Day 48: Today's forecast--Windy

The weather box plays an important role in island life. This houses our official thermometer and off to the left, at the end of the boardwalk, is our rain gauge. PRBO staff have been collecting weather data multiple times a day for over 40 years and the US Coast guard was recording the weather many years before that. Today we record essential weather data three times a day, continuing to add to this incredible long-term data. Once a day we also record the 24 hour precipitation and sea surface temperature. These days, sea surface temperature increasingly collected via special satellites but the remote sensing time series in many cases do not extend back more than 20 years making the hand collected data prior to that very valuable. I for one am very grateful to all the people who have collected this data over the years, making it possible for me to use it in some of my current research.

Day 5: The Fog

The fog rolled in this afternoon. It claimed the lighthouse for its own and blanketed everything in mist. It always amazes me that this makes absolutely no difference to the birds. Their internal navigation is so good they can find the island and their nest sites even when we can't see past our noses.

Day 1: Windy day gull

After a few days of nice weather, the wind returned today. The gulls are just beginning to hold down their breeding territories so they simply face into the wind and hunker down to ride it out. We always joke that you can tell wind speed by how closely the gulls hug the ground. Today's wind speed: moderate.