Lew’s project for the 2007 Rea Internship focuses on the budding bioacoustics research program at Powdermill. Specifically, we are studying nocturnal flight calls given by migratory songbirds. This exciting field is still largely in its infancy, but the potential for conservation applications is strong. Currently, we are working on two distinct projects in the Bioacoustics Lab.

The first project utilizes the new flight call recording studio built at PARC last spring. This unique facility allows us to record nocturnal flight calls from birds that have been captured at the banding station. By recording calls from known species, we are capable of building a sizeable flight call library. Analysis of the calls will result in greater precision and ability to identify flight calls for researchers everywhere.

The second project involves our field recording units. Currently, there are three automated recording stations at Powdermill (we also provide data consulting work for four microphones recently installed at the new Tom Ridge Environmental Center in Erie, PA). Data from these microphones will be used to answer a variety of questions, from improving computer algorithms for detection of calls to comparisons of recording, banding, and local weather data.

Michael Allen, a second year master’s student at East Stroudsburg University in the Department of Biological Sciences continues his research at Powdermill again this year. Mike was our 2006 Rea Intern in Applied Ecology. Under the direction of his faculty advisor, Dr. Terry Master, Mike spent the summers of 2006 and 2007 investigating the habitat selection and productivity of the Acadian Flycatcher in our deciduous forest and hemlock groves here. In eastern PA, the Acadian Flycatcher nests in hemlock forests which are now seriously threatened by the Hemlock Woolly Adelgid. It is anticipated that this study will have important implications for the conservation biology of this species. Michael is a graduate of Rutgers University where he also earned his GIS certificate. His major academic interest is songbird ecology.

Photo: Michael Allen checks eggs in an Acadian Flycatcher nest.

Continuing the research on Louisiana Waterthrush (LOWA) begun by Robert Mulvihill in 1996, Maria Paulino and Danilo Mejila follow the progress of the species’ viability on two streams at Powdermill. Nest searching and color banding each bird before it fledges are part of the daily research that Maria and Danilo carried out in two-mile sections of the study site. An obligate riparian species, the “feathered trout” is an excellent bioindicator of stream quality. Its existence depends on the availability of an aquatic macroinvertebrate food supply which in turn depends on pH neutral water unpolluted by acid mine drainage, as is found in Powdermill Run.

This summer’s work on the project was a collaborative effort with the National Aviary and was overseen by Dr. Steve Latta, Assistant Director of Conservation and Field Research at the Aviary.

Click here to learn more about PARC's research on the Louisiana Waterthrush.

Photo: Maria Paulino and Danilo Mejila search the Powdermill streamside for Louisiana Waterthrush nesting sites.

Research during 2003–2004 by Felicity Newell focused on the consequences of forest fragmentation for the Wood Thrush, a species of conservation concern in Pennsylvania.

Initiated as a senior tutorial at Chatham College in Pittsburgh with Dr. Mary Kostalos, Felicity received the Hall/Mayfield Award from the Wilson Ornithological Society to continue field work. She examined effects of nest placement on Wood Thrush nest success across a gradient from urban to contiguous forest. Undisturbed forest at Powdermill Nature Reserve was compared to six urban and suburban parks in and around the city of Pittsburgh. Results of this study suggest that low Wood Thrush nests in dense understory may be vulnerable to predation along the forest edge. However, the exact mechanisms leading to this association remain unknown. For more information see the published article in Wilson Journal of Ornithology 119:693–702.

In addition, Felicity has been involved in a range of avian research at Powdermill including examining the effects of stream acidification on Louisiana Waterthrush breeding ecology, and long-term avian monitoring with the bird banding program. Currently Felicity is a graduate student at Ohio State University.

More info on OSU's Terrestrial Wildlife Ecology Laboratory: http://twel.osu.edu/index.html

A graduate student at Ohio State University Department of Natural Resources, Annie Lindsay was the 2004 recipient of the Rea Internship in Applied Ecology. During her internship, she worked under the direction of Field Ornithology Projects Coordinator Robert Mulvihill applying GIS-based technology to establish distributional information for use in the 2nd Pennsylvania Breeding Bird Atlas. Her research paper, Ground-truthing GIS Generated Habitat Models for Use During the 2nd Pennsylvania Breeding Bird Atlas, which can be accessed on the atlas Web site www.pabirdatlas.org, focuses on five species of birds known to nest in Pennsylvania and assesses their actual distribution in the expected habitat. The results of her study are a resource which is applied by hundreds of Atlas volunteers as the use of GPS devices becomes more widespread. Annie continues avian research in a number of off-site locations in the U.S., collecting molt data for future study at Powdermill Avian Research Center, where she has been associated with bird banding, bioacoustic studies, and other research since 1999.

More info: http://twel.osu.edu/projects/Lindsay.html