Tell me, where in the world...

Our research is conducted on 4 of the outer islands off of West Falkland (i.e., Saunders, Carcass, Steeple Jason, and New). However, our main study area (and where I currently am) is located on Saunders Island. This island, owned by the Pole-Evans family, is 50 miles long and 8 miles wide and is a working farm.  This means they own about 6000 sheep, a number of cattle and goats, at least 10 horses, several dogs and cats, chickens (that lay the most delicious eggs), a few pigs, some geese, and some ducks.  

Besides the convenience of having Saunders Island as our main study island, we are also very fortunate to have the Pole-Evans on our team. For example, Suzan has documented and provided over 3,000 re-sightings of our banded birds since 16 May 2013! Her husband, David, is also an extremely valuable asset to our research. I don’t think there has ever been a time where we have asked for something and he has not been able to provide it. Most recently, on this trip, were the pipe puzzles. We had brought the PVC pipe and the wooden slats that are inserted into it down with us, but we still needed a stand. After showing a rough sketch of what we had potentially dreamed up, David had 2 versions within a couple of days! 

Suzan taking attendance at the Neck.

David with the superbly handcrafted pipe puzzles.

Another perk about Saunders are the delicious lamb chops!