Weather Station Helps Scientists Study Endangered Birds On Norway Island

On the small island of Hornøya in Norway, an Orion Weather Station installed on the highest cliff has been helping scientists gather data on endangered seabird populations since 2016.

Thousands of birds make the island their summer home.

Researchers from Uni Research Climate and the Bjerknes Centre for Climate Research study how the changing climate affects the thousands of birds who make the island their home in the summer months.

“We want to study if weather patterns affect the route taken by these seabirds to find food, or if bad weather can make them more stressful, or whether other behavioral changes can be due to weather patterns,” writes researcher Michel Mesquita.

"We can now gather wind, pressure, rainfall, temperature, and humidity data at high temporal resolution thanks to the new weather station we installed on the island. We hope to obtain more funding to continue our collaboration and research work, such that we can understand more about the behavior of seabirds and the impact future changes in climate can have on them.”

“We want to study if weather patterns affect the route taken by these seabirds to find food, or if bad weather can make them more stressful, or whether other behavioral changes can be due to weather patterns,” writes researcher Michel Mesquita.

The Common Guillemot is one of the many bird species being studied.

"We can now gather wind, pressure, rainfall, temperature, and humidity data at high temporal resolution thanks to the new weather station we installed on the island. We hope to obtain more funding to continue our collaboration and research work, such that we can understand more about the behavior of seabirds and the impact future changes in climate can have on them.”

To learn more about endangered seabird research on Hornøya, visit the website.

Photos courtesy of Michel Mesquita