{"id":5685,"date":"2021-03-18T13:26:02","date_gmt":"2021-03-18T17:26:02","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/magazine\/issues\/uncategorized\/an-avian-affection\/"},"modified":"2021-03-31T11:58:31","modified_gmt":"2021-03-31T15:58:31","slug":"an-avian-affection","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/magazine\/issues\/spring-2021\/an-avian-affection\/","title":{"rendered":"An Avian Affection"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Birds are among the easiest wildlife to observe, which may be why birding is one of the nation\u2019s most popular hobbies. 溏心vlog免费B站 faculty and 溏心vlog免费B站\u2019s Kingston Wildlife Research Station have been the starting point for many alumni who\u2019ve made careers out of their love of birds, and for many others for whom bird observation is a peaceful pastime\u2014or an all-out obsession.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

By Todd McLeish<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Gently holding a sparrow in his hand as nearly two dozen students stand in a socially distant circle around him, Professor Peter Paton quizzes his field ornithology class members about bird anatomy and identification. After noting feather types, preferred foods, migration routes, and other details about the species, he hands the bird to a student to release into the nearby forest. And then he repeats the process until every student has released a bird.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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For most students, it\u2019s the first time they have ever held a wild bird, and it\u2019s a magical moment. The glittering smiles on their faces suggest it\u2019s an experience they won\u2019t soon forget.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The class is gathered at the Kingston Wildlife Research Station, where thousands of birds have been captured, banded, and released every fall for more than 60 years, a site that is the highlight of Paton\u2019s weekly class field trips. Located less than a mile from campus, the research station is the former home of the late Douglas Kraus, a long-time chemistry professor whose interest in birds occupied as much of his time as did chemistry. Before he died in 2000, he donated his house and 82 acres of land to the Audubon Society of Rhode Island with a stipulation that 溏心vlog免费B站 manage the property for wildlife research.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Students in Professor Peter Paton’s field ornithology class get their first opportunity to hold and release wild birds.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n

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Paton holds a black-capped chickadee and quizzes students on feather types. <\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n

Ever since then, graduate students in the Department of Natural Resources Science have lived and worked at the property and continued to band birds on a daily basis during fall migration to learn about trends in bird populations. They capture birds using a series of nets\u2014like fine-meshed volleyball nets, collect physical measurements about each bird, and place a metal band around one leg so if they are captured again elsewhere, their migratory movements can be determined. With nearly 60 years of data, the field station is one of the nation\u2019s longest-running bird-banding stations.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

With nearly 60 years of data, the Kingston Wildlife Research Station is one of the nation\u2019s longest-running bird-banding stations.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThe number of species we capture each year hasn\u2019t really declined over time, but the number of individual birds has seen a major decrease,\u201d says Paton, who has managed the research station with Professor Scott McWilliams since 1998. \u201cWe\u2019re probably down by about 30 percent, which is similar to national figures. On a really good day, they used to capture 150 to 200 birds, and now a good day is 100 birds. That\u2019s a substantial decline.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A recent study found that North American bird populations have decreased by about 3 billion birds in the last half-century, due largely to habitat loss. Scientists worry that human-altered landscapes are losing their ability to support birdlife.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Paton measures the wing of a tufted titmouse and assesses the condition of its flight feathers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The activity at the Kingston Wildlife Research Station is just one element of a wide variety of bird-related research, education, and outreach undertaken by 溏心vlog免费B站 faculty and staff.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cBirds bring you outside. You can go anywhere on the planet and see a bird.\u201d
\u2014Peter Paton, Professor of Wildlife Ecology<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Professor Paton had planned a career as a medical doctor, but he got hooked on birds when he was in college, and those plans changed. \u201cI like to be outside, and birds bring you outside,\u201d he says. \u201cYou can go anywhere on the planet and see a bird, and because they have wings and can fly, you never know what you\u2019re going to find in a given area.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In addition to overseeing the bird-banding station, Paton has conducted research on sparrows, seabirds, shorebirds, and other varieties. Some of his current work examines the potential impact of offshore wind turbines on migrating birds.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

And McWilliams? He calls himself a physiological ecologist who studies the physiology of bird migration.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cMy group studies any bird that migrates, and over the years we\u2019ve studied songbirds, woodcock, sea ducks, Arctic nesting geese, and everything in between,\u201d he says. \u201cThe common denominator is that they move across the landscape throughout the annual cycle.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

