Great Gull Island is the site of an ongoing research project on Common Terns and Roseate Terns. Since 1966, over a quarter of a million terns have been banded and rebanded. Run under the auspices of The American Museum of Natural History in New York City, this 17-acre island has spawned a prodigious amount of scientific research. Much of the success of the island is due to the efforts of Helen Hays. An ornithologist for the museum, she has been going out to the island since the project's inception almost thirty years ago. In those thirty years, the project has grown tremendously: the size of the colony has quintupled since the start of the project, 90% of the terns nesting on the island are banded, and a database of over 367,000 Common and 28,000 Roseate Terns has been compiled. To help collect all this data, the project counts heavily on the help of volunteers and paid workers, most of whom are college students. Presenting an excellent chance to get involved first-hand with real science, Helen encourages anyone who is interested to write to her for more information. Having been out to the island for the past two summers and planning on more, I can guarantee that if you go out to GGI, you will have a great time. If you have any questions that you'd like me to try and answer, feel free to e-mail me. I'd love to get the mail.
News!
(Last updated 5/2/98)
Pictures of the Terns
Processing the Birds
Pictures of People
Chick Check
Remember When...
Pictures of the Island
Notice to All GGI'ers
I need feedback to make this page better! I would love to have any pictures that you'd like to send, any stories that you'd care to have retold, any ideas for other things you'd like to see on this page. Or just e-mail me with comments on what you think of this site. E-mail me even if you don't have anything to say, 'cause I just want mail. Any physical items such as pictures should be mailed to the address below.
E-mail Will
William Chang
S.U. Box 1611
Williams College
Williamstown, MA 01267
This page was last modified on 3/7/97
