Covered in bird poop and really loving it

McMaster student is returning to remote Alaska to take part in seabird research

- FALLON HEWITT

Flynn O’Dacre holds a young tufted puffin on Middleton Island.

Growing up in downtown Toronto, Flynn O’Dacre never imagined herself living on an uninhabited island in the Gulf of Alaska, spending each day getting splattered by bird puke and poop.

Last summer, the McMaster University student spent four months living in a tent on Middleton Island, roughly 112 kilometres from the Alaskan mainland and a one-hour flight from Anchorage.

The island was once the home of the Middleton Island Air Force Station. But the seabirds took over when the military left in the early 1960s, laying claim to the four demilitarized radar towers.

Along with the birds, eventually came the Middleton Island Marine Biological Station, which saw researchers — the only human inhabitants of the isle — move in.

There is no running water on Middleton, very limited Wi-Fi and summer days there are rarely warm.

The near-deafening sound of thousands of birds fills the air, while the landscape is practically devoid of trees.

And O’Dacre can’t wait to go back.

“When I first got off the plane last summer, I just felt like it was where Ibelonged,” O’Dacre told The Spectator in an interview. “It just felt right.”

O’Dacre arrived on the island last year as a student researcher, working alongside McMaster biology professor Emily Choy and her research group.

A friend had flagged the job to O’Dacre — then a third-year arts and science student minoring in math — knowing her love of birding and goal of becoming a wildlife conservationist.