A Day In The Zany Life Of….

Project Puffin: News from Outer Green Island

A day in the zany world of Outer Green Island.

Yes, island life is busy with data collection, studies on productivity, feeding, and the endless task of trying to keep back the vegetation. Yes, the interns and supervisors camp out in tents for the duration of the summer, taking solar showers, collecting rainwater to do dishes, taking care of business in an outhouse. And yes, they actually enjoy living among thousands and thousands of seabirds.

Yet beyond the daily tasks, the seabird biologists still manage to find creative ways to explore and interact with their island. As you can see from this example of a daily schedule, they work hard in order to find enough time to wander among the tidepools and search for little ocean dwellers such as the tiny crab they admired for awhile.

Outer Green Island is located very close to a small ledge dubbed “Junk of Pork” that has become a customary spot for harbor and gray seals to lounge and nap. Taking their queues from nature, Island supervisor Catherine Pham and intern Kaitlyn N. kicked back on the boulders to nap just on the other side from the rock where their friend “Benny the Seal” was resting.

While searching for firewood they came across “Flotsam” a special piece of driftwood which was then decorated to become the Outer Green Island mascot, a guard eel to patrol the outside of their research tent.

They gathered fresh rhubarb to make a pie in the evening baked in a box oven set over a single propane burner, then enjoyed the sunset over the ocean as they lit a bonfire which burned till the stars came out.

Photos Courtesy of Kaitlyn Nafziger