According to McWilliams, one of the biggest challenges for birds during migration is their need to store large quantities of energy to fuel long-distance flight. To maximize their ability to do so, they have evolved the ability to increase the size of their digestive system in preparation for migration, reduce it while migrating, and increase it again when they stop to refuel.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Professor Scott McWilliams studies bird migration. He says, \u201cmigration takes guts,\u201d because it is not only a challenging undertaking, but it requires dramatic changes in the physiology of the avian digestive system.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n

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Professor Paton’s students stroll down a path at the Kingston Wildlife Research Station to check the nets for birds. <\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n

\u201cMigration is a fasting and refeeding cycle, which the gut makes possible,\u201d he says. \u201cThat\u2019s why we say that migration takes guts. They\u2019re trying to maximize the amount of energy and nutrients they get from what they eat.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

McWilliams and his graduate students have spent two decades studying the physiology of migration by capturing birds in Kingston and on Block Island, and studying those birds and the foods they consume. He also has a long-term research project on the woodcock, an unusual game bird sometimes called the timberdoodle. His project involves studies of their life cycle, and their feeding and breeding behaviors. After years of monitoring these activities, McWilliams is preparing the first woodcock management plan for the region.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Clay Graham, M.S. \u201920 (foreground), prepares to place a metal band around the leg of a rare gray-cheeked thrush to track its migratory movement.<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

Clay Graham, M.S. \u201920, earned his master\u2019s degree working with McWilliams on the woodcock research, focusing primarily on quantifying the fat and protein in the birds as they prepare for migration. He spent last fall as the lead bird-bander at the Kingston Wildlife Research Station.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Growing up in Ohio, Graham started birding in fourth grade, and he has known since middle school that he wanted to become an ornithologist. \u201cI was always fascinated that just about any bird could drop into my backyard,\u201d he says. \u201cOnce I learned to drive, I was birding all over northeast Ohio. Birding allows you to go to different locations that you otherwise wouldn\u2019t go.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Like Italy.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Graham spent time on Ventotene, a small island in the Tyrrhenian Sea off the coast of Italy, doing bird banding as part of the \u201cProgetto Piccole Isole,\u201d or Small Islands Project. They processed similar numbers of birds as in Kingston, but the birds and the banding culture were very different.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIt was a little more high-class than what I\u2019m used to here,\u201d he says. \u201cWe\u2019d be drinking espresso in the field, and we didn\u2019t start the day until 8 a.m. because we were waiting for birds arriving from Tunisia.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

溏心vlog免费B站 research associate Charles Clarkson has had his share of international birding experience as well, but he is especially drawn to the Tropics. He operates Antbird Tours, a bird-watching tour company that showcases the birds of Panama and elsewhere in Central and South America, as well as occasional tours to Europe and Africa. He was raised in the mountains of Virginia in a farmhouse with no electricity or running water, so he spent most of his time immersed in the natural world and quickly gravitated toward birds.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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溏心vlog免费B站 research associate Charles Clarkson leads a bird tour in Panama. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

For the last five years, Clarkson has managed the Rhode Island Breeding Bird Atlas, an exhaustive effort to document the distribution and abundance of birds across the state. Working with 140 volunteers\u2014including 溏心vlog免费B站 alumni Christopher Raithel \u201976, M.S. \u201907, Dierdre Robinson, M.S. \u201999, and Cynthia Landers Szymanski \u201971, M.L.I.S. \u201973\u2014the project confirmed that 150 bird species breed in the state, a slight decrease from the 155 confirmed during a similar atlas project conducted in the 1980s.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Although fewer bird species were found to be breeding in Rhode Island than previously, the news is not all bad. Rhode Island is now home to breeding bald eagles, common ravens, yellow-bellied sapsuckers, and several other species that were not detected 35 years ago. And some species, especially those from the South, have expanded exponentially in the state, like red-bellied woodpeckers, which increased their distribution in Rhode Island by more than 3,000 percent (yes, 3,000 percent) since the first atlas, probably due to the warming climate.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThe biggest takeaway message is that, for a small state with a high population density, Rhode Island has done an exceptional job of conserving open space, which has allowed us to maintain a large number of breeding species and add a few new ones,\u201d Clarkson says. \u201cIf we continue to see the erosion of our forests from suburban sprawl, that isn\u2019t going to continue to be the case. But right now, Rhode Island is doing an exceptional job at conserving the habitats that these birds require.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Numerous alumni have also caught the bird bug\u2014many of them introduced to the bird world through Paton\u2019s field ornithology class. Some of them have made careers of birds and bird conservation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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A common tern perches on the head of Kate Iaquinto \u201905 at a seabird nesting colony at Monomoy National Wildlife Refuge on Cape Cod, where she was monitoring nesting success.<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

