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Mapping Migration – UDaily

Check out the recent UDaily article about our collaboration with Princeton University researchers to map migratory stopover in the eastern U.S.

“Underscoring the conservation value of these stopover sites, the study indicates that the protection of forested land is necessary, particularly in landscapes dominated by agriculture, to create a network of suitable habitats through which songbirds can travel. As many bird populations face rapid declines, stopover site preservation could help ease the burden of an otherwise vulnerable migration journey and help sustain healthy bird populations.”

Weather radar is key to bird-friendly wind energy

Our new research on using weather radar to minimize impacts of wind energy development on migratory birds is featured here…

https://www.anthropocenemagazine.org/2022/05/weather-radar-key-to-bird-friendly-wind-energy/

Recognition Roundup!

UD Aeroecology Lab members have worked hard the last few months… not only on their studies! We are so proud of them!

Amanda and Katie have both recently received external funding towards their research. Amanda received $10,000 from the UD Gerard J. Mangone Climate Change Science and Policy Hub to collect fall migration data in the Atchafalaya River Basin of Louisiana using a portable Doppler radar. She was also voted Fan Favorite for her 90-second pitch at the DENIN pitch-90 competition this past November and won $150.  Katie received $2400 from the Purple Martin Conservation Association to build another Motus receiver near the Aberdeen Proving Ground as part of her martin roost tracking effort.

Some of our lab members got cash awards for their presentations at the CANR Research Symposium. Amanda Crandall won 1st place overall for MS students ($110) and 2nd place for the Climate Change session ($75). Shelly Eschleman won 3rd place for the Human Dimensions session ($50). Matt Hardy won 3rd place overall for MS students ($50).

Congrats also to Matt Hardy, who won an Honorable Mention in the 2021 University of Delaware Student Competition for Geospatial Data Visualization / Map Design. Great job, Matt!

Kaylie Beale has already been working in the lab for a year now, but she will be supported this summer on an Department of Entomology and Wildlife Ecology Research Experience Internship to help Katie Bird track Purple Martins! Congratulations Kaylie!

Congratulations also to Brett Butcofsky, who has been working in the lab for a year now, and has been awarded a CANR Unique Strengths Scholarship this summer to do an independent study on mapping bird stopover in Texas! He will also be helping Amanda Crandall with her thesis research.

A New Golden Age of Observation…

Here is an article from Audubon Magazine highlighting the work from Dr. Buler, a former lab member Dr. Kyle Horton, and other lab collaborators about how we use technology to study nocturnal bird migration.

“Most migratory birds make their epic annual journeys under cover of darkness. Modern technologies are helping scientists understand the perils these nocturnal voyagers face to better protect them.”

https://www.audubon.org/magazine/spring-2021/a-new-golden-age-observation-revealing-wonders

Delaware Waterfowl Tracker is now online

The Delaware Waterfowl Tracker (https://delawarewaterfowltracker.shinyapps.io/Delaware_Waterfowl_Tracker/)  is an interactive web-application that allows users to visualize the distribution of overwintering waterfowl within the Delmarva Peninsula.  The app is open to the public and targets stakeholders in the Delaware poultry industry in order to assist their biosecurity efforts to prevent the vectoring of avian influenza from waterfowl to poultry. Susannah Halligan, an undergraduate Wildlife Ecology and Conservation major, with the help of Dr. Buler and Jaclyn Smolinsky within the Aeroecology Program created the Shiny app in R using Boosted Regression Tree models of histroical weather surveillance raster observations of waterfowl as they initiate evening feeding flights from daytime roosting areas. The app shows past predicted monthly average waterfowl density during the winters of 2008 – 2015. We’ve also pinned a few of the “hotspots” where waterfowl tend to congregate.

 

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