I returned from Veracruz last night (as "blackhole" will be happy to hear) with no serious tequila-related injuries to report. Our southbound trip brought us to the North American Ornithological Conference, a joint meeting of numerous ornithological societies that is held every 4 years. The QUBS contingent (including both current and former researchers) was extensive - Raleigh Robertson, Laurene Ratcliffe, Dan Mennill, Stephanie Doucet, Ryan Norris, Bridget Stutchbury, Pete Marra, Jason Jones, Scott Tarof, Peter Dunn, Linda Whittingham, Rachel Vallender, Frode Jacobsen, Matt Reudink, Jenn Foote, Kevin Fraser, Lauren Reed, Javier Salgado-Ortiz, Stephanie Hung, Christina Carter, myself, and probably others I am either forgetting or am unaware of. There were many presentations based on research at the station, brief summaries of which can be found below (thanks for the suggestion Bob!). My name is absent from this list because my talk was unfortunately not related to QUBS.
Black-capped Chickadees:Jenn Foote (PhD student at Queen's, sv Laurene Ratcliffe) presented a poster on the utility of an Acoustic Location System (an array of 16 microphones) for studying network communication during the dawn chorus.
Lauren Reed (MSc student at Windsor, sv Dan Mennill) gave a talk on vocal interactions and territorial movements during song contests, also with the use of an Acoustic Location System.
Tree Swallows:Raleigh Robertson (Professor at Queen's and former QUBS director) reviewed the state of evidence for various hypotheses surrounding the apparent willingness of females to engage in extra-pair matings, mostly using his long-term study on Tree Swallows at QUBS.
American Redstarts:Matt Reudink (PhD student at Queen's, svs Laurene Ratcliffe and Pete Marra) presented a poster on the function of plumage in the acquisition of high-quality habitat in winter, a study that involved fieldwork at QUBS and in Jamaica. Out of 800 eligible posters and talks, Matt was recognized with a student presentation award. Congrats Matt!
Scott Sillett (Research Scientist at the Smithsonian Migratory Bird Center) gave a talk on annual survival estimates in migratory birds, which incorporated data from the American Redstart population at QUBS.
Golden-winged Warblers and Cerulean Warblers:Rachel Vallender (now a postdoc at Cornell) presented a poster on part of her doctoral research at Queen's (sv Raleigh Robertson). She used genetic markers to examine the "purity" of the Golden-winged Warbler population at QUBS, which has been subject to a recent invasion by Blue-winged Warblers.
Kevin Fraser (MSc student at Queen's, sv Laurene Ratcliffe) spoke about the turnover of stable-hydrogen isotopes in claws sampled from Golden-winged Warblers and Cerulean Warblers throughout the breeding season at QUBS.
Jason Jones (Visiting Assistant Professor at Vassar College) gave 2 talks, one on his own research and the other on behalf of his wife, Jenn Barg. In the first, Jason detailed geographic variation in a suite of population characteristics (age-structure, dispersal, etc.) across the breeding range of Cerulean Warblers. In the second, he spoke about habitat requirements specific to the Cerulean population at QUBS.
After a somewhat dreary week in Kingston, the skies cleared for the annual grad student weekend at QUBS. There were around 40 of us in all, with representation from nearly every portion of the department. Notable QUBS 'regulars' in attendance were Caleb Hasler, Rhiannon Davies, Matt Reudink, Susie Crowe, Eric DeLong (aka Yukon), Roz Dakin, Rush Dhillon, Robyn Foote, and, of course, myself. I am pleased to report that the weekend was filled with stimulating intellectual activities. Who am I kidding? We went hiking in the woods, drank beer around a campfire, and had an all-around good time. Thanks for making the event happen, Rhiannon and Glen!
