VOA标准英语2010年-Bringing Back the Puffins

In 1973, as a young birding instructor¹ in Maine, Kress began transplanting hundreds of downy puffin chicks from Newfoundland to Eastern Egg Rock, and later on to several other Maine islands.

Stephen Kress made his name by bringing Atlantic puffins back to the state of Maine, where hunters had decimated the birds by the 20th century.

Now, as director of seabird restoration for the National Audubon Society, Kress travels the world to help other conservationists restore bird populations.

Starting point

Every summer, Kress gets on a boat with Project Puffin volunteers and interns², and returns to where it all started: a tiny, treeless island called Eastern Egg Rock. A half hour out from the Maine coast, the island's craggy silhouette³ emerges from the sea spray.

 

Today, 109 puffin pairs waddle⁴ about peaceably on Eastern Egg Rock, Maine.

Kress says there are 7,000 nesting seabirds on the three-hectare island. When he slows the boat to moor⁵ it, a little black-and-white bird with a large bill splashed with orange flutters by. It looks like a shorter, chubbier⁶ version of a penguin⁷.

"There's our first puffin just flew by -- that little white belly⁸ bird, very rapid wing beat," says Kress. "That's a puffin."

The seabirds are common across the North Atlantic. But for 300 years, settlers in Maine hunted puffins for their feathers, meat and eggs. By the early 1900's, there was only one pair of puffins left south of the Canadian border.

Transplant

In 1973, as a young birding instructor in Maine, Kress began transplanting hundreds of downy puffin chicks from Newfoundland to Eastern Egg Rock, and later on to several other Maine islands.

Today, a record 109 puffin pairs waddle about peaceably on Eastern Egg Rock, living amid terns and laughing gulls⁹, whose shrieks¹⁰ pierce the sky.

It took eight years from the time Stephen Kress moved the first first puffin chicks to Eastern Egg Rock until the first nesting pair appeared in 1981.

Kress hops¹¹ out of the boat and heads for a meter-square plywood bird blind to observe dozens of puffins resting on a granite¹² boulder¹³. Puffins raise their chicks inside the cracks of boulders¹⁴ like this. Some of Project Puffin's original chicks, who wear identification bands on their legs, come back every year.

"Y-33, who breeds just over that hill over there, that bird I had in the back of my car brought from Newfoundland in 1977," says Kress. "And so obviously that bird I'm particularly fond of. She's a little female that has lived in the same crevice¹⁵ her whole life. She's 33 years old now."

Kress lured¹⁶ Y-33 and other puffins back to the islands to nest as adults through pioneering social attraction techniques, which included deploying¹⁷ wooden decoy puffins and mirrors.

"They get tired of the decoys after a while. They try to rub beaks¹⁸ but they would eventually leave. And I came up with this idea of sort of an animated¹⁹ decoy by using the mirror," Kress explains. "Then they see their own face, and their own movement. And the idea was if they walk away they would be attracted back to their reflection. The idea was to try to keep them long enough so a second puffin would show up. And they would hopefully find a mate there."

Kress waited and waited for the techniques to work.

"It took eight years from the time we moved our first puffin chicks to the first time we had a nesting pair on the fourth of July in 1981."

Project Puffin

Kress doesn't have to relocate puffin chicks to Maine anymore, or use mirrors or decoys. But he's always thinking of new ways to protect puffins and other rare birds that have made Eastern Egg Rock their home.

He counts on Project Puffin's college interns and volunteers, who live on the island in the summer.

Island supervisor²⁰ and graduate student Juliet Lamb walks through the fields of tall grasses, where some of the seabirds lay their eggs. She's on alert for birds that will be dive-bombing to protect their nests.

For the last three summers, Lamb has been arriving on the island in May to discourage the larger species of gulls that prey²¹ on puffins from breeding there. Lamb sees this intervention²² as leveling the playing field for the prey birds.

"Our responsibility as biologists is to start restoring some of the stuff that we've destroyed as a human population," says Lamb.

Interns will sometimes shoot especially aggressive gulls, but a more common strategy for keeping predators²³ in check is to destroy the eggs of laughing gulls.

They are a particular threat to the terns that have also returned to Eastern Egg Rock, because they share breeding habitat. Each summer, the interns go around poking²⁴ tiny holes in hundreds of eggs.

