Over most of its range the Black Guillemot is a nearshore seabird, occupying coastal waters during both the breeding and nonbreeding seasons, as do other members of the genus Cepphus. Pelagic or open ocean waters can offer abundant prey resources, but these options are often distant, patchy and unpredictable. The nearshore typically offers seabirds a smaller but...
Author: George Divoky (George Divoky)
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Fewer breeding pairs this season for Cooper Island guillemot colony
The Cooper Island Black Guillemot colony experiences a major decrease in breeding pairs as long-term decline accelerates. As of July 6, egg laying ended at the Cooper Island colony and the number of breeding pairs is the lowest it has been in four decades. Only 50 guillemot pairs have laid eggs, down from 85 pairs...
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Work Worth Doing: Reflecting on 44 years in the Field
The Cooper Island Black Guillemot study was recently mentioned in an Associated Press story by Seth Borenstein about researchers who “accidentally” began studying climate change. A number of scientists measuring a biological phenomenon have encountered unanticipated effects from climate change and understood those effects were more important, both biologically and politically, than what originally motivated them to...
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The First Egg!
The first egg of the 2018 breeding season was laid on June 24th by White-Black-Gray. She fledged from Cooper Island in 1995 and has lived through a period of major climate change in the Arctic. Hoping she, and the other 150 guillemots in the colony, have a successful breeding season! The somewhat bad news is...
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The first field report of the 2018 season
Great to be back on Cooper island after two intense weeks of preparation in Seattle and Utqiaġvik. Arriving on the island begins an even more intense period as I need to turn the 8-by-12 foot cabin from the overwinter storage shed it has been for the past nine months into a place where I can...
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Cooper Island Arctic Research Kicks Off 44th Field Season
June 19, 2018: After several weather-related delays, Search and Rescue pilots transported George and his gear to Cooper Island. His cabin is packed floor to ceiling with supplies stored over the winter, and he arrived with 800 pounds of equipment to support his 44th season studying Black Guillemots. Read more about the start of the...
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Science literacy website reporting on our field season
Proteus: storytelling for a blue planet, is a science communication website promoting science literacy and ocean awareness. A special series titled Arctic Change will be following our work this summer. The first post about Cooper Island research, Arctic Summer Home, is live.
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Public Radio and Cooper Island – Some history and a recent interview
Public radio plays a major role in my three-months on Cooper Island each summer as I observe the Black Guillemots, the melting sea ice and the displaced polar bears. To the extent that there is a “field camp culture” on Cooper Island, listening to the radio is a major part of that culture. Whenever I...
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Annual Seattle Update March 20th
Join us at Seattle’s Swedish Club, 1920 Dexter Ave N. , on Tuesday March 20, 2018 to hear about the eventful 2017 field season, the 43rd consecutive year of study of the Black Guillemot colony on Cooper Island, Alaska. Doors open for a reception at 6 pm with a talk starting at 7 pm. The...
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Cooper Island Research Part of SENSEI: Sentinels of the Sea Ice
In 2015 Christophe Barbraud of the Centre d’Etudes Biologiques de Chizé began assisting us with the analysis of the four-decade demographic database we have obtained from the Cooper Island Black Guillemot colony. Christophe is a highly respected avian demographer whose study species include the Snow Petrel, an ice-obligate Antarctic seabird, as well as a number of other seabirds. ...