So there's a rocky island off the coast of Maine that looks like Ireland in miniature. The island stands a few hundred feet from an⁠ infamous axe murder site⁠. And there are no cheap t-shirts or fudge joints (although I hear you can get Ice Cream a few islands over); this is a place where science is happening. The gull’s mate here during the summer months and the island becomes a battlefield for gull territory maintenance.

My sister, Dr April Blakeslee, is a faculty member at the Shoals Marine Laboratory during early summer. Her field of study is parasites in marine organisms, and a few hosts of these parasites reside on the island (I hope I’m describing that correctly, I feel like Gull **** is an important part of the parasitic lifecycle, and that’s gross…)

Dr. Blakeslee was gracious enough to plop my microphone down to record Appledore for us. I believe the microphone placement is in the central western area of the island. In this recording, you will hear birds (mostly marine, although I think I recognize a few from the mainland). There will be boat and air traffic. Insects, scientist walla, and a buoy.