Kate Sutherland

Kate was raised with the outdoors as a major part of life but really fell in love with birds after high school when she found a Field Biology course at a local community college. The course trained students how to do field work by starting them in a bird banding station set up with 120 mist nets and operating for a few weeks in the spring and fall. Holding these amazing creatures in her hands hooked her for life. The same curriculum allowed for travel abroad, so using field guides for the first time in places like Kenya, Ecuador (including the Galapagos), and South Africa inspired not only her desire to work with birds, but also to travel. In 2000 she discovered the world of seabirds on a pelagic trip from Hatteras, NC USA. She was hooked! Moving to Hatteras in 2001 she still lives and works taking people offshore for Seabirding, educating people about the bird species that spend their lives at sea. In 2016 she returned to university and earned two degrees in Marine Biology focusing on marine ornithology and now spends a couple months a year on a ship in the Ross Sea studying Adélie Penguins, taking data for citizen science platforms and guiding on expedition vessels. While she does spend a little time on land, offshore is her preferred habitat. Her career path reflects this preference with jobs on NOAA ships studying seabirds and beaked whales, working on small boats with Duke Marine Lab studying Goosebeaked Whales, and now working on expedition ships as a bird and naturalist guide focused on collecting data that helps conservation projects. She can usually be found on the bridge or out on deck with her binoculars getting excited about the most recent sightings and sharing her knowledge and enthusiasm with those around her.