legged kittiwakes, and then got creative with paper plates. [...]
St. George: monitoring and kittiwakes
We all met at the Rec Hall on Thursday. Thomas led everyone through some stretching, before a short run around town. Warmed up, we talked about seabird [...]
St. George: Rat Traps and Soil
There are no rats on the Pribilof Islands, and we need to keep it that way! Rat trap stations are set-up all around the harbor on St. [...]
St. George intern work begins
Maurice and Thomas are signed up as APICDA interns, and we started work today. The day was a little windy, but we had some great spells of [...]
St. George Intern Program
Ann will be flying to St. George next week to work with three student interns. These intern positions are funded through the Aleutian Pribilof Island Community Development [...]
Tracing Northern Fulmars back to their colonies: Part 2
Graduate student Diana Baetscher (from the University of California, Santa Cruz (UCSC) and National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA)) has been hard at work this past year. [...]
Commander Islands Nature and Biosphere Reserve
Marine Biologist Dr. Olga Belonovich has been using the translated Seabird Curriculum with kids on the Commander Islands. Here’s Olga’s report: […]
Northern Fulmars
Tracing Northern Fulmars caught as fishery by catch back to their colonies. Over the next couple of years, the Seabird Youth Network will be sharing the results [...]
Shipwrecks, Seabirds, and the Risk of Rats
Rats often stow-away on boats, and are carried as unpaid passengers on shipping routes all over the world. […]
How do Seabirds respond to changes in the Bering Sea?
Scientists are working all over the world, exploring questions on every subject imaginable. A critical part of being a scientist is sharing your findings in a scientific [...]
St. George
It’s been a privilege to spend this week on St. George. […]
Day Four on St. George
We started the day making a puffin chick bread load. Waylon even found a dried cherry with a strange shape that looked like the mini horn for [...]
Day Three on St. George
It’s dark at 8am when the kids show up, and still dark at 9:30am. Everyone starts the day with warm milk to drink, and Bianca had her [...]
Day Two at St. George
We started the day making our story sticks from yesterday’s beach outing. Paint and yarn transformed […]
November on St. George
I had plans to fly to St. George Island straight after Thanksgiving, to spend a week with the kids doing some fun seabird activities. Flying this time [...]
Seabird Report Card 2017
Background Although seabirds spend most of their life out at sea, all seabirds return to land to lay their eggs and raise their chicks. Breeding sites are [...]
Fall on St. Paul Island
St. Paul Island is always spectacular, even in cruddy weather, and the week of Bering Sea Days was no exception. […]
Bering Sea Days 2017
2017 is the tenth anniversary of Bering Sea Days on St. Paul Island Bering Sea Days is a weeklong program hosted by the Ecosystem Conservation Office, Aleut [...]