Spring migration, Lake Erie, Ohio, US (2006)
In spring 2006, I spent two months in the western basin of Lake Erie on the Ottawa National Wildlife Refuge complex and Crane Creek/Magee Marsh Wildlife Area studying songbird migration on a project out of Ohio State University. Research included migration monitoring of spring migrants, a radio telemetry study on stopover ecology of Myrtle Warblers and Red-eyed Vireos, and a metabolite study on Myrtle Warblers, Magnolia Warblers, and White-throated Sparrows. Work varied day to day depending on which project component you were working on. Migration monitoring consisted of a continuous banding study at Cedar Point National Wildlife Refuge. April saw many sparrows, thrushes, and Myrtle Warblers head north with shiny new leg-wear. Towards the end of April and well into May, the first heavy wave of the beautifully-coloured warblers arrived. The end of May saw a rush of flycatchers, most of which belonged to the very-tricky-to-id Empidonax family. We were also kept busy running around the refuge with antennas and receivers listening for the tell-tale beep beep beep of a tagged MYWA or REVI.
Where is Ottawa NWR? Click for a map
See pictures from Ohio
Long Point Bird Observatory, Lake Erie, Ontario, Canada (2005)
In October 2005, I spent my first fall free from school on Long Point, a 30 km long spit of sand, grass, cottonwoods, and marshland in southern Ontario that sticks out into Lake Erie. Because of its topography and geographic location, Long Point is a prime stopover location for both spring and fall migrants as they make their flight across the lake. LPBO is one of the most well-established and respected bird observatories in Canada, and has a decade-long history of migration monitoring. As part of the Fall 2005 crew, I spent time at 2 of LPBO's 3 monitoring stations. Old Cut, located nearest to the mainland, is the base station for LPBO, and the Tip, the oldest station at LPBO, located (obviously) right at the Tip of Long Point, in the shadow of the Long Point lighthouse. Migration monitoring consists of early mornings and late nights, as we were up with the songbirds and went to bed with the owls. Most days consisted of setting up the mist nets at dawn and banding for 6 hours. Afternoons were for data entry, and evenings, when the weather allowed, for owl-banding. Memorable moments from LPBO included the insanity of our 564 birds banded day (mostly tiny, fragile kinglets), the Peregrine Falcon caught in the hawk net, the fallout of hundreds of Black-capped Chickadees (that peck your helping fingers to no end), and the adorable, soft, big-eyed, tiny Saw-whet Owls.
Where is Long Point? Click for a map
See pictures from LPBO
Kachemak Bay Shorebird Festival, Homer, Alaska, United States (2005)
In May 2005, I visited Alaska on a scholarship for the Kachemak Bay Shorebird Festival. This festival coincides with the spring migration of many of the species of shorebird that nest in Alaska, and Homer, located by Kachemak Bay on Alaska's Kenai Peninsula is a major stopping point. I took several pelagic trips out into the Bay and saw murres, kittiwakes, Marbled Murrelets, Pigeon Guillemots, scoters, Harlequin Ducks, and lots of adorably fuzzy sea otters. I was also a speaker at the festival and gave a presentation on shorebird mating behaviour. After the festival, I rented a car in Anchorage and adventured around Alaska - to the other side of the Kenai Peninsula to the town of Seward on beautiful Resurrection Bay and the glaciers of the Harding Icefield; and north towards Denali National Park and the soaring heights of Mt. McKinley.
