New paper out: Ability to alter song in two grassland songbirds exposed to simulated anthropogenic noise is not related to pre-existing variability

Exciting news!  The first paper from my experimental work as a post-doc at the University of Manitoba has been published in Bioacoustics.  We compared how Baird's and Savannah sparrows alter their songs in the presence of simulated oil well drilling noise, and found that they both altered their songs in response to noise.  This was in spite of the fact that Savannah Sparrow has much more species-level variation in song relative to Baird's Sparrow.  Read all about it!

New paper out: Cattle grazing intensity and duration have varied effects on songbird nest survival in mixed-grass prairies

I'm a co-author on a new paper out in Rangeland Ecology and Management.  It's currently up online though it hasn't been assigned a volume/issue yet.  We looked at effects of different grazing regimes (differing duration stocking rates) in Grasslands National Park (Saskatchewan, Canada) and nearby areas on nest survival, and found few effects overall.  A few species had lowered nest survival in some years at low to moderate grazing intensities, such as Sprague's Pipit, Chestnut-collared Longspur, and Vesper Sparrow. Check it out!

Nestling Chestnut-collared Longspurs, near Brooks, Alberta, Canada.  14 June 2016.

Sneaky sparrow

We've almost certainly heard this male Baird's Sparrow on several days since banding (same song in same territory), but he likes to perch in the grass out of sight.  08 July 2015, near Brooks, Alberta.

Field work in full swing!

Field work is in full swing.  I'm back out in Brooks, Alberta, and we're banding Baird's Sparrows, Savannah Sparrows, and Chestnut-collared Longspurs.  Here's one of our beautiful Baird's from yesterday!

Baird's Sparrow, near Brooks, Newell County, Alberta.  21 May 2015.