Summer research week 12

Monday 8/3/2015

Finished off edits of the State Wildlife Action Plans. I volunteers to cover 6 early successional (grassland and shrubland) species of birds and I called for more fire to maintain habitat for these species. Will be interesting to see how that is received.

Tuesday 8/4/2015

Went to Nescopeck State Park to catch birds and set up small mammal traps. Was bloody hot and only captured three birds: 2 Song Sparrow and a Rudy-throated Hummingbird. 

We also need to do tons of vegetation measurements for birds. For me that means structure more than composition (I hope!). Did the first one today with only a few goof ups (like measuring a transect out from the radius and not the diameter so after 10 points there were still 10 to go outside of our plot area). 

Wednesday 8/5/2015

Went toNescopeck State Park for vegetation sampling, small mammals, and birds. The crew has picked up on how to do vegetation sampling so I'm happy with that. We have some 20 small mammal traps out and captured a female meadow vole. We only had two nets out but we captured a Yellow-throated Vireo and a flycatcher that was either an Alder or Willow. 

Thursday 8/6/2015

Last day at Nescopeck State Park. Goal was to finish vegetation sampling at two fields. Done. No small mammals in the small mammal traps. Better luck with the birds. Picked up another hummingbird and we were able to use feathers from the breast that sloughed off. Captured a Field Sparrow at the silo field (there's an actual silo), American Goldfinch, and a Common Yellowthroat. Overall a good day.

Summer Research Week 5 (catching up!)

MONDAY 6/8/2015

Out to the Penobscot Bike Trail in Newport Township PA. Bird highlights included seven Yellow-breasted Chats, a Barred Owl, and a zillion Grasshopper Sparrows.

It started out terrible with a downpour as I just pulled up to the site. On the upside, no insects like last year when I was immediately smothered in no-see-um and biting gnats (blackflies?). 

The most outstanding aspect of the data was that the sites was being devoured by gypsy moth caterpillars. 

 

Chat City: two in this scene

Large red oak completely defoliated by gypsy moths

Bare patches are damaged from gypsy moth caterpillars

TUESDAY 6/9/2015

Rain day - spent the day in the lab troubleshooting data entry and organizing 
WEDNESDAY 6/10/2015  @ SGL036

One of the favorite sites and always has some sort of surprise. It's a drive: just over 2 hours so I'm leaving the house just after 3.

This is an old surface mine site that is part of three townships in Bradford county. Reclaimed mine sites, BTW, are the clear leader in GMS diversity among the grassland, meadow, and savanna sites. See the comparison with the grassland at SGL 205-warm season below. 

Panoramic view of SGL036

Ground cover where there was burning < 1 year ago

This year I didn't get the Henslow's Sparrow that was there last year. I even covered the same area with playback (played digital recordings of a male's [pathetic] song - examples here). Also missed Warbling Vireo in the shrubs that dot the landscape. 

Like last year, the day starts out with a visit from a family of raucous Common Ravens. Same response to me: the come out of the forest, circle and scream, and head back to the forest. Gives me chills.

There was a Northern Harrier on the site, except this year it was closer to the parking lot site. Again, the bird was far off so pictures are  crappy.  This is also a great site for Brown Thrasher, Grasshopper Sparrow, Prairie Warbler, Field Sparrow, Yellow Warbler, Chestnut-sided Warbler, and Song Sparrow. There's a family of Eastern Bluebird that use the game commission boxes and I spotted a Wild Turkey from afar. I'd add captions but doing so makes the position of the pictures all screwy. 

Red-shouldered Hawk

The two best birds of the day were Bobolink - a PAIR! and a Savannah Sparrow that wasn't identified until I was checking out my pictures. The worrisome thing for me is that I didn't detect the Savannah Sparrow by voice. They sound very much like Grasshopper Sparrows. So I think I'll go back through my routes when I'm done and do playback on confirm identities visually. 

Male Bobolink

Savannah Sparrow

THURSDAY 6/11/2015 @ SGL205 in Trexlertown/Schnecksville

Did my bird surveys at both the warm season and cool season grasslands. Both have low diversity. The cool season is an easy walk for now but will be a bee infested hell next time I go. The warm season field is already a pain for a completely different reason - the grasses are  thick and arc just over your boots so you end up pushing through the field. 

