Jared Wolfe Quantifying contemporary and historic habitat use of Nearctic-Neotropical migrants in Central America. Jared studies migrant stopover ecology in Northeastern Costa Rica. More specifically, his work utilizes banding data, dietary analyses, climatic metrics and habitat attributes in order to elucidate the effects of a stochastic climate on migrant habitat use, condition, distribution and survivorship. Jared is also interested in Neotropical resident bird ecology, especially molt patterns.
	Dominic Bachman MSc Fall 2008 Aleutian Cackling Goose Habitat Management [co-advised with Dr. Jeff Black]. Dom conducted an experiment to identify management practices that may attract geese to public grasslands. Specifically, he tested fertilizer versus clover cultivation as a means to provide abundant, nutritious forage for Aleutian geese. This species was formerly endangered but now has increased in numbers such that their grazing of short-grass pastures threatens the livelihood of local ranchers and dairy-owners. Dom’s project aimed to reveal realistic management activities that may attract geese to public land and ease the impact of the geese on private pastures.
	Eric Wood MSc Spring 2007 Predictive modeling of focal bird species in Central Sierra Nevada Foothill woodlands. Eric used state-of-the-art presence/absence occupancy modeling to examine habitat relationships of songbirds in blue oak woodlands. He tested the capacity for standardized vegetation data collected by the California Native Plant Society to predict bird distribution over a broad spatial extent.
	Jherime Kellermann MSc Spring 2007 Assessing an economic incentive for bird-friendly coffee cultivation in Jamaica, West Indies. Jherime’s project focused on “ecological services” provided birds in an agricultural setting. He used experimental cages to exclude insect-eating birds from coffee bushes and test if birds can decrease crop damage caused by insect pests. His work was in the Blue Mountains of Jamaica, home to some of the world’s most elite coffees and a hot spot of endemism and an important area for global biodiversity.
	Amy Leist MSc Spring 2007 The importance of fruit to Swainson’s thrushes, Catharus ustulatus, at stopover sites during fall migration: A field test of plasma metabolite analysis. Amy used blood metabolite analysis to determine if migrating Swainson’s Thrushes selecting habitats rich in food were feeding more effectively than those selecting habitats with fewer fruits. The concentrations of triglycerides and beta-hydroxy butyrate in a bird’s blood can reveal whether that bird has been feeding rapidly, feeding slowly, or fasting in the previous 1-2 hours. Therefore, blood metabolites can be a useful tool to assess foraging habitat quality for migrating songbirds, which are difficult to track or recapture. Following Jim Tietz’s project (see below), Amy worked in and around the Lanphere Dunes unit of the Humboldt Bay National Wildlife Refuge.
	Amy Roberts MSc Summer 2008 Bat use of redwood basal hollows with increasing isolation in contiguous, remnant, and legacy redwood forest stands. Amy investigated at how roost isolation and distribution may affect bats' use of redwood basal hollows located in Redwood National Park and adjacent private land.  She used guano-traps placed within hollows to determine use of roosts in three different spatial scales.  The information collected advanced our understanding of forest-dwelling bats and their roosting ecology.
	Chris Tonra MSc Spring 2006 Hatching Synchrony in Brown-Headed Cowbirds: The influence of host density, chick gender, and habitat. Chris’ project examined the influence of habitat, chick gender, and host density on the hatching synchrony of an obligate brood parasite, the Brown-headed Cowbird (Molothrus ater), in the riparian corridors of four tributaries of Mono Lake, CA.  Hatching synchrony refers to the relative order of hatching of young cowbirds and host species’ eggs. Successful female cowbirds should optimize the laying of their eggs in hosts’ nests so that their young can successfully (out)compete their host nestmates. Several ecological variables, may affect a cowbirds ability to find and monitor nests to ensure optimal timing such as habitat features, host nest density, and the sex egg since development times may be different for the sexes. Chris monitored bests of the two primary cowbird hosts in this region, Song Sparrow (Melospiza melodia) and Yellow Warbler (Dendroica petechia), measured habitat features, and used genetic techniques to sex the young cowbirds in order to test these hypotheses.
	Jeanne Hammond MSc Summer 2008 Nest predation at the Cosumnes River Preserve: Is an introduced predator, the black rat (Rattus rattus), limiting songbird breeding productivity? Jeanne’s project involved an experiment to determine whether an introduced predator, the black rat, limits Song Sparrow nesting productivity.  Nesting success in mature riparian forest is very low due to predation, and a UC Davis study has documented that black rat abundance is high.  After collaborators from UC Davis removed rats from one of her study sites, Jeanne documented how the birds respond there compared to a reference site.  Information from this study on songbirds in riparian forest will be useful to conservation ecologists working to restore endangered riparian habitat in the Central Valley.
	Jim Tietz MSc Spring 2006 Stopover ecology and habitat selection in fall migrant Swainson’s Thrushes (Catharus ustulatus) along the northern California coast. Jim used using radio telemetry to track migrating thrushes in forested habitats of the Lanphere Dunes near Arcata.  He tested whether the birds select vegetation primarily in response to habitat structure (shrub density) or food availability (mainly huckleberries).
	Rebecca Green MSc Spring 2007 Distribution of forest carnivores and evaluation of habitat models for American Marten in Sequoia and Kings Canyon National Parks. Rebecca investigated the distribution of American marten, fisher and other medium sized carnivores in a variety of habitats and elevations in the southern Sierra Nevada mountains.   Track plates and remote cameras were used to detect and provide permanent records of species in habitat types ranging from nearly barren alpine areas to mid-elevation giant sequoia groves to foothill hardwood forests.  Vegetation and presence/absence data from these surveys allowed Rebecca to evaluate the performance of several habitat models for the American marten within Sequoia and Kings Canyon National Parks.  Information from this project was reported to Park Service biologists and other wildlife managers in the region to promote awareness and understanding of the current habitat conservation needs of martens and fishers in the Sierras.