Meetings and Speakers

May Meeting

Return to Puffin Paradise: Alaska’s Pribilof Islands

Marie Read

Monday, May 13, 2024, 7:30pm

Foundation of Light, 391 Turkey Hill Rd, Ithaca, NY

Ever since her first visit to Alaska’s Pribilof Islands in 2015, Marie Read dreamed of returning to this remote island group far out in the Bering Sea. The Pribilofs are often described as a bird photographer’s paradise, home to millions of nesting seabirds. Three species of auklet, murres, cormorants, and kittiwakes including the endemic Red-legged species, pose photogenically on lichen-covered rocks or precipitous cliff faces. The avian stars though are those adorable clowns of the sea: Horned and Tufted Puffins. Marie’s hoped to photograph them carrying fish for their young in early August, when the islands are at their most fog-shrouded. Getting to the Pribilofs can be an adventure, fraught with flight cancellations, as Marie would discover. After a failed attempt in 2022, in July 2023 she made it! She’ll share her experiences and lots of great photos.

About the speaker: Local bird photographer Marie Read’s photos are published in magazines, books, and calendars worldwide. She’s won numerous awards, including Highly Commended for Birds in Flight in the 2023 Bird Photographer of the Year Contest. Her articles and photo essays about bird behavior and bird photography have appeared in Living Bird, Bird Watching, Nature’s Best, and Wild Planet, among others. She also has authored or co-authored six books, including the best-selling title Mastering Bird Photography: the Art, Craft and Technique of Photographing Birds and Their Behavior.