Triangle Island Seabird Research and Monitoring Program, British Columbia, Canada (2004 and 2005)
On this tiny speck of rock 45 km from the northwestern tip of Vancouver Island, I spent a combined total of 19 weeks during the summers of 2004 and 2005. I was part of a rotating field crew that monitored seabird reproductive success and chick growth between March and August. The main species studied were Cassin's Auklet, Rhinoceros Auklet, Tufted Puffin, Common Murre, and Pelagic Cormorant. CAAU, RHAU, and TUPU are burrow nesters, digging their nests into the steep grassy slopes of the island. We monitored nest success and chick growth of these species on a schedule throughout the season. COMU and PECO are cliff nesters - we monitored nest success, colony attendance, and food provisioning habits. We also banded CAAU and RHAU adults - but in the dead of night, as these birds are nocturnal visitors to the colony! Crawling out of bed at 2AM, strapping on our safety helmets, we stumbled to the banding station, set up our equipment, and banded birds until dawn. Then happily home to bed again! We also monitored food provisiong of CAAU and RHAU, either by chasing down arriving birds near midnight and stuffing their heads into a funnel so they would puke up their plankton gurge (CAAU) or snagging birds dropping onto the slope with a long-handled fish net and stealing their fish (RHAU) - both methods equally mean of us.
Where is Triangle? Click for a map
See pictures from Triangle 2005
La Perouse Bay Research Station part of the Hudson's Bay Project, Churchill, Manitoba, Canada (2003)
In the heart of polar bear country, I worked on a summer NSERC as the assistant to Rachel Sturge, a Master's student at the University of Toronto. We examined reproductive success of a ground-nesting sparrow, the Savannah Sparrow (Passerculus sandwichensis) nesting in a variety of habitat ranging from degraded to relatively lush. We tromped through the rivers, mud, and willow bushes marking out territories of singing males, searching for nests, monitoring nest contents, and attempting to mist-net and colour-band territorial males (attempt being the key word). Other projects involved a one-week snow goose banding blitz spanning a 100 km section of Hudson Bay coastline south of Cape Churchill. Flightless Snow geese (and Ross' geese) were rounded up into an erected holding pen, then banded, collared, and measured by the banding production line.
Where is LPB? Click for a map
See pictures from LPB
Tropical Marine Biology, University of Toronto field course, Barbados (2005)
Continuing with the trend of travelling to warm destinations over February reading week, I spent 10 days in the scorching sun, warm sea breeze of Barbados at McGill's Bellairs Institute. Actually, probably 75% of my waking hours was spent goggles on face, flippers on feet, face in water paddling around the coral reefs up and down the Caribbean coastline of Barbados. Despite being extremely waterlogged by the end of the trip (and nicely tanned), the experience was amazing - an intense array of colours of hundreds of tropical fish, many species of coral, and the curious denizens of coral reefs made my time in Barbados unforgettable and instilled a desire to visit more warm tropical seas.
Note - for other sun-seekers, the Bellairs Institute does offer accomodation to tourists, as long as there is space. Rates will be on a university researcher's level, ie. much cheaper than you'd find at the neighbouring resorts.
Field Ornithology, University of Toronto field course, St. Andrews, New Brunswick, Canada (2004)
In May 2004, 25 students travelled to the shores of Passamoquoddy Bay to learn about birds at the Huntsman Marine Science Centre. We spent two weeks getting up at dawn and hiking through the woods getting to know our songbirds. We also took a trip out into the Bay of Fundy to Machias Seal Island, home to thousands of nesting Atlantic Puffins, Common Murres, and Razorbills. My individual project examined the response of 3 common warblers to a trespassing male (aka the tape player).
Tropical Ecology and Evolution, University of Toronto field course, Ecuador (2003)
For one week in February, 25 students and teachers escaped the cold of Canada for the tropical heat of South America. Our travels began in high-altitude Quito and continued south through the Andes to Loja to our first field site, Vilcabamba, a mixed-succession stage brush forest where we were initiated into the wonders of tropical flora and fauna. We continued back up into the mountains to the cloud forest station of San Francisco in Podocarpus National Park, and then proceeded to our main field site, Bombuscara a lower montane rainforest in Podocarpus National Park. We raced to finish our individual projects over the course of 2.5 days, and finished up in the pouring rain and persistent mist of the beginning of the rainy season. Along the way, we marvelled at our encounters with tropical birds (a motmot and the ever-present blue-grey tanager), bats, amazing beetles, bees, and other insects, and the never-ending diversity of tropical flora.
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