I have projects available for students during fall, spring
and summer semesters. If you are interested in birds, bird blood, external
and internal bird parasites, identification and quantification of invertebrates
(bird food!), migration or breeding biology, museum skin preparation or data entry, please stop by for
a chat.
The University of
Scranton
Fall, 2006
Faculty
Student Research Program:
Meghan Todd, Lisa
Monsour and Alejandro Melendez spent the fall semester identifying and
quantifying invertebrates collected
during the 2006 field season.
Faculty/Student Research Program: Robert Podlinski, Michael Paz and Jennifer Carroll counted white blood cells.
Faculty/Student Research Program: Gina Radzwich, Jeremy Tarife and Carrie Squeo prepared museum specimens for the Vertebrate Biology collection during the fall of 2006.
Summer, 2006
Meghan Todd was awarded a 2006 President’s Fellowship for Summer Research. Her project is a comparison of invertebrate abundance between the forested and shrub/scrub habitats at my study site. She will use data collected during both the 2005 and 2006 seasons to make her comparisons. Preliminary results from mist-netting and avian census data suggest that birds use shrubby habitat more during spring migration than forested habitat. One possible reason might be differences in invertebrate abundance (bird food) between these different habitats. Meghan is making a detailed comparison of invertebrate abundance between habitats along with documenting temporal variation in arthropod abundance and diversity during the spring migratory period. Her results will contribute significantly to our understanding of why birds are using the habitats they are.
Melissa Thompson won the 2006 Sawyer Award and spent the summer assisting in the field and making differential white blood cell counts from slides we collecting during the spring/summer 2006 field seasons.
Spring, 2006
Faculty/Student Research Program: Jennifer Carroll, Joanna Pearson, Siobhan Maher, Robert Podlinski and Michael Paz identified and quantified white blood cells from samples collected during the 2005 field season. .
Jessica Phillipy finished her Honor's Thesis on Gray Catbird immune function and arrival timing. She identified a number of relationships between timing of arrival at the migratory destination (breeding grounds) and measures of immune function.
Faculty/Student Research Program: Dustin Partridge and Carrie Sgueo identified and quantified invertebrates collected during the 2005 field season. They also worked on constructing length vs. mass regression models for invertebrates..
Fall, 2005
Faculty/Student Research Program: Danielle Norman, Justin Lowe and Ashley Gonsky identified and quantified avian white blood cells from samples collected during the 2005 spring migratory and breeding periods in northeastern Pennsylvania.
Jessica Phillipy worked on an Honor’s Thesis examining the relationship between immunological condition in Gray Catbirds and timing of arrival at breeding grounds in Northeastern Pennsylvania.
Faculty/Student Research Program: Dustin Partridge and Meaghan Todd identified and quantified invertebrates collected during the 2005 field season.
Summer, 2005
Dan Foster was awarded a 2005 President’s Fellowship for Summer Research to examine bird community changes in response to secondary succession. Dan’s project utilizes aspects of my ongoing PA DCNR funded project on habitat use by migratory birds in addition to features of his own design. A major objective is a long-term (19 year) examination of bird community composition (based on capture data generated by the PA DCNR project and additional nets Dan and I set and ran throughout the summer) to community composition as determined in previous years based on Dr. Mike Carey’s long-term banding within the area. Dan’s project was accepted for presentation as a poster at the Fourth International Ornithological Conference held in Veracruz during October, 2006.
Faculty/Student Research Program: Andrew Delle Donna, Dan Foster, Mario Giordano and Melissa Thompson assisted with our spring migration work and are collaborating on a summer project examining bird community dynamics relative to old-field succession in Northeastern Pennsylvania.
Spring, 2005
Faculty/Student Research Program: Melissa Thompson. Melissa identified and quantified white blood cells from samples collected from migrating birds in northern Michigan.
Faculty/Student Research Program: Joanna Pearson. Joanna identified/quantified invertebrates collected during the 2001 field season in Michigan's eastern Upper Peninsula.
Fall 2004
Faculty/Student Research Program: Mark Beyer and Kristen Reitano. Mark and Kristen identified and quantified white blood cells from samples collected from migrating birds in northern Michigan.
Faculty/Student Research Program: Lauren Hughes and Marie Yezzo. Lauren and Marie identified/quantified invertebrates collected during the 2004 field season.
Faculty/Student Research Program: Eric Ledesma. Eric performed a literature search for a project on parentage in Gray Catbirds.
Spring/Summer 2004
Faculty/Student Research Program:
Travis Dayon.
Travis helped capture birds and bugs in late spring/early
summer, 2004.
Faculty/Student Research Program
Fall, 2004
Faculty/Student Research Program:
Amber Thompson. Amber identified and quantified invertebrates collected in
northern Michigan.
The University of Southern Mississippi