Last April I went to Barrow for a few days to prepare for the upcoming field season and, more importantly, to visit with my colleagues and friends in Barrow without the rushed atmosphere of my visits when I am there heading out to the field or back to Seattle. Without the support and friendship of those in the community of Barrow I never would have been able to conduct seabird research for forty years on a sand and gravel bar 25 miles east of the village.
I was accompanied on my April trip by Eric Scigliano, a Seattle science writer, who is a frequent contributor to Crosscut, a Seattle-based online news magazine with “News of the Great Nearby”. His story on our trip is linked here and at the image below.
- Barrow, Alaska in mid April. Credit Eric Scigliano
Eric’s piece is a good summary of the Cooper Island findings and includes (on page 2) a description of a unique observation I made on Cooper in 2014 which shows how climate change could be increasing romance and passion for some of the Black Guillemot pairs breeding on the island.