From May 29 to August 11, I worked and lived on Eastern Egg Rock. For a very eloquent description of what I did, see Sia's article for BirdLife (my tent is featured in his pictures!!)
The island is about 7 acres, depending on the tide
Egg Rock
my tent covered in a blue tarp with my friendly neighbors perched on top, before the modification i made which you can see in sia's article
Though small, the island supported a lot of bird life! Its residents included:
Puffins
Ubiquitous fornicating Laughing Gulls
Common Terns
Arctic Terns
Roseate Terns
Black Guillemots
Leach's Storm-Petrels
The melodious Song Sparrow
the Savannah Sparrow
Spotted Sandpipers
and Common Eiders (though I didn't get a picture of any before the males turned ugly and the ducklings were all eaten)
At the beginning of the season, Razorbills also visited our island
the 12"x12" cabin was our center of food and research operations, lovingly known as the "egg rock hilton"
I started a garden! Kiah helped a lot
In my spare time (a.k.a. when there's not enough electricity to enter data and it's too hot to enter the colony/leave camp), I built this shower stall! Betsy, Sia, Kate, and Kiah all helped out a ton!
Some bird action photos:
Flying COTE
Incubating and displaying COTEs
COTE chicks begging for food while they're still cute
ARTE's fighting over a fish (they had a dismal year for productivity and food quality)
a club of puffins loafing on a ledge
Some Researcher action photos:
Kiah
Jen P.
Me! (photo by: Janine Parziale)
and last, but not least:
the monarchs were doing really well this year, they were all over Base when we got back to the mainland!
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