Seabird searching selfie

Never know where you’ll end up when you’re following a bird-sniffing conservation dog. Rua the wonder dog (@dabchicknz) led us up this near-vertical grassy slope, and sure enough found a nest burrow.

A post shared by Abby McBride (@sketchbiologist) on Oct 7, 2017 at 6:53pm PDT

I'm in New Zealand for a Fulbright-National Geographic Storytelling Fellowship.

Conservation dog

Starting a day of nest-searching with Rua the seabird detector dog

A post shared by Abby McBride (@sketchbiologist) on Oct 7, 2017 at 3:02am PDT

I'm in New Zealand for a Fulbright-National Geographic Storytelling Fellowship.

Extreme seabirding

Seabird conservation is an extreme sport

A post shared by Abby McBride (@sketchbiologist) on Oct 3, 2017 at 6:23pm PDT

I'm in New Zealand for a Fulbright-National Geographic Storytelling Fellowship.

Pests-be-gone

Maria Island, site of the world’s first island-wide eradication of invasive rodents (in the 1960s). We couldn’t land the boat on the rocks, so I swam over to take a look. Those hills are covered with seabird burrows!

A post shared by Abby McBride (@sketchbiologist) on Oct 2, 2017 at 5:54pm PDT

I'm in New Zealand for a Fulbright-National Geographic Storytelling Fellowship.

“Wh” is pronounced “f”

@oscarkokako looks pretty happy to be meeting a Grey-faced Petrel chick at Tawharanui with @friesenmegan. (Soon after, the sun went down and a big storm sprang up – just in time for catching adult petrels as they flew in from the ocean for the night.) This species nests only in the north of New Zealand – nowhere else in the world.

A post shared by Abby McBride (@sketchbiologist) on Sep 25, 2017 at 7:38pm PDT

I'm in New Zealand for a Fulbright-National Geographic Storytelling Fellowship.