Hi Everyone!
This is your Ship Island crew for this season and we would just like to introduce ourselves to anyone reading this. We arrived to the island on May 9th and we are still settling in and getting to know the lay of the land. We will mainly be working with Common Terns on this island and we have been seeing some promising signs of activity. They arrived on the island today early in the morning, during the late 4 A.M. hour. There were roughly 100-200 birds all participating in dredging activity. Dredging is when all of the birds fly together low over the ocean and come back toward the island. This was happening all morning and we are expecting Tern number to increase in the coming days.
Now, we will introduce ourselves to everyone!
My name is Bridget Schmidt and I am the island supervisor this season. I am from Ohio and this is only my second time in Maine. I graduated with a B.S. in Wildlife Conservation Biology from Ohio University and have taken a liking to Ornithology. I have predominantly worked with Passerines in the past and am looking forward to get to work with seabirds! I have had a few cool banding experiences with the most fun being in Ecuador in December ’23. The picture above is me banding a Rufous Motmot in Ecuador. I have never lived in a seabird colony before nor have I ever lived ‘off-grid’ like I will be this summer. I am looking forward to an exciting season this year!
Hello everyone, my name is Sarah Regan and I am thrilled to be a part of the MCINWR team this year on Ship Island. I live locally in Wesley, Maine in a cabin in the woods that is off grid year round. I am currently finishing up my undergraduate degree at University of Maine at Machias and will graduate next spring with a B.S in Marine Biology. My past experience primarily includes marine mammal stranding response coupled with some wildlife rehab, and time spent in aquaculture raising juvenile Atlantic salmon. My true passion has always been with the seabirds and I am immensely grateful for the opportunity to incorporate this summer with the seabirds into my holistic background!
Until next time!
Bridget & Sarah