Summer 2017
This summer, members of the CooperLab dispersed across the region to conduct their fieldwork.
Several students including Ryan Chitwood, Will Lewis, and several members from the Chandler Lab traveled to the Coweeta Field station. Ryan completed his final field season for his Master's research studying the distribution and nest success of Black-throated Blue warblers. He spent most of his time resighting banded birds, searching for nests and navigating steep hillsides covered in dense rhododendron and mountain laurel.
Will spent the summer investigating the feasibility of using transmitters on Veery, with the hopes of helping to shed light on the post-fledging behavior of these birds. This was the first summer of field work for Will's Ph.D. project, and he learned a lot about some of the logistic challenges of studying songbirds during this critical time period.
Rather than spending the summer in the cool North Carolina mountains, Lauren Gingerella completed her final field season for her Master's research on the beaches of Little St. Simons Island, Georgia. Lauren spent her days tracking Wilson's Plovers, locating and monitoring nests and deploying predator exclosures to determine how non-lethal predator control influences nest success. She also banded chicks and resighted them to assess overall fledging survival rates at this site.
Because the beaches of Little St. Simons are pristine habitat for shorebirds, there are restrictions for motorized vehicles- luckily Lauren cleverly designed a bicycle-powered mode of transportation that allowed her to get her exclosure supplies anywhere on the beach!
Further abroad, Rhianna Hohbein traveled to Colombia, South America, spending her time learning about the Andean mountain region where she hopes to collaborate with conservation organizations that focus their work on the Andean bear. In addition to making connections, and learning about the region, Rhianna also spent time exploring with Nate Nibbelink, who co-advises her.
They attended the 2017 International Congress for Conservation Biology in Cartagena. This provided an opportunity to meet conservation professionals from around the world, and highlight some of the work that UGA's Integrative Conservation (ICON) Ph.D. program has accomplished.
