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Atlantic Laboratory for Avian Research @alar-unb.bsky.social · 14/08/2026

Machias Seal Island 2026 is a wrap! Crew made it back to Saint John safe and sound earlier this week. We didn't post as much as we wanted this summer, but there are exciting things coming and we'll do our best to keep you all up to date!

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Atlantic Laboratory for Avian Research @alar-unb.bsky.social · 15/07/2026

Have you ever wondered if colourful puffin bills and feet have a function in communicating information about body condition to other puffins? Us too. 🧵1/4 🪶🧪🦑

Close-up photo of an Atlantic Puffin head, showing brightly coloured bill and rosette.

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Atlantic Laboratory for Avian Research @alar-unb.bsky.social · 24/06/2026

Fledging has begun for RAZO and COMU! How is it already time to start saying good bye to two of our focal species?

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Atlantic Laboratory for Avian Research @alar-unb.bsky.social · 09/06/2026

Another week down and more of our RAZO and COMU eggs have hatched! Terns have started to lay their eggs and we are anxiously waiting for our first puffin chicks of the season. Any guesses on when that will happen? Last year our first chick hatched May 27, long-term average is June 9. 🪶🦑🧪

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Atlantic Laboratory for Avian Research @alar-unb.bsky.social · 01/06/2026

Still feels like we just arrived (its been 3 weeks) and we've got Razorbill chicks!! Round-up of our numbers to date: - 89% occupancy in monitored puffin burrows - 81% occupancy in monitored Razorbill burrows - 82 species of bird observed on the island so far and yet my photos all look like this:

Atlantic Puffin legs with a band on each one; the left reading JJ59.

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Atlantic Laboratory for Avian Research @alar-unb.bsky.social · 27/05/2026

We're back! Our team arrived on Machias Seal Island on May 13th and immediately began collecting data. We'll start to share more in the coming days now that we're set up and falling into our schedule. 🧪🪶🦑

Departing Grand Manan with all of the supplies and equipment needed for a summer of seabird research.

Atlantic Puffins blanket the rocks along the beach at Machias Seal Island.

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Atlantic Laboratory for Avian Research @alar-unb.bsky.social · 09/03/2026

New paper from PhD candidate Sarah Durham using IPMs found that "specific warming-related factors, such as summer length and winter sea surface temperature anomalies have negatively impacted ATPU (Atlantic Puffin) and RAZO (Razorbill) demographic rates". 🪶🧪🦑 doi.org/10.1111/gcb....

doi.org

Signals From the Southern Edge: Demographic Effects of Ocean Warming on Two Cold‐Adapted Seabird Species in the Gulf of Maine

We used integrated population models to analyze environmental drivers of population dynamics for Atlantic Puffins (Fratercula arctica) and Razorbills (Alca torda) nesting at the southern edge of thei...

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Atlantic Laboratory for Avian Research @alar-unb.bsky.social · 06/11/2025

New paper assessing the use of seabird diet data into fisheries stock assessment. We found that the integration of predator (i.e., seabird) diet data into an assessment model can improve assessment outcomes by filling in critical data gaps where appropriate. 🧪🪶🦑 doi.org/10.1016/j.fi...

doi.org

Redirecting

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Atlantic Laboratory for Avian Research @alar-unb.bsky.social · 03/09/2025

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!

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Atlantic Laboratory for Avian Research @alar-unb.bsky.social · 03/09/2025

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...

lovenature.com

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...

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Atlantic Laboratory for Avian Research @alar-unb.bsky.social · 11/08/2025

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.

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Atlantic Laboratory for Avian Research @alar-unb.bsky.social · 10/07/2025

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.

cbc.ca

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.

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Atlantic Laboratory for Avian Research @alar-unb.bsky.social · 10/07/2025

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-... 🧪🦑🪶

cbc.ca

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Atlantic Laboratory for Avian Research @alar-unb.bsky.social · 09/07/2025

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!🧪🪶

33 year old puffin captured on Machias Seal Island.

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Atlantic Laboratory for Avian Research @alar-unb.bsky.social · 07/07/2025

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!

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Atlantic Laboratory for Avian Research @alar-unb.bsky.social · 17/06/2025

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. 🦑🪶🧪

Atlantic Puffin legs with worn out plastic band.

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Atlantic Laboratory for Avian Research @alar-unb.bsky.social · 09/06/2025

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). 🦑🪶🐧🧪

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Atlantic Laboratory for Avian Research @alar-unb.bsky.social · 04/06/2025

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! 🪶🦑

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Atlantic Laboratory for Avian Research @alar-unb.bsky.social · 02/06/2025

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

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Atlantic Laboratory for Avian Research @alar-unb.bsky.social · 28/05/2025

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. 🦑🪶

Warblers flying in the light of a lighthouse.

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Atlantic Laboratory for Avian Research @alar-unb.bsky.social · 21/05/2025

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...

doi.org

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

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Atlantic Laboratory for Avian Research @alar-unb.bsky.social · 21/05/2025

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! 🐧🦑🧪

Band combination on legs of an Atlantic Puffin

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Atlantic Laboratory for Avian Research @alar-unb.bsky.social · 14/05/2025

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.

Sun shining over boat in cove at Machias Seal Island

Packed gear and supplies being transported to Machias Seal Island

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Reposted by Atlantic Laboratory for Avian Research

SEAPOP.bsky.social @seapop.bsky.social · 24/04/2025

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...

seapop.no

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…

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Atlantic Laboratory for Avian Research @alar-unb.bsky.social · 31/03/2025

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/...

cbc.ca

'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.

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Atlantic Laboratory for Avian Research @alar-unb.bsky.social · 11/03/2025

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...

doi.org

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,

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Reposted by Atlantic Laboratory for Avian Research

World Seabird Union @worldseabirdunion.bsky.social · 19/12/2024

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

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Atlantic Laboratory for Avian Research @alar-unb.bsky.social · 17/12/2024

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 🐧🧪🦑

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Atlantic Laboratory for Avian Research @alar-unb.bsky.social · 04/12/2024

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

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