HWS News
27 October 2026 A Summer Among the Puffins
Through Project Puffin, HWS students study seabirds, contribute to important research and experience the challenges and rewards of life in the field.
When Liz Walker ’28 held her first Atlantic Puffin chick this summer, she was holding the result of more than five decades of conservation work — and contributing to the continued study of a species once absent from the Gulf of Maine.
Walker spent the summer as part of Project Puffin, a pioneering conservation effort launched in 1973 by National Audubon Society biologist Stephen W. Kress P'07, P'10 to restore Atlantic Puffin colonies to their historic nesting islands along the Maine coast. On campus, Walker is president of the HWS Bird Club, an Audubon campus chapter.
More than 50 years after Project Puffin began, Walker joined the ongoing research helping scientists understand the health and future of Atlantic Puffin colonies.
“While my work and problem-solving in the field weren’t as grand as these early biologists, all of the efforts, including mine, add up greatly to aid conservation efforts,” Walker says. “It was truly a life-changing experience.”
Walker was not the only HWS student contributing to Project Puffin this summer. Eden Reck ’28 conducted research on Seal Island, while alumna Victoria Smith '25 worked on Eastern Egg Rock, extending the HWS community’s presence across three of the project’s seven research islands.
The Puffin Project
In late June, Smith was part of the crew to find the first ever confirmed razorbill chick on Eastern Egg Rock, which she says could extend the breeding range of the species south by 35 miles. “It is an important part of the find, with many species moving farther north for the breeding season due to environmental changes,” Smith explains. The Egg Rock crew, she notes, found the greatest number of active Atlantic Puffin burrows in the project's history on Eastern Egg Rock.
Through HWS, Smith first interned with Project Puffin in 2025. After graduation, she was hired back by Audubon as an Eastern Egg Rock research assistant.
This semester, both Walker and Reck are taking the 300-level ornithology course with Professor of Biology Mark Deutschlander, who is excited to have them for the next two years to support the HWS Audubon chapter, in addition to other birding and conservation student activities.
“Completing the internship as rising juniors means that both Eden and Liz will be on campus to foster future applicants for the program,” Deutschlander says.
Project Puffin is an important steppingstone for students’ work in conservation biology and ornithology, Deutschlander says. During the past 21 years, 24 HWS students have participated in Project Puffin. “We are the longest running academic partner with Project Puffin to ensure our students have access to this internationally known, highly competitive program,” he says.
"Several of our Project Puffin interns have gone onto careers in research in biology, ecology, conservation or ornithology," Deutschlander says. To note a few, Madison Sutton '17 recently completed a Ph.D. in bird ecology at Marquette University and is completing her post-doc at the Smithsonian Migratory Bird Center. Kate Marthens '22 completed her master’s degree at the University of Saskatchewan and is working on snow geese in Canada. Penelope Murphy '19 is a Natural Resources Scientist at Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources and Stephen Mugel ’13 is an epidemiologist and health data scientist working in Atlanta, Ga.
Reck says her experience on Seal Island this summer helped her identify her career path. "I knew I always wanted to work with birds; I thought I would become a bird vet, but I found I really enjoy this type of field work, and I now plan on going into conservation work."
Assigned to separate islands, Reck says she and Walker had the same duties but slightly different living conditions. "I slept in a tent on a wooden platform with a tarp over it while Liz got to sleep in the lighthouse on Matinicus Rock."
Walker says her days on Matinicus Rock followed the rhythms of the seabirds. She monitored eight species, often starting before sunrise to collect weather and sea surface temperature data and count hundreds of birds from the island’s lighthouse. During peak hatch season, she spent mornings observing Arctic and Common Terns, slender seabirds known for their long migrations, and afternoons measuring and banding chicks.
Banding involves placing a small, harmless ring around a bird’s leg, allowing researchers to identify individual birds and collect data on their migration, survival and population trends. Walker learned a variety of banding techniques and eventually banded her first Atlantic Puffin chick independently this summer.
“It was such a learning curve, but so worth it,” Walker says. “Banding chicks could take anywhere from one to three hours and being able to monitor the data of those I banded makes me feel integral to this work and grateful to study such an incredible species.”
Living on an offshore island presented its own challenges. Matinicus Rock has no running water, and electricity was generally available only from 11 a.m. to 9 p.m. The team received supplies every three weeks for food and drinking water; they collected rainwater to wash their dishes and clothes and swam in the ocean to stay clean.
But the isolation also created opportunities that Walker says she will carry with her long after the summer ended. She held and measured one of two known Manx Shearwater chicks born on U.S. soil, helped monitor Leach’s Storm-Petrels and, during nighttime fieldwork, watched the stars while listening to the birds.
“My work this summer has taught me a lot about the importance of creativity and being flexible while working in these contexts and environments,” says Walker, who credits Deutschlander and Hobart and William Smith for helping make the internship possible. “It was such an incredible and eye-opening experience.”
Top: Project Puffin Intern Liz Walker ’28
