Studies on resilience of birds earn P.E.I. ornithologist prestigious awards

Kathy Martin's love of birds has taken her into the Arctic and to the tops of the Rocky Mountains, but it started on the family farm on Stanhope, P.E.I.

"I grew up in nature," said Martin.

"When you grow up on a farm, there's always birds and mammals around. So you kind of get used to living in a place with lots of wildlife."

Martin is now one of Canada's leading ornithologists, working as a professor at the University of British Columbia and a research scientist for Environment Canada. Over the past five decades, Martin has published hundreds of articles and books and trained dozens of graduate students.

It was the availability of birds, their daytime habits, that drew Martin to them in particular. There is an irony there, because she now studies birds in very inaccessible places.

"You have to be able to handle some pretty strenuous conditions," she said.

"When the birds, mountain birds, start their breeding activities for the spring, it's basically full winter. So when I go to the field to study ptarmigan or alpine songbirds, I put on all my winter clothes — just as much as if I'm going skiing."

She adds, however, that it's easier to walk over the snow than it is to walk on spongy Arctic tundra.

It's this ability to handle extreme weather that has fed Martin's fascination with alpine and Arctic birds. She loves to watch how they deal with the weather.

The resilience she has witnessed in bird populations has given her hope for their ability to deal with climate change, but only if careful attention is paid to their essential needs, and that has been at the centre of her research.

"Most bird species are pretty resilient. If you have some sense of what are the critical resources they need," said Martin.

"When they're in an environment, they don't necessarily need every resource. But there are a few things that are really deal-breakers."

Preserving those resources must be an international effort, she said.

Martin's decades of work have recently earned her two particular honours.

She has this year been awarded the William Brewster Memorial Award by the American Ornithological Society for her vast body of work. In addition, the Society of Canadian Ornithologists presented her with the Jamie Smith Memorial Mentoring Award for her work with more than 50 graduate and postdoctoral students.

While much of her work has been far from her home Island, Martin still fondly remembers her early career on P.E.I., and considers herself an ambassador for the province.

"I would consider myself bicoastal, or really tricoastal," she said.