Going to the birds

David Cairns will provide virtual tour of seabird islands of Atlantic Canada

Biologist David Cairns will explore the little-known seabird islands of Atlantic Canada during Nature P.E.I.’s public monthly meeting.

There is a biological and physical boundary that runs across the Gulf of St. Lawrence, through the Cabot Strait and out to the edge of the continental shelf.

“North of this line are rugged coasts, myriad islands and enormous colonies of puffins, razorbills and murres,” says Cairns.

Like penguins of the southern hemisphere, these birds are strictly confined to the colder parts of the world ocean. Cairns will provide a virtual tour through some of these seabird islands, featuring the crumbling tombstone of the extinct great auk, the paradise of Yankee eggers, the murre-carpeted slab named for an odour so powerful that it was an official navigation marker in foggy weather and the largest puffinry in the west Atlantic.

The presentation will close with an account of seven unique ways for a seabird biologist to almost, but not quite, get killed.

The meeting will be held Nov. 7, 7:30 p.m., at Beaconsfield, the Carriage House in Charlottetown.

Cairns was born and raised in the gentle landscape of Prince Edward Island, but he has always been drawn to islands of the wilder sort. This led to graduate and post-doctoral studies of seabirds on the remote fringes of eastern and Arctic North America. Eventually he found his way back to P.E.I. and since 1987, he has done fisheries research with the Department of Fisheries and Oceans, specializing in herring, salmon and eels.