Owling and more

After recent lulls along the New Hampshire coast I've been repeatedly taking trips up to the White Mountains, inland, and to the few Pine Barrens in the state. I'm pretty much sold that this is the area to be in New Hampshire right now.

I spent Friday in some random locations looking at salt marshes and attempting to find my friend Jessie some life birds including a Cerulean Warbler. While we did not see a CERW we did encounter some 14 life birds for her including Grasshopper, Vesper, and Saltmarsh Sharp-tailed Sparrow.

I added Nelson's Sharp-tailed Sparrow to my year list at one of my research/birding sites. These little guys seem to be everywhere right now! We also picked out a probable nest for the Saltmarsh Sharp-tailed Sparrows.

Friday evening Jessie and I were treated to a mocking by 4 Virginia Rails before picking up Eastern Screech-owl for my year list. We had 3+ owls calling and 2 nearly took off our heads. An hour later we were in Concord where we met up with Jason to look for Northern Saw-whet Owls. While we fell short in that regard we added Whip-poor-will to our "almost killed by" list and to her life list.

Saturday I headed out in search of birds in the south-eastern part of the state. A slow morning led to a quick stop at the bookstore where I picked up a field guide to butterflies. I was warned that come summer I'd be looking at other things when the birding died down. And so I am.

In true "rare species loving fashion" I then headed back to concord to the Karner Blue Butterfly sanctuary. After locating Karner Blue #211 I spent some time looking at birds ranging from Common Nighthawk, Vesper's Sparrow, Prairie Warbler, and Pine Warbler. After a quick break for dinner I decided rather than drive home at a reasonable hour I'd attempt for the Saw-whet that was reported another time.

I headed out to the spot, watched the sun set and then began the search. My search turned up more Whip-poor-will's, 2 skunks, bull frogs, spring peepers, green frogs, etc. but no NSWO's. I headed home once again discouraged.

The following morning I decided to visit the famous MIKI's in Newmarket and spend a little more time looking at butterflies. Keeping true to my random style I ran into Jason and decided to head up north to Ossipee to check out the pine barrens. After seeing a few butterflies a call from Ben took us away to Church Bog along the Kangamangus Highway.

Goal species here included Olive-sided Flycatcher (for me) and Northern Waterthrush (for Jason). While we failed to see either of these species I was treated to a beautiful showing of Ledum groenlandicum (Labrador Tea) in flower and plenty of Sphagnum spp. to jump all over.

After scaring the boys with my love of plants we got back to looking at birds. The highlight were the Palm Warblers we stumbled into (first picked out by me I'm proud to say). Study of the birds confirmed our immediate suspicion that if these birds are around in June they must be nesting. Palm Warblers did not historically nest here so it was a rather exciting find (and a year bird for Ben who was in California when they moved through).

After dinner, Jason and I got back to looking for birds. The target bird again was Northern Saw-whet Owl... and again we fell short. The highlight of the night was the Barred Owl that came in to my whistling for Saw-whets. I suppose he wanted a snack but I guess I'm a little too big for his stomach.

I've learned a number of things this past weekend including the fact that I should probably keep a tent and a sleeping bag in my car at all points in time in order to encourage random road and owling trips.

Rare, threatened, and endangered....PLANTS!

Things are more exciting when they're rare threatened and endangered aren't they?  A lot of people seem to think so.  I'm pretty sure that this is the only reason why my research, centered around rare plants in tidal systems draws as much attention as it does.  (Well, OK, only other reason than my "rock star" personality.) 

Some of you may be saying "Huh? What are you talking about - I don't even know what you're doing.  Last thing I knew you said birds and now you're mentioning things that photosynthesize."   Others of you may be saying "Photosynthesize? What's that?! Now I'm confused."  Anyway, before more confusion occurs let me give some background (but don't worry - I won't use the big p word again):

Fieldwork in class - rocking the waders and nerdy vest

I just finished my second semester as a Master's student in Plant Biology at the University of New Hampshire.  While I am a passionate birder, I am also a passionate botanist.  I was interested in plants long before birds, mostly because they did not move and were therefore easier to identify (Since then I no longer believe that this makes them easier to identify because for many species of sedge things such as length of seed tail or length of achene beak are the determining factor and it may take weeks to allow species to develop fully.  Even then you still may be left in an ambiguous range of overlap.).

Necessary fieldwork equipment: hip-boots and a kayak.  Can't beat kayaking for work!

