Atlantic Laboratory for Avian Research

Congratulations to Eric Pollard who successfully defended his MSc thesis, "Spatial distribution of Leach's Storm-petrel (Hydrobates leucorhous) on Bonaventure Island, Quebec" this afternoon!

Deep Dive North America - Love Nature From two-inch beach mice to 24-metre blue whales, North America is home to the most diverse and charismatic marine life on the planet. Presenter Lizzie Daly embarks on an epic road trip from the froze...

In May 2024 a film crew came out to Machias Seal Island (MSI) to talk puffins for a 6-part series titled "Deep Dive North America". Watch Episode 6, airing Sept 6, 2025 to see the video from MSI (airing on Love Nature, AppleTV, and Prime)! lovenature.com/shows/deep-d...

A little more than 24 hours and our stay on Machias Seal Island for the 2025 seabird nesting season will come to an end. Most of the birds have departed for the winter, just Leach's storm-petrel and gulls remain. Summaries coming soon, dreams of the 2026 season have already started.

In 1908 there was "an enormous colony of terns on Gull rock" (which is less than 100 m from Machias Seal Island). "The keeper estimated between 5 and 6 thousand (birds)".

As promised, I have looked around and cannot find anything that predates lighthouse keepers on the island. I did find a report that suggests terns were present in 1873 and common tern eggs were collected in 1885. This suggests to me that terns were present prior to keepers.

Agreed.

Would be great to chat about this in person sometime. Perhaps we can host you on MSI at some point.

I don't know the score, but I will look into it and get back to you (and sorry it has taken so long to reply).

UNB researchers find 33-year-old puffin, marking a known record age for the bird | CBC News How old is an old puffin?  Well, the oldest known puffin in New Brunswick was found this week at 33 years old.

Turns out people think the 33-year old puffin is pretty interesting… we agree! www.cbc.ca/news/canada/... 🪶🦑🧪

We note that an older puffin has been observed in the Gulf of Maine, but not on Machias Seal Island.

Meant to include that the MSc candidate and field lead is Daniel Oliker.

© CBC/Radio-Canada 2025. All rights reserved.

MSc candidate and current field lead at Machias Seal Island spoke with Khalil Aktar on CBC Information Morning this morning about the 33-year old puffin captured on July 8th. You can listen here: www.cbc.ca/listen/live-... 🧪🦑🪶

33 year old puffin captured on Machias Seal Island.

We haven't done a full check, but we might have captured the oldest puffin on Machias Seal Island. While the longevity record for Atlantic Puffin is 45 years (from Iceland), the North American record is 33 years. Last night we captured a bird banded as a chick in 1992, making it 33!🧪🪶

We've had a busy few weeks here at MSI! Razorbill and Common Murre chicks have fledged and the colony is starting to get quiet. A little less than a month before the puffins start to fledge!

Atlantic Puffin legs with worn out plastic band.

After years of seeing the faded plastic band on this puffin and being unable to re-sight it, we finally re-captured it and replaced its bands. This bird was first banded as chick in 1996 making it 29 years old (!) and among the oldest in our records. 🦑🪶🧪

Newly hatched Atlantic Puffin chick

Weather is getting warmer and our work is ramping up. First puffin chicks hatched this weekend! The colony is noisy with the peeps of chicks (some being described as sounding like tea kettles). 🦑🪶🐧🧪

Newly hatched Razorbill chick

First Razorbill chicks have hatched! This is a little later than the last three years (first chicks hatched in the last week of May), right on the average for the last 10 years, and a full 2 weeks earlier than 1995-2004! 🪶🦑

First tern eggs of the season! Things are about to get busy.

Warblers flying in the light of a lighthouse.

Another week has flown by, highlights include warbler fallout (!), resightings, adult puffin and razorbill banding, getting our last research blind built (its a bit wonky but safe and will work for the time being), and the start of tourist season. 🦑🪶

Incidental seabird bycatch in the Greenland Halibut fishery in northern Canada reported via at-sea observer programs

New paper from PhD candidate Allison Anholt describing seabird bycatch in the Greenland halibut fishery in the Canadian Arctic. We found that Northern Fulmars were the most frequently reported seabird bycatch species with high levels of monthly and annual variation. #seabirds doi.org/10.1093/mcfa...

#addOcean

Checking productivity nests.

Band combination on legs of an Atlantic Puffin

Banding an adult Razorbill

Week one is done! Our first week was spent getting things set-up and training/orienting new crew members. We've also been banding adult puffins and Razorbills, checking our productivity nests, and re-sighting. If that's not enough we retrieved our first GLS logger of the season! 🐧🦑🧪

2025 Machias Seal Island crew

Sun shining over boat in cove at Machias Seal Island

Packed gear and supplies being transported to Machias Seal Island

2025 field season has begun! Crew arrived safely on the island in the early morning of May 13th greeted by terns calling overhead and alcids lounging in the sea. Will do my best to provide regular updates of our work on the island.

Sea ice affects population dynamics in common eiders Sea ice is significant for the ecology of many arctic species. The Arctic is now heating up four times more quickly than any other place on earth, and we need to know the consequences the resulting…

Using 40 years of data from Svalbard, our latest study shows that early break-up of sea ice due to #globalwarming contributes to making some of the islands safer for common eider ducks to breed, as Arctic foxes cannot reach them. seapop.no/en/2025/04/s...

'Free store' in Saint John fully stocked thanks to community support | CBC News People in Saint John New Brunswick lined up outside a church to go shopping on Saturday, but they didn't have to worry about price tags.

I want to take a minute and highlight the non-academic work that graduate students in ALAR are helping to organize and lead. We are so lucky to have you as part of our lab and community. www.cbc.ca/news/canada/...

Conservation implications of wide-ranging year-round movement and distribution of Aleutian Island breeding Aethia cristatella (Crested Auklets) Abstract. Despite representing a crucial conservation concern, challenges in measuring seabird movement outside the breeding season remain. Among Alcidae,

Our new paper (early view out now!) details an unexpected triangular pattern of migration for Crested Auklets. 95% of our tagged birds spent time in the Chukchi Sea and Sea of Okhotsk before returning to their nesting site. Is it time to re-write the distribution maps? 🧪🐧🦑 doi.org/10.1093/orni...

A new study highlights the remarkable achievements of the @birdlifeglobal.bsky.social Seabird Tracking Database in marine conservation. The database has become one of the world's largest collections of seabird tracking data. www.seabirdtracking.org/the-birdlife... #seabirds

Northern Gannets diving to catch fish

The Farallon Institute has just launched a new website that is a one-stop shop for seabird time-series data and insights into ocean health. Very happy to be part of this project and to have data from Machias Seal Island included! Check it out here: Seabirds.faralloninstitute.org #ornithology 🐧🧪🦑

Follow us for all things Machias Seal Island and seabird research from the Major lab at UNB Saint John. Posts will include our successes, research, and stories from the field. 🧪🐧 #ornithology