This year the survey was disappointing - didn't pick up either American Kestrel or Grasshopper Sparrow that were present last year. Lack of detection or just not there? Another round of surveys might be telling. 

The crew came down and caught birds and had the best day yet at the cool season grassland. Captured nearly a dozen birds and included a Red-winged Blackbird. 

FRIDAY 6/12/2015 @ Trumbower Farm in Shickshinny

One of the least diverse sites. I think this comes down to size and isolation (as Island Biogeography would predict). Still, this is a nice site and I did pick up a Northern Mockingbird - something very intriguing about these birds. The site was burned last year but still doesn't have Grasshopper Sparrows. Interesting. 

Some cool (and kinda creepy) fungus

Summer Research Week 3

MONDAY 5/25/15 - Memorial Day
TUESDAY 5/26/15 - off 

WEDNESDAY 5/27/15

Went to SGL 221 in Cresco, PA. This is part of our grassland study but not in any way a grassland. The area is a large coppice woodland - the oaks and hickories were cut and left to resprout - and did they! I'd estimate that the height of most of the vegetation is around 2 - 3 and dense with a thick understory of sweet fern, bracken fern, and blueberries. I do need to take photos of the site. 

Went in today with Matt and Sebastian to cut back the vegetation along a trail so I can find my way between points. Somebody tore down the flags I put up last year. Oh well. Bloody hot and Matt picked off eight ticks. I'm going to call the trail the Pike Memorial Trail in honor of a student that went out with me last year 

Some of the interesting finds was the giant coyote poop - complete with dung beetle and a porcupine. Not a day to forget the camera's SD in the computer. But the porcupine is resting in the fork of the large tree.

THURSDAY 5/28/2015

First bird survey of the season and I went out to SGL119. We call the site Francis Walter Dam but the dam is a few miles away. This is a restoration site and is where they removed the top soil to build the dam. So there wasn't much more than bare rock for a number of years. I don't know all the details but Pheasants Forever is out there to help the restoration effort (though I wish it was more "Northern Bobwhite Forever"). 

Bird-wise the site had all the usual suspects: Prairie Warblers, Field Sparrows, Chestnut-sided Warblers, Gray Catbirds, etc. Was hoping for Yellow-breasted chat but I think the shrubs need to develop a bit more. After the survey, I took a walk along the edges where I could hear frogs croaking - not a disappointment. Lots of copulation. Hopefully, we'll have a few more rain events to let the young develop. 

Eastern Bluebird - no nest boxes!

Gray Treefrog doing their thang!

Cinnamon Fern

Interrupted Fern (love this genus!)

We also kicked out the fruit study to look at the effects of landscape on fruit removal rates. So we made agar-fructose fruits with some red food coloring and set them out. They shrunk and nothing ate them after 16 or so hours but we put them back out. We really need cameras on them too. Need $$$. 

FRIDAY - 5/29/2015

Bird survey at Ricketts Glen State Park. One of my favorite places to be at sunrise and one of the most diverse places for a bird survey. The day started out horrible. At 445 in the morning I filled the cup holder in the truck with the entire contents of my mug. So no coffee. 

This trip had fewer species than last year but still good stuff. There were several Common Ravens around - one of the species expanding towards the south. Tons of Prairie Warblers, Gray Catbirds, Tree Swallows. There was an Alder Flycatcher that I, again, called a phoebe before I figured out what is really was (and confirmed with a sighting). There were tons of cuckoos around - maybe in response to the gypsy moth outbreak? Interesting paper suggests they do just that. I didn't realize the outbreak was as large as it was until I was driving along the river towards Berwick and you could see denuded trees on the ridges. A also called a Swamp Sparrow a Chipping Sparrow until I realized they're not in swamps (duh). Didn't get the Northern Harrier this year but last year it was just luck as it spent a total of 10 seconds in the field I was surveying. Did get a Sharp-shinned Hawk that was being harassed by a hoard of Tree Swallows. Also, a bunch of White-throated Sparrows were singing. Yay for elevation. 

The best stuff was the non-birds: smooth green snake! and I got some bear fur for isotopes. 

Sunrise at Rickett's Glen "Hayfields"

After RGSP, a lunch break (at 9), then picked up some students and off to a CREP field to get samples from a bluebird box and ended up catching a song sparrow and gray catbird.