History of Savoonga
Savoonga is a small Siberian Yupik village on the northern coast of St. Lawrence Island, in the Bering Sea. Closer to Russia than to the U.S., its name "Savoonga" literally…
Sep-Sep (one of our two guides) brought walrus for lunch today.
Sep-Sep, our Yupik guide, LOVES walrus. His favorite part is walrus brain, and the mode of ingestion is, ahem, through a straw in the…
A Day at the Bird Salon
Some birds are calmer than others. This kittiwake seems content with its lot.
So, without feather ado... look no feather for info on the Bird Salon.
Remember the big rule…
Birdcatching... and hair dye?
The biggest office rule here is to move S L O W L Y. Seabirds, being the wild animals they are, are unaccustomed to humans, skittish and fly away easily. Of course,…
*Unless otherwise noted, all photos in these journals are mine.
Curious little parakeet auklet (left) and a least auklet, observing our every move.
You're doing what?
Before I let you all in on…
If you're curious about how and where we work, here you go.
We've been leaving our place at 8am to head to our sites, and as a team of four, we split up. Punguk is our local Yupik guide, so he leads…
The legacy of bad handwriting
Seems that locals subscribe to the view that Nome was named thanks to bad handwriting. A British cartographer misread the "? Name" on a nautical chart as C. Nome or "…
Dredges
Dredges were considered more than machines. They were mechanical giants with a penchant for gobbling up pay dirt, upending the frozen tundra, processing it, then spitting out the tailings…
Packed for adventure
35 pounds of checked luggage. Obviously I still had some packing to do, as in 15 more pounds worth! Ha. It's all good. As you'll see, my day wear and evening wear shall be…
I could sit and watch these little guys for hours. Crested auklets (with crest) and least auklets at Myaughee cliffs, Savoonga.
Pinky Promise
Can I just say that the more I learn about seabirds,…
Sifting through research
One of the ways I process information is through sketches or some sort of art, and for me, I could wax rhapsodic for days about the value of different means of expression…
Researcher prep
Each team member has plenty of preparation to do on their end, and with an international team hailing from Alaska, Japan, Russia, and France, it will be interesting to learn each…
