Lauren Seacrist: A Hatched Relationship

Photo Courtesy of Dr. Lisa Ferguson.

I dove face forward into the sand with the grains digging into the skin of my outstretched arm and neck. Lying below my right hand, with its neck positioned squarely between my index and middle finger, was a juvenile American oystercatcher. It stared blankly off into space petrified that it had seemingly been captured by this massive, mammalian predator, me.

My colleagues, who were still racing after its sibling, and I, though, meant well by our actions.

The American oystercatcher is an at-risk species and, for conservation purposes, individuals are captured and marked with numbered bands by researchers, like those at the Wetlands Institute. This allows for the population’s numbers and movements to be tracked throughout the year.

On this early morning in mid-July, we were doing just that. About eight of us from the Wetlands Institute and other organizations like New Jersey Fish and Wildlife were out on the conservation-nesting site at Stone Harbor Point Beach to band some of the American oystercatcher chicks that had hatched that summer. From six o’clock that morning to before noon, we were chasing and diving after these little guys so that we could get our hands on them.

As an intern, I participated by capturing and gently holding the chicks as my supervisors attached the pairs of bands to their upper legs and took their measurements. Over the course of the summer of 2016, I was able to assist in banding oystercatchers, protecting nesting terrapins and their young, monitoring nesting habitats, and more because of an opportunity that I found to intern at the Wetlands Institute a few months beforehand.

Photo Courtesy of Dr. Lisa Ferguson.

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At the time, I was a junior in college, a member of Lander University’s Honors College and a biology major. For my ideal Breakaway experience, I wanted to do something that would give me work experience related to my chosen fields of ecology and wildlife conservation. I applied to a number of different internships and research opportunities across the country offered at other universities, the federal government, and non-government organizations. One of these was an internship in the Coastal Conservation Research Program at the Wetlands Institute in Stone Harbor, New Jersey.

A couple of weeks after submitting my application, I conducted a phone interview for the position, which I thought I had done rather poorly and I thought for sure that I would not be hearing back from them. A couple of days later, though, I received an email informing me that I had been accepted into the program to work on the Coastal Bird Conservation and Research project. After already receiving a few rejections from other programs, I was excited that my hard work had come to some fruition.

Now it was decision time. Would I accept the offer to go intern at the Wetlands Institute or hold out to hear back from one of other programs, like the Ranger internship at Grand Teton National Park, that I had also applied to? I had until the following Monday to make my decision, so I had a few days to think it over. My initial gut instinct was to accept the offer. After all, wouldn’t it be foolish to reject an actual job offer over the mere possibility of hearing back from some other programs? Also, compared to the other programs that I had applied to, this internship was the one of the few related to research and conservation of wildlife, which was and continues to be my dream career path.

On the other hand, I considered the fact that I would be mostly working with coastal birds according to the project description provided with the offer. I will be honest, at the time, I was not very enthusiastic about the idea of working with birds for an entire summer. Because I had spent a great deal of time working hands-on with a wide variety of birds at a wildlife rehab center. As a volunteer and animal caregiver over the course of what was at that point six years, I had gotten a lot of experience working with birds. The wildlife center in question, Carolina Wildlife Care, is one of the only rehab centers in the state of South Carolina permitted to rehab songbirds. Consequently, the center is bursting with birds, from orphaned or kidnapped hatchlings to injured adults, during the spring and summer months. During this peak busy season, all the available countertops and tables in the building are covered in boxes containing birds that must be fed, cleaned, and medicated throughout the day. The younger birds are on a feeding schedule the frequency of which ranges from anywhere between 15 minutes to 2 hours. There are so many birds that a single staff member could easily spend their entire eight-hour shift plus overtime caring only for the birds in the facility.

Although such hands-on experience allowed me to develop a vast knowledge of bird species, I also acquired indifference for working with birds. This negative feeling consequently made me uneasy about accepting another position in which I would be working with birds. I discussed the matter with my mother. She also expressed the concern that I did not seem to be very interested in birds as compared to other animals that I had worked with at the center. In the end, she told me that it was my decision and that I should go with my gut instinct.

With that rationale, I came to the conclusion that I would accept the position as it offered me the opportunity to gain field experience, which was the ultimate goal that I initially set out to achieve. I later discovered that this was indeed the better choice.

Two months later, I was in New Jersey beginning my internship. Over the course of my internship, I experienced a new way of working with birds, which transformed my regard for them. Instead of acting as a sort of babysitter serving their constant needs, I was observer studying these independent individuals. I observed them from afar with minimal contact, providing them the hands-off protection deserved by all wildlife.

Photo Courtesy of Allison Anholt.

I learned a great deal more about how to identify species from the fleeting, distant visuals provided by a hyperactive organism. I learned to note such features as leg color, bill color, bill length, and so forth in addition to vocal calls. By these means, I was able to differentiate similar looking species that I previous thought were the same. For instance, I learned that Caspian terns can be identified by their black legs and dark orange bill while similar looking Common terns have bright orange bills and matching legs. My supervisors and my younger colleague patiently taught all this to me while in the field and at the Institute.

By learning these skills and acquiring this vast amount of knowledge about birds, I developed a better appreciation and respect for this portion of the animal kingdom. This experience not only gave me the skill and know-how to confidently pursue a career working in the field, but also reformed my feelings in regards to working with birds. Going into my internship, I was not as enthusiastic about focusing on studying birds as I could have been about any other type of animal. My research internship, however, instilled within me a passion for studying birds that I happily was to pursue as life long career.    

Lauren Seacrist is a senior at Lander University majoring in biology who will be graduating on May 6, 2017. In the summer of 2016, she served as an intern in the Coastal Conservation Research Program at the Wetlands Institute in Stone Harbor, New Jersey for her breakaway experience. After graduating, she plans on taking a break year, then attending graduate school for wildlife conservation biology.