Fieldwork at the Black Guillemot colony on Cooper Island began in early June, where I began the fifth decade of research on a remote island in a rapidly changing Arctic. Just how rapidly that change is occurring was obvious on the first day in the field, June 11, 2015, when I discovered that egg...
Category: Field Notes
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Current Sea Ice Status
The Black Guillemots on Cooper Island have seen their nesting success reduced over the past four decades as sea ice decline has reduced the availability of their preferred prey. Sea ice extent in the Arctic on June 15, 2015 was 9.1 (only one decimal point) million km sq., 10 percent less than the average...
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Cooper Island Guillemots and Shell’s Chukchi Sea Drilling Plans
The two weeks before I head north to Cooper Island are always an interesting mix of anticipation of the upcoming three-month field season combined with regret at having to leave my family and friends in Seattle. In recent years, as the Arctic continues to warm, there is a good amount of uncertainty as to what...
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Polar bears almost get a guillemot this past summer
A polar bear mother and nearly grown young almost get a brooding guillemot. The parent bird survived and was back on the nest the next day.
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The Black Guillemot
The Black Guillemot has a number of life history characteristics that make it an ideal monitor of changes in the marine environment in general and the Arctic in particular. Guillemots, of which there are three species, belong to the seabird family known as auks, or alcids. The most abundant seabird family in the Northern Hemisphere,...
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Annual Update on March 27th, 2014 at the Burke Museum in Seattle
You are invited to Friends of Cooper Island’s annual update and fundraiser on Thursday, March 27th at the Burke Museum on the Univ. of Washington campus. Doors open at 6 pm for socializing with beverages and appetizers with a presentation beginning at 7 pm. The evening will include stories and images from our exciting 3-month...
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The chicks have arrived on Cooper Island!
The first Black Guillemot chicks are hatching in the colony this week and they are just as cute as they are fluffy. There are currently 114 nests with parent birds sitting on eggs or brooding chicks which is making this a productive nesting season and gives us a lot to do each day as we...
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Seattle science teacher returns from Cooper Island
Katie with nest box. By Katie Morrison Heading back to Barrow, we glide across the glassy Elson Lagoon and it is hard to imagine the wind-driven angry whitecaps that filled the lagoon just a few days before. But tonight it is calm and still and we travel with ease in our open skiff. I am...
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Guillemots Go to the End of the Earth in Pursuit of Retreating Sea Ice
The annual announcement of the minimum extent of the Arctic’s summer sea ice has become one of the more important metrics by which we measure the rate of change of our warming world. This year’s minimum extent of 3.4 million square kilometers (1.32 million square miles) on September 16th broke the previous minimum set in...
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Black Guillemots mingle before getting down to business
COOPER ISLAND, ALASKA — While no year on Cooper Island is like any other, so far the 2012 field season has been more different than most. For that reason ( and also because Max Czapankskiy did such a good job with his blogposts in June) I am way behind in my postings. In late June I took a...