By Fionnuala McCully
2021’s SEGUL Symposium was special for lots of reasons. Aside from the expected format changes we are all familiar with in these most unusual times (yay for Zoom!), it was also the biggest ever! All in all, 16 current, future and prospective members and affiliates came and went throughout the day. As well as containing plenty of new faces, this SEGUL symposium also featured lots of very recent work which was being presented for the first time. We were delighted to update each other on our recent (or upcoming) seabird shenanigans. And yes, a few mammals snuck their way in as well!
Rhiannon Austin opened the show in spectacular fashion with her recent work on seabird vocalisation patterns during foraging. Her presentation featured some amazing camera footage and sound recordings which wowed the crowd! Next up was Fionnuala McCully. Despite an unexpected switch from kittiwakes to albatrosses (COVID! *shakes fist*), she was able to talk us through her work on coordinated parental care. Progress prevails!
After a quick break we were back for some brand-new work (containing some extremely fancy equations!) from Jamie Duckworth, as he outlined his most recent work on energy expenditure and foraging behaviour in red-throated divers. Sophie Bennett followed with her explanation of the importance of breeding sites in common guillemots, along with ideas abound for future work - we can’t wait to see what she presents in the future! Our first brand new face was Astrid Carlsen who started her PhD less than a month ago! She gave us an overview of her plans to study the link between fish eating seabirds and sustainable fishery management.
Eve Merrall’s post-lunch talk on the multiple pressures faced by seabirds in the modern world gave everyone lots to think about. She described some worrying trends but also outlined her hopes for the future. After that, the new work kept on coming, this time presented by Lila Buckingham, whose fascinating multi-colony study gave us insight into the world of the common guillemot during the non-breeding season. Our newest post-doc, Jack Thorley took us beyond the borders of the seabird world with his talk on cooperatively breeding mammals. Whilst with SEGUL, Jack will be swapping mole-rats for albatrosses, so stay tuned to hear how he gets on! Ros Green gave us even more to look forward to by outlining her upcoming study on the relationship between windfarms and migrating shelduck. We look forward to welcoming Ros to the team later in the year!
In the final block of the day, there were some terrific maps on offer from Lucía Martin-López, who updated us on her progress exploring seabird navigation and infrasound in the Southern Ocean. The discussion then turned to divorce in albatrosses, as Ruijiao Sun stepped up to talk us through how individual personality might impact this rare, but fascinating phenomenon. Finally, Hassen Allegue dialled in all the way from Montréal to talk to us about “Sex, Age and Rock & Roll” in elephant seals! More specifically, he covered how seasonality, personality and age impact their habitat selection.
With that, the SEGUL Symposium 2021 drew to a close! What a great way to showcase the strength of SEGUL’s research (especially in the time of COVID) and to get existing members excited about new colleagues and their work! All SEGUL members extend their sincere thanks to our fabulous PIs Samantha Patrick and Jon Green for spearheading the logistics and organisation. On to the social, however as the traditional pub visit would be illegal this year, we opted instead for a research group cook along! Held a week after the main event to avoid screen fatigue (‘yay’ for Zoom…) we celebrated with home-made pitta bread, dips and baklava. Here’s to all our past and future seabird success!
