Photos from the field

Zavodovski Island expedition, December 2023

The South Sandwich Islands are the most remote and inhospitable part of the UK Overseas Territories, which means they’re also the most data-deficient. I was part of an expedition organised by the British Antarctic Survey in 2023 to monitor the massive populations of chinstrap and macaroni penguins that nest there.

Above: Zavodovski Island. Stark, remote, and very inhospitable (unless you're a penguin).

Top left: one of the hundreds of thousands of chinstrap penguins that call Zavo home.

Lower left: Myself and John Dickens (British Antarctic Survey) ready to deploy tags on the penguins to collect the first ever foraging data from the birds.

Confirmed breeding of king penguins on Zavodovski Island.

Sailing to Zavodovski was itself an adventure. Photos above and right by Skip Novak.

Skip Novak with Vinson of Antarctica behind.

Macaroni penguins with the volcano shrouded in clouds and steam.

Hauling gear ashore.

A rare break in the cloud reveals the volcanic summit of Zavo.

Chinstrap penguins coming ashore.

A macaroni penguin returning to the island to take over incubation from its mate.

Curious macaroni penguins.

John flying the drone over the north end of the island to count nesting pairs.

A stunning white morph giant petrel.

Monitoring seabird diets in the Gulf of Maine

Since 2017, I have been working in the Gulf of Maine with Shoals Marine Lab, Maine Coastal Islands National Wildlife Rescue, and the Audubon Seabird Institute to monitor the diets of terns and puffins. It's always such a please to spend summers with the birds and people on these islands.

Collecting poop from a common tern chick.

Arctic tern chick.

Collecting poop of my hat from adult common terns.

Black guillemot chicks are one of my ultimate favourites.

A common tern feeding a herring to its chick.

The White Island lighthouse, Isles of Shoals.

Watching Mel, a bridled tern, that has visited the tern colony at Shoals Marine Lab from the Caribbean for the last two summers. Photo by Ben Kerstetter.

Camping on Monomoy NWR - home to the largest tern colony on the east coast of the US.

Puffins lined up on Matinicus Rock.

Helping to band storm petrels on Mat Rock has been one of the highlights of my time working there.

If I ever got a tattoo, it would be a tern in flight...

South Georgia

I have also been lucky to spend time on South Georgia, monitoring the seabirds that nest in one of the most beautiful places on earth. I don't think I will ever get tired of visiting South Georgia.