The One That Got Away

First Place

This photo depicts my greatest challenge in the field; a Razorbill called M20. The small logger on his left tarsus had been deployed by myself and my field team in 2024. At the time the photo was taken in 2025, the logger contained a year's worth of valuable data for my Master's project, summarizing his movements and behaviours throughout the entire non-breeding season. Unfortunately, all of this data was inaccessible until we could capture the bird and retrieve it. For weeks I saw M20 during my routine blind stints and he became my most photographed tagged bird. I became focused on capturing him; spending late nights checking his burrow, and hours waiting by a box-trap. Every sighting raised my hopes, and every check sent them crashing down. After all of my efforts that season, I was never able to retrieve the logger; he abandoned his nest early, taking my data with him. To me, this photo represents the bittersweet feelings that come with research; the highs and lows everyone knows too well, and it serves as a reminder of all the hidden effort that goes into research but ultimately gets left out of the final draft.