Lessons Learned from Seabirds: Adventures with Bill Montevecchi

Mary Lynk | Posted: April 6, 2023 4:48 PM | Last Updated: September 22, 2023

IDEAS follows a seabird biologist on a rescue mission of young storm petrels along Newfoundland’s coastline

Image | Bill Montevecchi

Caption: More than 40 years ago, Bill Montevecchi left his New Jersey home to take a temporary university position in Newfoundland. He never left. The marine biologist is a professor of psychology, biology and ocean sciences at Memorial University of Newfoundland, and is currently researching the foraging tactics and migratory ecology of seabirds. (Mary Lynk/CBC)

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*This episode originally aired on March 31, 2023.

Media Audio | Ideas : The Bird Man: Adventures with Bill Montevecchi

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In 2020, Stanford University ranked Bill Montevecchi in the top two per cent of the world's scientists.

Fifty years before that, as a young Ph.D. grad in animal behaviour from Rutgers University, he was drawn to Newfoundland and its extraordinary seabird colonies, leaving behind his Massachusetts home and never looking back.

Or as the biologist likes to say, keep looking up.

And that's his approach to his work and life in Newfoundland, despite the devastating effect of climate change and pollution on seabirds and the arrival in June 2022 of the avian flu.

Bill Montevecchi | Avian flu is devastating seabird colonies across North Atlantic ocean

IDEAS producer Mary Lynk followed Montevecchi for two days on wild adventures in Newfoundland, her documentary shines a bright light on his humanity and brilliance.

Media Video | World-famous gannet colony at Cape St. Mary's Ecological Reserve

Caption: IDEAS producer Mary Lynk and marine biologist Bill Montevecchi observe a large colony of gannets atop Bird Rock and the cliffs of Cape St. Mary's, Nfld. Gannets there have been dying of avian flu since it first arrived in June 2022.

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Day One

A trip to the world-famous seabird colonies of Newfoundland's Cape St. Mary's in wild post-hurricane winds. There Montevecchi introduces Lynk to one of the world's most spectacular gannet colonies. It's a bird that weighs about seven pounds and has a wing span of two metres.

And as they sit there on the edge of the 320-metre cliffs, he explains the wonders of these fascinating creatures, and what they can tell us about the state of our oceans, our planet.

Image | Bill Montevechi shows an injured Storm Petrel

Caption: Bill Montevechi shows a small injured storm petrel bird that crashed into a fish plant in Bay De Verde, Newfoundland. (Mary Lynk/CBC)

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Day Two

Montevecchi and Lynk travel six hours to the other side of Newfoundland's Avalon Peninsula to the fishing village of Bay De Verde. Just off the coast, lies Baccalieu Island, home to the largest storm petrel colony in the world. But their total population has fallen by 40 per cent, and part of the problem is light pollution.

So overnight, on a long wharf glaringly lit up by a fish plant, they undertake an intense nine-hour rescue mission/experiment. One that entails running up and down the pier, fighting off seagulls, to rescue the small storm petrels who come crashing into the fish plant wall.

Image | The Quinlan Brothers' fish plant in Bay De Verde, Newfoundland

Caption: The Quinlan Brothers' fish plant in Bay De Verde, Newfoundland. (Mary Lynk/CBC)

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Listen to The Bird Man: Adventures with Bill Montevecchi by clicking the play button above, through the Listen App, or download the episode wherever you get your podcasts.

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*This episode was produced by Mary Lynk.