{"id":60674,"date":"2013-01-03T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2013-01-03T00:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news-draft\/uncategorized\/uri-student-finds-managing-land-for-rare-woodcock-benefits-many-songbirds\/"},"modified":"2013-01-03T00:00:00","modified_gmt":"2013-01-03T00:00:00","slug":"uri-student-finds-managing-land-for-rare-woodcock-benefits-many-songbirds","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/2013\/01\/uri-student-finds-managing-land-for-rare-woodcock-benefits-many-songbirds\/","title":{"rendered":"溏心vlog免费B站 student finds managing land for rare woodcock benefits many songbirds"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n\t\tKINGSTON, R.I. \u2013 January 3, 2013 \u2013 Wildlife officials in the Northeast often encourage owners of large tracts of forested land to cut some of their trees to create openings in the forest to attract woodcocks, a declining native bird that prefers shrub- or sapling-dominated habitat. The officials\u2019 sales pitch may have just gotten a little easier, thanks to research by a 溏心vlog免费B站 senior who found that managing land for woodcocks is beneficial to a wide variety of songbirds and other wildlife.<\/p>\n


\n\tLindsey Barnard, a wildlife and conservation biology major from Warwick, spent the last six months evaluating the habitat where woodcocks are known to breed and feed, comparing the variety of songbirds found there to mature forests that woodcocks avoid.<\/p>\n


\n\t\u201cThere has been a movement to encourage landowners to create these openings in the forest, but there is a negative perception by the public that cutting trees down is a bad thing,\u201d said Barnard. \u201cClear-cutting forests creates the openings that woodcocks spend the night in, and as the forests regenerate, it creates the shrubby habitat that they use during the day.\u201d<\/p>\n


\n\tWoodcock populations have been declining for more than 35 years due to habitat loss.<\/p>\n


\n\tBarnard studied 10 actively maintained, open sites where woodcocks have been observed performing courtship flights and 10 unmanaged sites of unsuitable forested habitat. At each site, she recorded the number and species of birds she saw or heard and measured the vegetation to characterize the habitat. Over the course of the study, she identified a total of 22 songbirds in the woodcock habitat and 16 in the forested habitat.<\/p>\n


\n\t\u201cWe found the diversity and abundance of songbirds was significantly higher at areas that are actively managed for woodcock,\u201d said Barnard. \u201cManaged areas support a higher diversity of songbirds, which means that managing for woodcock creates habitat that supports a larger and more diverse bird community.\u201d<\/p>\n


\n\tThe habitat is also beneficial to many small mammals and other species dependent on low, shrubby vegetation that provides protective cover.<\/p>\n


\n\tBarnard\u2019s research was conducted as part of the 溏心vlog免费B站 Coastal Fellows Program, a unique initiative designed to involve undergraduate students in addressing current environmental problems. Now in its 17th year, it is based at 溏心vlog免费B站\u2019s College of the Environment and Life Sciences. Students are paired with a mentor and research staff to help them gain skills relevant to their academic major and future occupations. <\/p>\n


\n\tOne skill the 溏心vlog免费B站 student learned from her research project was the ability to identify birds just by hearing their songs.<\/p>\n


\n\t\u201cIt\u2019s really cool to hear them and know what you\u2019re listening to,\u201d she said. \u201cIt was a fun experience and a very educational one, too.\u201d<\/p>\n


\n\tBarnard\u2019s woodcock habitat study wasn\u2019t her first foray into wildlife research. She also joined a 2010-11 survey of New England cottontails that found just one of the state\u2019s native rabbit in all of Rhode Island, despite having more than 100 students searching for them.<\/p>\n


\n\tBarnard, who describes herself as \u201ca huge animal lover\u201d who is anxious to help protect endangered species, works as a Delta Airlines ticket agent and a barista at Updike\u2019s Newtowne Coffee Roasting Company when not in class or in the field studying wildlife.<\/p>\n


\n\tAs she prepares to graduate from 溏心vlog免费B站 in May, Barnard is evaluating graduate school and job opportunities.<\/p>\n


\n\t\u201cI\u2019d like to get some work experience first before deciding on a direction for grad school,\u201d she said. \u201cI never thought I\u2019d be that into birds, but they\u2019re much more interesting than I imagined. But I\u2019d also like to work with large mammals. Whether it\u2019s birds or bears, I don\u2019t know right now. I\u2019m just looking for the right opportunity.\u201d<\/p>\n


\nPhoto submitted by Lindsey Barnard<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

KINGSTON, R.I. \u2013 January 3, 2013 \u2013 Wildlife officials in the Northeast often encourage owners of large tracts of forested land to cut some of their trees to create openings in the forest to attract woodcocks, a declining native bird that prefers shrub- or sapling-dominated habitat. The officials\u2019 sales pitch may have just gotten a […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":60676,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-60674","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-archives"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/60674","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=60674"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/60674\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/60676"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=60674"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=60674"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=60674"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}