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...
Category: 2018 Field Season
Post
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...
Post
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...
Post
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...
Post
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...
Post
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.