I work in the salt marsh ecology lab and my project centers on understanding rare, threatened, and endangered species in the state of NH.  Most of the species I work with are threatened or endangered in other states as well.  Currently, I am focusing on five species of plant; four threatened, one endangered.  My goal is to quantify the conditions that they grow in to answer questions such as: What salinity's do you find them in?  What is the soil like? Is there development around? Is there a certain pH? Do you find them with certain other plants? Do you find them in only certain places..... etc.

Forb panne in salt marsh - common area for rare plants - the out of focus flower is one of my study species: Seaside Gerardia (Agalinis maritima)

One of the beautiful things about science is that there are still so many unanswered basic questions! Answering these questions means that I spend most of my days in a marsh accessed by walking or boating.  It means I fall flat in the mud often (which is good because that's pretty much the only way to find one of the species which never grows more than an inch or two high).  It means I go through a lot of sunblock, iced coffee, and laundry detergent.

  

Another one of my study plants - not as striking as the former plant, but beautiful in it's own special way.  It's actually related to carrots!  (Lilaeopsis chinensis)

Why would anyone want to do research like this, you may ask.  Well, I have an answer for you.  Knowing the conditions necessary for the growth and development of these species is key to understanding how to protect and conserve the few remaining populations.  Additionally, with an understanding of such requirements, it may be possible to use plants that have been salvaged from impacted/developed/altered marshes as a source for restoration and mitigation work.  In other words, in a coastal wetland restoration we can use rare plants with a local genotype in plantings.  Restoration in areas of historic occurrence is of increasing concern as most of the species I am studying are probably in decline within the state.  There are many areas that they historically occurred which are now over-run with non-natives; prime target areas for a restoration project with a rare plant component!.  

Who funds these sorts of projects? Well that's a good question!  I spend a lot of my winter looking for funding.  I was lucky enough to secure 3 total grants and fellowships to support my summer work (woohoo food and housing!) and am waiting to hear back on one more application.  Fortunately, my supplies are relatively cheap (unlike molecular studies) as most of my purchases go to things that can be re-used (such as a salinity meter).  My shameless $ plug here must follow: if you know anyone or any organization who's interested in funding research like this, please pass the information on to me!  There's a lot of small bits of funding out there but it's scattered all over the place.

Salicornia bigelovii or Glasswort - this NH-endangered species could be a great source of fat for birds during migration in the fall

Having restoration opportunities that go beyond creating "typical salt marsh" provides habitat heterogeneity and diversity which supports a broader array of species... including BIRDS.  (Now you birders have one more reason to care!) A lot of restorations these days focus on creating simple salt marsh which may look good but may not support the species that historically occurred in a given area which may have been a tidal mudflat or a brackish riverbank marsh.  Learning how to re-create these habitats is critical for more effective restoration plans.  

We aren't trying to expand these species into areas they didn't historically occur.  We're just trying to make sure that some of the lesser known salt marsh species, which happen to be a bit sexy (in our twisted botanical minds), are preserved in the long term.  We're not restoring an area to100% rare plant cover - rather, we're trying to add another conservation component to projects.  

So, there's the basics - fire away with any questions.  And if you're in the area - keep your ears/eyes peeled next spring for my local presentations and thesis defense!

Watch out for spiders

Yesterday was a great day working out in the field for Field Botany (funny how that works). We sampled 2 forests and visited a third. It is humbling to go out and not remember plants and then be reminde of how little I do know. However, simultaneously it is awesome to get out there and see how much I do actually remember.

One of the coolest things I saw (besides the plants) was this white spider hiding in this flower only to grab a bee attempting to pollenate it and then proceed to kill it and suck its insides out:

This is one of many shots I took. I sort of like that you can see the water drops in the flower on this one.

Other highlighs included a look at the male (below) and female Evening Grosbeak at Hartwick Pines. Also spotted was a Purple Finch (male and female), Rose Breasted Grosbeak (males and females, and a Ruby-Throated Hummingbird (female).

Today I had a real treat bird-wise that even topped the dimorphism show of yesterday. I saw my 9th ever Kirtland's Warbler. This rare bird requires forest rejuvination via fire within Jack Pine (Pinus banksiana) stands. Its range is basically the local area though a few have been found in the UP of Michigan recently. Most of the KW that are seen are found in Grayling, Michigan - home of the Kirtland's Warbler Festival.

Today we (three students, 2 faculty/profs, and myself) popped into the forest while on a quick tour of locations for tomorrow's integrative day. It was raining and the warblers were singing but none were being cooperative and singing high in the trees. Just as we turned to leave one darted infront of us in the first-second row Jack Pines. I quickly found it and pointed it out. To our fortune it climbed up the second back Jack Pine and perched quite nicely for us. If it weren't for the rain I would have had the shot of a lifetime of a Kirtland's. Oh well! It was awesome to see the little bird once again.