COOPER ISLAND, ALASKA — While the start of every field season is always an exciting (and frequently stressful) time, this year the start of the Cooper Island field season had more excitement than most. Preparations began earlier than normal as March and April involved acquiring, modifying and transporting 150 Nanuk plastic cases to replace the...
Author: George Divoky (George Divoky)
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Sponsor a bear-proof nest site
Posted by Lori Two Black Guillemots with its distinctive red mouth lining and feet. Here’s your chance to get involved in the work being done on Cooper Island: Friends of Cooper Island is initiating a “Nest-Site Sponsorship” program to help pay for nest replacement and our ongoing research on Arctic seabirds. A minimum $100 tax-deductible...
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Video: Forty years of work in five minutes
George is back from Cooper Island (for now) after having delivered 150 plastic cases to the island for use as new guillemot nest sites. (More information about these cases and how you can sponsor a nest site coming soon.) George will be returning to Cooper Island in May and will stay for 3 months to...
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Getting ready for the season
Posted by Lori George has left for Cooper Island on a short trip to get ready for the season that will begin in May. He’s a little swamped right now, so I’ll be posting updates to kick things off. George left his home in Seattle for Barrow, Alaska, the first stop on the way to...
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The BBC: Climate change and art
The BBC takes a look at the play Greenland and talks to the individuals involved in its creation. For more BBC podcasts about the environmental, development and agriculture, dealing with the impact of humankind on the natural world visit BBC One Planet.
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Holiday Greetings from Friends of Cooper Island
Black Guillemot chicks Dec. 28, 2010 — We want to wish our friends a happy holiday season and thank you for your support and interest over the past year. 2011 promises to be a busy and exciting time for us as we hope to replace most of the wooden nest sites on Cooper Island with hard...
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Pelican Cases: Hope for Cooper Island’s Arctic Seabirds
Cooper Island, Alaska, Sept. 7, 2010 — The increasing distance between Cooper Island and the August pack ice has resulted in a range of problems for the black guillemots breeding on the island. The decreased access to their preferred prey of Arctic cod, which live under sea ice and in the cold waters adjacent to the...
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Survival in a New Arctic
Cooper Island, Alaska, Aug. 18, 2010 — The transitions in the summer season on Cooper Island tend to be step changes rather than gradual trends for both me and the Black Guillemots I am studying. This reflects, in part, the rapid shifts that occur in the Arctic when it goes from “winter” to “summer” in...
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The Gulf Oil spill and Cooper Island seabirds – so far and yet so near
Cooper Island, Alaska, July 31, 2010 — Cooper Island is about as far from the Gulf of Mexico, and its now-oiled waters, as one can be and still be in the United States. But the Deepwater Horizon blowout, and the resulting paradigm shift in how the government and public views offshore oil drilling, will have...
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A Very Common Species Provides a Very Big Surprise
Cooper Island, Alaska, July 27, 2010 — When my interest in bird-watching first developed in the 1960s (the avocation would not be called “birding” for a number of years), a common wintertime activity was visiting the Cleveland lakefront and scanning the flocks of gulls for any interesting vagrants among the large number of Herring Gulls...