Michael Forsyth, a college student from Georgia, says by piercing the brown speckled eggs, but keeping them whole, the female laughing gulls might continue to sit on them, instead of laying new ones.

"You know it's hard because the laughing gulls are amazing birds in their own right," says Forsyth. "I feel like it's a real balancing act between all the different birds that come here and the management of every species."

That's a lesson Stephen Kress has taught his interns, and conservationists around the world.

Back at camp, Kress says restoring the puffin colony has meant making a lot of hard decisions. But the way he sees it, Eastern Egg Rock is the puffins' ancestral home and they deserve to be here.

"This is a very special place because it is the first restored seabird colony in the world. An important message to take that with it is that people brought the bird back and people are going to have to be here in the long-term to make sure that they stay here."

 

1 instructor   

n.指导者，教员，教练

参考例句：

• The college jumped him from instructor to full professor.大学突然把他从讲师提升为正教授。
• The skiing instructor was a tall,sunburnt man.滑雪教练是一个高高个子晒得黑黑的男子。

2 interns   

n.住院实习医生( intern的名词复数 )v.拘留，关押( intern的第三人称单数 )

参考例句：

• Our interns also greet our guests when they arrive in our studios. 我们的实习生也会在嘉宾抵达演播室的时候向他们致以问候。 来自超越目标英语 第4册
• The interns work alongside experienced civil engineers and receive training in the different work sectors. 实习生陪同有经验的国内工程师工作，接受不同工作部门的相关培训。 来自超越目标英语 第4册

3 silhouette   

n.黑色半身侧面影，影子，轮廓；v.描绘成侧面影，照出影子来，仅仅显出轮廓

参考例句：

• I could see its black silhouette against the evening sky.我能看到夜幕下它黑色的轮廓。
• I could see the silhouette of the woman in the pickup.我可以见到小卡车的女人黑色半身侧面影。

4 waddle   

vi.摇摆地走；n.摇摆的走路(样子)

参考例句：

• I am pregnant.I waddle awkwardly and my big stomach pressed against the weight of the world. 我怀孕了，我滑稽可笑地瞒珊而行，大肚子上压着全世界的重量。
• We waddle and hop and have lots of fun.我们走起路来摇摇摆摆，还一跳一跳的。我们的生活很有趣。

5 moor   

n.荒野，沼泽；vt.(使)停泊；vi.停泊

参考例句：

• I decided to moor near some tourist boats.我决定在一些观光船附近停泊。
• There were hundreds of the old huts on the moor.沼地上有成百上千的古老的石屋。

6 chubbier   

adj.胖乎乎的，圆胖的，丰满的( chubby的比较级 )

参考例句：

7 penguin   

n.企鹅

参考例句：

• The penguin is a flightless bird.企鹅是一种不会飞的鸟。
• He walked with an awkward gait like a penguin.他走路的步子难看得就像企鹅。

8 belly   

n.肚子，腹部；(像肚子一样)鼓起的部分，膛

参考例句：

• The boss has a large belly.老板大腹便便。
• His eyes are bigger than his belly.他眼馋肚饱。

9 gulls   

n.鸥( gull的名词复数 )v.欺骗某人( gull的第三人称单数 )

参考例句：

• A flock of sea gulls are hovering over the deck. 一群海鸥在甲板上空飞翔。 来自《现代汉英综合大词典》
• The gulls which haunted the outlying rocks in a prodigious number. 数不清的海鸥在遥远的岩石上栖息。 来自辞典例句

10 shrieks   

n.尖叫声( shriek的名词复数 )v.尖叫( shriek的第三人称单数 )

参考例句：

• shrieks of fiendish laughter 恶魔般的尖笑声
• For years, from newspapers, broadcasts, the stages and at meetings, we had heard nothing but grandiloquent rhetoric delivered with shouts and shrieks that deafened the ears. 多少年来， 报纸上， 广播里， 舞台上， 会场上的声嘶力竭，装腔做态的高调搞得我们震耳欲聋。 来自《现代汉英综合大词典》