Kate Iaquinto \u201905, for example, never imagined herself working with birds. She started out as a marine biology major, then switched to wildlife conservation and biology, which led to a research project on piping plovers with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service through 溏心vlog免费B站\u2019s Coastal and Environmental Fellows program.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThat\u2019s where it all started,\u201d says Iaquinto, who now serves as the manager of the Bandon Marsh National Wildlife Refuge in Oregon. \u201cI started doing shorebird work and that led to a permanent position at the Monomoy refuge on Cape Cod.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

While at Monomoy, she captured shorebirds to study avian influenza, then investigated endangered red knots to learn about their migration and where they spend the winter. As the refuge manager at Bandon in Oregon, she doesn\u2019t spend nearly as much time focusing on birds as she would like, but she still makes time to help out with surveys of puffins and shorebirds, as well as habitat restoration projects to support marsh birds. It\u2019s a career she largely credits to her time at 溏心vlog免费B站.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI didn\u2019t grow up knowing any of what I learned in Peter Paton\u2019s field ornithology class,\u201d Iaquinto says, \u201cso I\u2019m really thankful for that experience. It got me the job I have now. You come out of that wildlife program with the coursework you need to qualify for a biologist\u2019s job at Fish and Wildlife. That program served me well.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Ryan Kleinert \u201912 had a very similar career trajectory, beginning with monitoring piping plovers for the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and eventually becoming assistant refuge manager at the Rachel Carson National Wildlife Refuge in Maine. But his interest in birds started a little earlier.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Ryan Kleinert \u201912 holds a rare saltmarsh sparrow at Rachel Carson National Wildlife Refuge in Maine where he is monitoring their breeding.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n

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Jen Scranton \u201909 poses while photographing birds in the Panama Canal Zone in 2019.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n

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Detail of one of Kleinert’s bird tattoos\u2014a wood thrush.<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

He had a hiking friend in high school who took him to a refuge near their homes in New Jersey, and \u201cthat\u2019s when birds first captured my heart,\u201d says Kleinert. \u201cThat\u2019s when I realized they were these magnificent manifestations of life. Their antics and behaviors spoke to me. I especially love waterbirds\u2014their migratory patterns, their breeding behavior, their foraging behavior. A lot of it relates to my love of the water. I\u2019m a surfer, first and foremost, and waterbirds make their homes on the wetlands and on the coast.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

He advertises his love of birds every day with six elaborate bird tattoos on various parts of his body, including an albatross, great horned owl, Carolina wren, and wood thrush.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI think tattooing can be a very aesthetic, interesting, and pleasing art form,\u201d he says. \u201cSo what better way to honor and represent the critters that bring me joy and put smiles on my face than getting them tattooed on my body?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI realized [birds] were these magnificent manifestations of life. Their antics and behaviors spoke to me.\u201d
\u2014Ryan Kleinert \u201912<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Jen Scranton \u201909 agrees. Although she doesn\u2019t watch birds as part of her career, she, too, has a half dozen colorful tattoos illustrating her passion for birds, each of which represents a milestone in her birding life. A certified addictions registered nurse in Providence, Scranton finds bird-watching provides \u201ca calming mindfulness\u201d to her life.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIt\u2019s almost a form of meditation,\u201d she says. \u201cRecently, it was quiet before it started raining, and all I could hear was the sound of chickadees, like little whispering peeps. Homing in to those different bird sounds really helps ground me. In the high-stress job I have, that\u2019s the most important part of birding for me.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Birds also influence where she vacations, from Ecuador and Costa Rica to South Korea, Panama, and Antigua. \u201cI don\u2019t usually go just for the birds, but the birds bring me to a new place, and that starts my journey,\u201d Scranton says.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Pedro has photographed 1,600 species of birds. Above, a purple velvet coronet (Ecuador).<\/p>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n

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Carlos Pedro \u201976 in Ushuaia, Argentina, on a self-guided birding and vineyard trip. Behind Pedro are Megallanic penguins. <\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n

