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This is a wonderful opportunity to learn about the ecology and avian life in a remote Pacific ecosystem as well as the research being conducted there. Claire Reilly, a graduate of the University of Vermont, a former Audubon Vermont intern, and field technician who has assisted in bird-friendly maple sugar-making research, is engaged in research on the remote Palmyra atoll. Her work is mostly seabird-focused on an island group that tends to draw more marine biologists more than birders. She is involved in efforts to try to restore Palmyra's native rainforest and bring back seven extirpated species of seabird. This work involves a lot of bird surveying, invasive plant control, native plant monitoring, and seabird attraction efforts. In addition, Claire assists with some of the marine research, including snorkel surveys for coral bleaching, and the deployment of hydrophones for a team that's making a soundscape of the reef.

Shorebirds present on the atoll include bristle-thighed curlews, pacific golden plovers, wandering tattlers, red footed, brown, and masked boobies, brown and black noddies, white and sooty terns, and greater and lesser frigatebirds. Also observed offshore were wedge-tailed shearwater, tropical shearwater, and Bulwer's petrel. Join us on Zoom for this great program!