11 hops   

跳上[下]( hop的第三人称单数 )； 单足蹦跳； 齐足（或双足）跳行； 摘葎草花

参考例句：

• The sparrow crossed the lawn in a series of hops. 那麻雀一蹦一跳地穿过草坪。
• It is brewed from malt and hops. 它用麦精和蛇麻草酿成。

12 granite   

adj.花岗岩，花岗石

参考例句：

• They squared a block of granite.他们把一块花岗岩加工成四方形。
• The granite overlies the older rocks.花岗岩躺在磨损的岩石上面。

13 boulder   

n.巨砾；卵石，圆石

参考例句：

• We all heaved together and removed the boulder.大家一齐用劲，把大石头搬开了。
• He stepped clear of the boulder.他从大石头后面走了出来。

14 boulders   

n.卵石( boulder的名词复数 )；巨砾；（受水或天气侵蚀而成的）巨石；漂砾

参考例句：

• Seals basked on boulders in a flat calm. 海面风平浪静，海豹在巨石上晒太阳。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• The river takes a headlong plunge into a maelstrom of rocks and boulders. 河水急流而下，入一个漂砾的漩涡中。 来自《简明英汉词典》

15 crevice   

n.(岩石、墙等)裂缝；缺口

参考例句：

• I saw a plant growing out of a crevice in the wall.我看到墙缝里长出一棵草来。
• He edged the tool into the crevice.他把刀具插进裂缝里。

16 lured   

吸引，引诱（lure的过去式与过去分词形式）

参考例句：

• The child was lured into a car but managed to escape. 那小孩被诱骗上了车，但又设法逃掉了。
• Lured by the lust of gold,the pioneers pushed onward. 开拓者在黄金的诱惑下，继续奋力向前。

17 deploying   

（尤指军事行动）使展开( deploy的现在分词 )； 施展； 部署； 有效地利用

参考例句：

• Provides support for developing and deploying distributed, component-based applications. 为开发和部署基于组件的分布式应用程序提供支持。
• Advertisement, publishing, repair, and install-on-demand are all available when deploying your application. 在部署应用程序时提供公布、发布、修复和即需即装功能。

18 beaks   

n.鸟嘴( beak的名词复数 )；鹰钩嘴；尖鼻子；掌权者

参考例句：

• Baby cockatoos will have black eyes and soft, almost flexible beaks. 雏鸟凤头鹦鹉黑色的眼睛是柔和的，嘴几乎是灵活的。 来自互联网
• Squid beaks are often found in the stomachs of sperm whales. 经常能在抹香鲸的胃里发现鱿鱼的嘴。 来自互联网

19 animated   

adj.生气勃勃的，活跃的，愉快的

参考例句：

• His observations gave rise to an animated and lively discussion.他的言论引起了一场气氛热烈而活跃的讨论。
• We had an animated discussion over current events last evening.昨天晚上我们热烈地讨论时事。

20 supervisor   

n.监督人，管理人，检查员，督学，主管，导师

参考例句：

• Between you and me I think that new supervisor is a twit.我们私下说，我认为新来的主管人是一个傻瓜。
• He said I was too flighty to be a good supervisor.他说我太轻浮不能成为一名好的管理员。

21 prey   

n.被掠食者，牺牲者，掠食；v.捕食，掠夺，折磨

参考例句：

• Stronger animals prey on weaker ones.弱肉强食。
• The lion was hunting for its prey.狮子在寻找猎物。

22 intervention   

n.介入，干涉，干预

参考例句：

• The government's intervention in this dispute will not help.政府对这场争论的干预不会起作用。
• Many people felt he would be hostile to the idea of foreign intervention.许多人觉得他会反对外来干预。

23 predators   

n.食肉动物( predator的名词复数 )；奴役他人者（尤指在财务或性关系方面）

参考例句：

• birds and their earthbound predators 鸟和地面上捕食它们的动物
• The eyes of predators are highly sensitive to the slightest movement. 捕食性动物的眼睛能感觉到最细小的动静。 来自《简明英汉词典》

24 poking   

n. 刺，戳，袋 vt. 拨开，刺，戳 vi. 戳，刺，捅，搜索，伸出，行动散慢

参考例句：

• He was poking at the rubbish with his stick. 他正用手杖拨动垃圾。
• He spent his weekends poking around dusty old bookshops. 他周末都泡在布满尘埃的旧书店里。