Programs & Classes

OPAS Program: “Beyond the Burrow—Secret Lives of Puffins Across the North Pacific”
Presenter: Katie Stoner, PhD Candidate, Oregon State University
Wednesday, April 15, 2026 at 7:00 p.m.
Virtual program will be presented in Rainshadow Hall, Dungeness River Nature Center
Free to attend

Imagine yourself crawling through tall grass, covered in mud, reaching into long dark tunnels and hoping to find the soft feathers of a puffin before meeting the snap of its powerful bill. Those same birds, with their bright beaks, golden tufts, and striking “horns,” draw people from around the world to see the beloved “clowns of the sea.” But behind the charm are fierce marine predators, navigating rapid environmental change, with an uncertain future.

Travel with Katie to the Kodiak Archipelago of Alaska, where puffins swirl in the skies above dense breeding colonies. She’ll take you into the field as her team tracks puffins across vast winter migrations and works to uncover threats shaping their conservation.

Since 2021, Katie Stoner has been conducting research for her PhD at Oregon State University (OSU) in collaboration with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. Her research focuses primarily on evaluating population trends, winter migrations, and conservation threats for Tufted and Horned Puffins from the Kodiak. Gain insights as Katie shares findings from her PhD research, virtually via Zoom, from OSU.

Katie grew up in Portland, Oregon. She received her BS degree in Wildlife Biology from the University of Vermont. She has been studying seabirds for over ten years—including field research on shearwaters and petrels in Hawaii, murrelets in Alaska and Oregon, and Adélie Penguins on Ross Island, Antarctica. She will complete her PhD this June and is looking forward to her next research adventures.

Puffins on the Kodiak Archipelago—Photo: Robin Corcoran/USFWS