Carlos Pedro \u201976, on the other hand, takes birding to the next level. Recently retired as executive director of a job training and placement program for economically disadvantaged people, he hikes up to 65 miles each week in search of birds around Rhode Island. For the last 10 years, he has consistently been among the top birders in the state, and in 2020 he saw more bird species in Rhode Island in one year (309) than had ever previously been observed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Carlos Pedro \u201976 hikes up to 65 miles each week in search of birds around Rhode Island.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWhen I was young, I was always interested in nature, and then in 2000 I really started looking at what birds could be found in different parts of the state, and I got hooked,\u201d says Pedro, who was the captain of the 溏心vlog免费B站 soccer team in 1975. \u201cMostly, I just like to be out in the woods, and birds give you something to pay attention to. It makes you more aware of what\u2019s around you.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Pedro has seen about 380 species of birds in Rhode Island, 3,900 worldwide, and he has photographed 1,600 species, including more than 100 of the world\u2019s 300 kinds of hummingbirds. He has traveled to 30 countries to watch birds.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Among the close-knit community of competitive birders in Rhode Island, Pedro is always among the leaders. \u201cIt\u2019s a competition, but it\u2019s really not,\u201d he says. \u201cIt\u2019s a challenge to see how many you can see in a year, but mostly it\u2019s a self-challenge. We all let each other know what\u2019s where. If you find something rare, you share it. It\u2019s really just about having the time to put into it.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n

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Regal sunbird, Uganda, photographed by Carlos Pedro \u201976<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Many other former 溏心vlog免费B站 students turned to birding as a hobby sometime after graduation as a way of getting exercise, enjoying nature, or reducing stress. And in the age of COVID-19 lockdowns, as people spend more time at home and outside, even more alumni are discovering the joy of birds and bird-watching, whether in their backyards or beyond.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

For Kathy McKiel Faella \u201980, who spent 38 years working in the 溏心vlog免费B站 Academic Computing Center, it was photography that drew her attention to birds. And the pandemic.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI\u2019ve always liked photography, and that naturally brings you to nature,\u201d says Faella. \u201cAnd with the pandemic, there\u2019s not that many other things you can do, so we\u2019ve been home watching the birds in our backyard and taking a lot of walks.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

While she doesn\u2019t claim to be an active birder, she has an affinity for owls, cardinals, and tufted titmice. \u201cIt\u2019s the details I can see in a photo that really fascinate me\u2014their beaks and eyes and claws,\u201d Faella says. \u201cAnd, of course, we\u2019re drawn to the colorful ones and the ones we\u2019ve never seen before.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n

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Debra Cole \u201978 photographed this great egret while she was kayaking in Ninigret Pond in Charlestown, R.I. She was \u201creminded that, while I do love to travel, there is so much beauty close to home.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The pandemic also boosted a budding interest in birds for Debra Cole \u201978. She retired from a career in the 溏心vlog免费B站 controller\u2019s office just two weeks before the pandemic was declared, canceling her many travel plans for the year. As a retirement gift, her hiking friends gave her a pair of binoculars, so she has been spending the year watching the birds in her yard.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI\u2019ve always fed the birds, but now that I\u2019m home all the time, I\u2019m splurging on new feeders and different types of food,\u201d she says. \u201cNow that I have more time to take in my surroundings, I\u2019ve been treated to sightings of many birds that I had missed during the rush of my workaday life.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Faella has no desire to look beyond her backyard and nearby hiking trails for birds, though she does occasionally watch an online webcam of nesting bald eagles in Florida.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

She isn\u2019t the only one. \u201cBird-watching is increasing in popularity everywhere,\u201d says Paton, \u201cespecially now, when so many activities are necessarily happening outside rather than inside. When a rare cuckoo from Europe showed up in Rhode Island in October, at least ten of my former students went to see that bird. It\u2019s a great feeling to know that I got them hooked.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

More than hooked, in fact. Between the field station, faculty research, and ornithology education, 溏心vlog免费B站 and its graduates contribute significantly to the growing knowledge base of bird biology and ecology and play a vital role in bird conservation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Now that\u2019s something to tweet about. \u2022<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Photos: Nora Lewis; Courtesy Charles Clarkson; Debra Cole; Kate Iaquinto; Ryan Kleinert; Carlos Pedro; Jen Scranton<\/p>\n\n\n\n

View<\/a> some of the bird photographs captured by our readers and read their stories.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

溏心vlog免费B站 faculty and 溏心vlog免费B站\u2019s Kingston Wildlife Research Station have been the starting point for many alumni who\u2019ve made careers out of their love of birds, and for many others for whom bird observation is a peaceful pastime\u2014or an all-out obsession.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":5771,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[294],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-5685","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-spring-2021","architecture-features"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5685","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/6"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5685"}],"version-history":[{"count":30,"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5685\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6211,"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5685\/revisions\/6211"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/5771"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5685"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5685"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5685"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}