Leach’s Storm Petrels (Hydrobates leucorhous) are small (about robin-sized) long-lived seabirds that nest in underground burrows on offshore islands. Storm Petrels have been studied on Kent Island for almost 90 years. To monitor breeding efforts, researchers reach into burrows to feel for adults, eggs, and (later in the season) chicks. During this process, called “grubbing”, incubating adult petrels exhibit a variety of behaviors, including biting the researcher. The variety in behavioral response interested me, and I wanted to study why petrels act the way they do.
Recent Summer Fellows
Undergraduate research: Ten Kent Island fellows from Bowdoin lived, studied, and created on the island for two months over the summer of 2023.
Sejal Prachand
Class of: 2024
Fellowship Focus: Leach's Storm Petrel
Major(s): Biology and Mathematics
Charlie O'Brien
Class of: 2023
Fellowship Focus: Island Steward
Major(s): Earth and Oceanographic Science
Together with my friend Reed Warburton, at the direction and with the guidance of Ian Kyle, we tackled diverse projects on the island this summer, ranging from building, repairing, and maintaining the station’s infrastructure for resident scientists. Accomplishing projects that help keep scientists functioning at their best while they are here is rewarding in itself. Learning about the science that is happening and playing a small role in it is a privilege, and I am so lucky to be in a place that I may never see the likes of again and that many people never experience. I think the community we have made on the island makes the more difficult responsibilities worth the trouble, and I have learned practical skills and gained self-knowledge in my time here.
Lily Fanburg
Class of: 2023
Fellowship Focus: Herring Gulls
Major(s): Psychology
In seabirds, older individuals usually have higher breeding success than younger individuals. Yet a 2010 study of herring gulls found that breeding pairs with one young parent produce heavier chicks than pairs with two older parents. We measured the relative contribution of older and younger parents within herring gull nests on Kent Island. Using plumage to identify young parents, we measured incubation, chick attendance, and territory defense across sixteen nests. Overall, nests with one younger parent performed similarly to those with two older parents. However, within the younger nests the older parent attended the territory more than the younger parent. This could be due to unequal prioritization of the nest, or unequal foraging skills, resulting in younger birds spending more time away from the nest.
Danny Lee
Class of: 2025
Fellowship Focus: Leach's Storm Petrels
Major(s): Biology
Long-lived seabirds face the challenge of allocating resources between reproduction and survival. My project explores these tendencies in Leach's Storm Petrels. I measured body condition (weight/tarsus length) in 328 individuals and 168 breeding pairs, and found that better body condition increased the likelihood of successful hatching. Furthermore, I observed a positive correlation between pair bond length and hatch success in 916 bird pairs from the Kent Island historic dataset, indicating that longer-lasting pair bonds lead to higher reproductive success. These findings highlight the importance of individual quality and pair bond length in determining the breeding success of Leach's Storm Petrels.
Helena Souffrant
Class of: 2025
Fellowship Focus: Tree Swallows
Major(s): Environmental Studies and Africana Studies
In Canada, aerial insectivorous birds have declined by roughly 59% since the 1970s, and by about 32% across North America due to climate change, habitat degradation, and insect decline. Among these declining birds are tree swallows (Tachycineta bicolor). Since 1934, Kent Island has monitored the nesting activity of tree swallows in artificial nestboxes. Nest site fidelity and breeding dispersal have been found to greatly influence the nest success of tree swallows. By analyzing the long-term dataset, I examined whether sex influenced dispersal, and the effects of adult density and number of fledglings on adult dispersal distance between nestboxes. I found that female birds are more likely to disperse than males. I also concluded that neither density nor number of fledglings significantly affects dispersal distance.
Reed Warburton
Class of: 2023
Fellowship Focus: Island Steward
Major(s): Psychology & Biology
Together with my friend Charlie O'Brien, at the direction and with the guidance of Ian Kyle, we tackled diverse projects on the island this summer, ranging from building, repairing, and maintaining the station’s infrastructure for resident scientists. Accomplishing projects that help keep scientists functioning at their best while they are here is rewarding in itself. Learning about the science that is happening and playing a small role in it is a privilege, and I am so lucky to be in a place that I may never see the likes of again and that many people never experience. I think the community we have made on the island makes the more difficult responsibilities worth the trouble, and I have learned practical skills and gained self-knowledge in my time here.
Brad Schoenthaler
Class of: 2024
Fellowship Focus: Intertidal Studies
Major(s): Environmental Studies & History
This summer I studied how prey choice of green crabs (Carcinus maenas) changed with respect to crab size and snail (Littorina obtusata) size. In controlled tests, large crabs attacked significantly more large snails than either small snails or barnacles (Semibalanus balanoides); however, they consumed relatively similar numbers of small and large snails. Small snails attacked prey items indiscriminately but consumed no large snails. I also analyzed stomach contents of different sized crabs and found that algae was regularly present, especially among smaller crabs. Moreover, I found that snail predation was less frequent among smaller crabs compared to larger ones. These findings suggest a higher level of herbivory among green crabs than previously thought.
Cora Dow
Class of: 2024
Fellowship Focus: Artist in Residence
Major(s): History and Visual Arts
The goal of my project is to connect more people to the natural world around them. For
me, this happened through birding. When I began to recognize species by sight and sound, it felt
like a whole new world had opened up to me. Somehow, naming these organisms enabled me to
notice not only more birds, but so many other things as well. It feels like a gift or a superpower,
and it is certainly something that I want to share with other people.
I also started to care more about issues such as how climate changes affect bird
populations, and the number of dead birds I find next to windows around campus. Bird watching
has made me more conscious about the impact I and the people around me have on certain
species and ecosystems. This, too, is an awareness I want to share with others.
With my project, I want to open up a new world to other people – whether that be a new
organism, a different perspective of the world through art, a realization about the sheer amount of
life that exists around us, or a new way to connect to and notice the world around them.
Eva Ahn
Class of: 2026
Fellowship Focus: Pollinators
Major(s): Environmental Studies and Biology
Pollination facilitation is an indirect relationship between co-flowering species where one species benefits the reproduction of another plant species. Flower color is thought to play a role in facilitation, such as greater reproductive success from standing out in color among co-flowering species. I used the Kent Island plant-pollinator network data to measure the closest physical distance and color similarity between Ranunculus acris (tall buttercup) and other flowering species on the island to answer the questions: Do flowers that exist closer together in physical space exist closer together in spectral space? I found no significant relationship between these factors, but I found greater niche overlap between flowers very different in color compared to flowers similar in color, suggesting greater specialization in flowers with similar color displays.
Oscar Nigam
Class of: 2025
Fellowship Focus: Savannah Sparrows
Major(s): Biology
To incubate successfully, birds must balance time on the nest with time foraging. Eggs must remain sufficiently warm for embryonic development, meaning excessive time off the nest can decrease reproductive success. I sought to determine which environmental and biological variables affect nest temperature of incubating Savannah sparrows (Passerculus sandwichensis). During summer 2023, I deployed temperature sensors in 28 nests on Kent Island, NB, CA to measure nest temperatures during incubation. Model results showed that precipitation, wind, local density, and female age affect nest temperatures. Female age was only important in inclement weather; yearling females displayed lower nest temperatures than older females during rainstorms. Understanding which factors affect incubation can help determine how reproductive success differs within a population given variable environmental conditions and individual characteristics.