Sue Schubel, Award-Winning Jill of All Trades

Sue Schubel

It was just an ordinary evening for Sue Schubel, narrating a slideshow about seabirds and lighthouse keepers at Project Puffin Visitors Center in Rockland—when things turned a bit unordinary. Dr. Stephen Kress, director of Audubon’s Project Puffin, showed up, along with Sue’s daughter, Ayla, and husband, Anthony Liss.

“I wondered, ‘What’s everyone doing here?’” Sue said.

She was in for a pleasant surprise. Dr. Kress presented her with Disney’s Wildlife Conservation Heroes Award, given to individuals for saving wildlife, protecting habitat, and educating people about conservation. She was one of only 11 recipients from around the world this year. “I was completely surprised, and completely thrilled,” Sue said of receiving the honor.

What makes Sue worthy of this award? It might be easier to ask what doesn’t.

Sue has used her years of experience working on seabird restoration projects in Maine, California, and the Galapagos to become an inspiring educator for Audubon’s Project Puffin for the last eight years. She also narrates boat trips and teaches classes at Hog Island Audubon Center, where she and Anthony are the sanctuary’s year-round caretakers. An innovative educator, hands-on advocate for wildlife, talented artist, and more, Sue is a veritable Jill of all trades.

As Kress puts it, “She is a rare combination of biologist, teacher, artist, and carpenter, with an infectious enthusiasm for ocean life and a humble view of her many talents. That’s why I nominated her to become a Disney Wildlife Conservation Hero.”

Frog-Catcher Turns Puffineer

Growing up in Baltimore as a veteran frog-catcher and pond-explorer and the daughter of an oceanographer and teacher, Sue studied zoology and art at the University of New Hampshire.

It was an ornithology professor who steered her toward Maine, encouraging her to apply for a Hog Island scholarship, which she received in 1983. There she met Kress and became captivated by Project Puffin’s work to restore Atlantic puffin nesting colonies in Maine.

“I begged to become a ‘Puffineer,’” Sue said. Getting her wish, she volunteered to study and monitor puffins at Matinicus Rock in 1984, and returned to work on Eastern Egg Rock for the next five summers.

As a seasonal field biologist, she continued to monitor bird colonies on Maine islands, but put those experiences to good use abroad, too. In the Galapagos, she spent long nights using calls and scents to attract nocturnal dark-rumped petrels to protected nesting spots—sometimes becoming a landing pad for plummeting petrels in the process. She also spent a year in California successfully helping to restore a nesting colony of murres decimated by an oil spill.

‘Making a nest’ in Maine

After years in the field, Sue deemed it time to “build a nest” of her own. With its significance to her life and career, the place she chose is not surprising. She built a house in mid-coast Maine, in South Bristol, camping out initially in a structure of sticks and twigs. (“Isn’t this carrying the bird thing a bit too far?” asked one friend.) Years of living on outer islands had convinced her of a strong connection between living close to nature and profound contentment.

With a new home came a new job—joining forces with renowned Audubon educator “Puffin Pete” Salmansohn in Project Puffin’s outreach program. Since “Puffin Sue” didn’t have quite the right ring to it, she settled on “Seabird Sue”. “You need a good handle to go by,” Sue laughed. “And I always wanted a name with quotes around it.”

As an educator, she has gone into schools all over the midcoast area to teach students about marine life, using seabirds as a launch pad to all elements of ocean health. “The puffin is an excellent spokesbird for these lessons. They’re very engaging and social—being so cute doesn’t hurt either,” Sue said of the birds. “Since Maine is the only state with Atlantic puffins, they’ve become an icon here and really mean something to people.”

Kress is enthusiastic about Sue’s talents in the classroom. “Maine coast children fortunate enough to know her already think of her as a hero,” he said. “The Disney award is a vote of confidence for the important messages of ocean conservation that Sue brings to classes on Hog Island and mid-coast Maine schools.”

Sue also teaches about the birds at Project Puffin Visitors Center, where her artistic talents are on display through a puffin burrow she crafted and her undersea murals on several walls.

“I love it. It’s great to see kids excited about the ocean and know they’ll be having a positive impact,” Sue said of being an educator. “And working with kids is always an adventure.”

Life at Hog Island

In 2000 the lure of islands struck again, and Sue and Anthony (who captains Hog Island’s boats) moved to Bremen with Ayla to become caretakers for Hog Island Audubon Center.

One of Sue’s favorite classrooms is Hog Island, where she focuses on seabirds’ connections to the ocean ecosystem in the sessions she instructs. “We’re trying to get people to think of the impacts we’re having, and how we might offset some of them,” she said.

As caretakers of the sanctuary, she and her husband maintain trails and buildings on the island and mainland, get everything ready for the summer season, and button the works up for the winter. It’s a job that calls for a lot of skills and a lot of work, but she’s not afraid to roll up her sleeves to saw boards or sew curtains, whatever the task calls for.

Living on the grounds of a nature sanctuary in one of the most beautiful spots in Maine must certainly sweeten the deal. “Every season is very nice,” Sue said. “In the winter, the sea smoke rolls in against the pink dawn sky and everything is very quiet. But in the summer there is this burst of energy with many interesting people coming to the island.”

Want to be one of those interesting people? Meet “Seabird Sue” Schubel at the Hog Island open house on August 23 and see why she’s winning awards—from Disney for her wildlife work and from the Old Bristol Days fair for her chowder (don’t forget to check out the T-shirts she’s designed in the Nature Store while you’re at it).