Written on August 10, and submitted after a few days rest.
My own warm, fluffy bed with crisp cotton sheets was jumped into last night. Arriving safely after 24 hours of travel, through several time zones, it felt surreal to be home. Slowing moving up the front walkway at 10:30 pm, two things startled me. First, it was dark! It was really dark! It had been one month since I had last seen that. I also noticed the stars, there seemed to be a lot for a warm summer night. In the Northern California valley town where I live, summer evenings are hazy and slow, with few stars seen compared to a crisp winter night. Yet, many stars glimmered in the sky. Then I realized- I saw stars!! I had not seen stars for 30 nights. The ‘night’ sky in the Arctic circle is too bright for a single star to send its energy into my eye. No stars for a month, how strange. The winter sky in the Arctic must be a phenomenal array of endless sparkles. Truly amazing.
This trip has come and gone far too quickly. I wonder, every day, how the team is doing, what the Little auks are teaching them, and look forward to hearing the final steps in the fledging process. With that, there are many individuals who gave their energy, support, expertise and generosity in order my participation in this Little auk project to occur.
I want to tell you THANK YOU;
First; Polartrec, NSF and ARCUS for providing this tremendous opportunity
Janet Warburton, Katie Breen, Kristin Fischer, Roy Stehle and Jason Buenning for several patient telephone conservations to work out logistics, technology and mistakes;
Mike Donnelly for his full support, advocacy, care and assistance since this all began;
Nadia, Riana, Marisa, and Zac for cheering me on and encouraging me;
Ann Harding for her care, friendliness, patience and interest in promoting environmental education across the continents;
Rachael Orben, Ewan Weston, and Jerome Fort for the laughter, warmth, care and good meals at Kap Hoegh
Chico Junior High School and Chico Unified School District for the support that was given;
Marco Chinchay and the Chinchay clan for their time and care in rifle training;
Ann Harding, our lead in this project, and a wonderful inspiring scientist would also like to acknowledge many people for their support of this work.
This project has only been possible with a tremendous about of logistical, scientific and emotional support. The project started on a shoestring budget, with donated time, equipment, analysis and expertise. It has really been a community project, and a huge number of people need to be thanked. Many people have provided essential scientific guidance and encouragement along the way---including John Piatt, Sasha Kitaysky, Lech Stempniewicz, Carsten Egevang, Spencer Sealy, Pat Jodice, Dan Roby, Knud Falk, Nina Karnovsky, Jorg Welcker, David Gremillet, Jan Marcin Węsławski,Wojciech Walkusz and Geir Gabrielsen. The community at the Alaska Science Center has been fundamental for support and encouragement at each step. The difficult logistics have only been possible because of Martin Munck and Karina Bernlow at NANU travel. The Alaskan home community and my family have been essential for providing a firm foundation for the logistics. Extra special thanks to Tracy and Tony Fischbach for all their support, list-making and organization pre field seasons… the pressure cooker bread was a hit! Each year has been built on previous team’s work. We have had an amazingly dedicated and driven group of people working at Kap Hoegh—including Maggie Hall and Heli Routti in 2005, and Emeline Pettex, Vijay Patil, and Jeroen Creuwels in 2006. Funding has been provided by the French Polar Institute Paul-Emile Victor (Grant 388 to David Grémillet and Ann Harding), and the National Science Foundation (grant 0612504 to Nina Karnovsky and Ann Harding).