Maine puffin researchers monitor colony health, climate change [Video]

BREMEN, Maine — In the quiet midcoast town of Bremen, I hopped on a boat with Don Lyons, the director of conservation science at the Audubon Seabird Institute. 

Seven miles out, into the fog, a tiny island came into view—as did a greeting party.

Lyons moored our boat offshore as research assistant Arden Kelly paddled a minuscule inflatable to collect us one at a time.

I thanked her for her hard work once we reached the island—Eastern Egg Rock—though she and her three Audubon research colleagues seemed happy to have company; because the locals can be a bit much, as they say.

Birds swooped overhead in indiscriminate flight patterns; most of them terns.

“Hoods up,” Kelly instructed as we began walking, and she meant it. Her own hood and back were covered in …