this is Andy Johnson with the Cornell
Lab of Ornithology I'm part of a small
crew aboard the research vessel Tecla
we've just spent the last 30 hours
sailing the Bering Sea to arrive here
st. Matthew Island on the Alaska
maritime National Wildlife Refuge there
are some unique birds that only nest in
this area we're hoping to film and
record their breeding behavior for the
first time
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st. Matthew won't be giving up at
secrets easily it's an uninhabited
outpost of tall jagged pinnacles steep
talus slopes spilling onto rocky beaches
and thousands of acres of tundra valleys
by some measures this is the most remote
wilderness in the country
refuge biologists collect long-term data
on bird populations which are essential
to tracking changes in the ocean
ecosystem and for the first time in six
years the US Fish and Wildlife Service
sent a team here for a month to survey
the islands bird life
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st. Matthew is critical for the birds
arriving here past studies have found
nearly a hundred and forty species on
the island most are passing through but
for many safe nesting sites and
nutrient-rich waters make it perfect
habitat to breed and raise young the
Alaska maritime National Wildlife Refuge
is a collection of protected lands
spread across the coasts thousands of
refuge Islands provide habitat to around
40 million seabirds established as one
of the first refuges in 1909 st. Matthew
Island sits isolated more than 200 miles
from the mainland over 77,000 acres
stretched 30 miles long and just a few
miles across
we've only seen a fraction of the island
but with 18 hours of daylight we should
be able to finish our work Stephanie
Walden and Bryce Robinson are from the
Alaska maritime National Wildlife Refuge
and Rachel Richardson is from the US
geological surveys Alaska Science Center
one of their assignments is to resurvey
two Birds of interest the Pribilofs and
Piper and the McKay's bunting it's been
you know 15 years since anyone's been
out to study these birds again and
really what we want to do is get a
handle on the on the populations we want
to know what the status of both of these
populations are my colleague from the
Cornell Lab Irby Lovett and I are trying
to film their behavior and record their
songs
but so far we're becoming more familiar
with land animals than birds st.
Matthews singing voles found only on
this island are our ever-present
companions there close to camp and we
seem to hear their alarm calls
everywhere we walk voles are one of the
main prey items for the islands other
resident mammals red and arctic foxes
they scour the island on a constant
search for food
every moment is valuable and we're
constantly on the lookout for the birds
we come across the sandpipers the first
of our to study subjects in wide tundra
valleys but their nests are tougher to
spot
adults brewed their chicks in the
lichens and mosses perfectly camouflaged
and for good reason
less than a hundred yards away
long-tailed Yeager's are also nesting
and patrolling the tundra
they'll eat Sandpiper eggs and young so
to find cover these exposed chicks need
to move quickly
just hours after hatching
nearby sedge meadows keep them better
hidden from predators to find McKay's
buntings nests we rely on key features
of the landscape essentially if you have
a nice rock crevice a big talus slope
then you've got McKay's breeding habitat
when we see those rock ridges out on the
landscape we target those for McKay's
buntings we know they're going to be
there it doesn't take long before they
show themselves
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these birds nest nowhere else on earth
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early expeditions described the buntings
like snowflakes in the sky it's a
behavior seen only in the early breeding
season males perform this beautiful
arcing display flight singing as they
float down to advertise a choice credits
and if they're lucky an interested
female will inspect the site's potential
for building a nest we watch as she
gathers a bill full of bright feathers
to line the deep crevice
got this fiber scope camera here it's
got a little LED light on the end which
is super nice for going into the
crevasses since they're pretty dark in
there so it'll light up and we can get
accurate counts of eggs we know how many
nestlings hatch and then we can sort of
follow them throughout their cycle and I
can count four but I'll make a little
noise and see if they'll Gabe at me
there we go one two three and number
four there we go and number five oh my
goodness actually that's incredible
five eight clutch all five hatch looking
good that's really all I need
so that's quick that's awesome
the biologists are monitoring dozens of
nests across the island watching flecks
of white disappear into the dark rocks
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we're noticing the chicks stay hidden in
the nest for nearly two weeks after
hatching it's much longer than expected
for a small songbird it seems like the
buntings are taking full advantage of
the safety of these deep crevices once
the chicks finally leave they're already
capable fliers
McKay's bunting and Roxanne Piper have
adapted to their Island over millennia
but they face an uncertain future
in spite of st. Matthews extreme
isolation it's still vulnerable to the
effects of climate change as the Arctic
warms there's no telling what future
expeditions will find here but it will
certainly be different from what we are
seeing still we're leaving Saint Matthew
in awe of what we found
all the things that our team is seeing
not that many people will ever get a
chance to see and so it is up to us to
bring these stories back bring these
images back and let people know that
this place is special these birds are
worth protecting and this work is worth
doing
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