Ornithology BI 347 Sightings 2/18/12

Massachusetts: Essex Co., Plum Island (Parker River NWR)
2/18/12
Ornithology Class

1. Canada Goose
2. Mute Swan
3. Gadwall
4. American Wigeon
5. American Black Duck
6. Mallard
7. Northern Pintail
8. Surf Scoter
9. White-winged Scoter
10. Black Scoter
11. Bufflehead
12. Common Goldeneye
13. Hooded Merganser
14. Common Loon
15. Horned Grebe
16. Red-necked Grebe
17. Northern Gannet
18. Northern Harrier
19. Peregrine Falcon (release from Logan Airport)
20. Ring-billed Gull
21. Herring Gull
22. Rock Pigeon
23. Mourning Dove
24. Snowy Owl (1 release from Logan Airport, 2 wild birds)
25. American Crow
26. European Starling
27. House Sparrow



New Hampshire: Rockingham Co., Hampton Tolls, Hampton

28. Common Grackle

Ornithology BI 347 Sightings 2/7/12

New Hampshire: Hillsborough Co., Saint Anselm College, Goffstown, Rundlett Hill Rd., Bedford
2/7/12
Ornithology BI 347 Class


1. Northern Goshawk
2. Red-tailed Hawk
3. Rock Pigeon
4. Downy Woodpecker
5. Hairy Woodpecker
6. Pileated Woodpecker
7. Blue Jay
8. American Crow
9. Black-capped Chickadee
10. Tufted Titmouse
11. White-breasted Nuthatch
12. Northern Mockingbird
13. European Starling
14. Dark-eyed Junco
15. American Goldfinch

Ornithology BI 347 Sightings 2/4/12

Massachusetts: Essex Co., Plum Island (Parker River NWR)
2/4/12
Ornithology Class


Number Species
1 Canada Goose
2 Mute Swan
3 Gadwall
4 American Black Duck
5 Mallard
6 Northern Pintail
7 Lesser Scaup
8 Common Eider
9 Surf Scoter
10 White-winged Scoter
11 Black Scoter
12 Long-tailed Duck
13 Bufflehead
14 Common Goldeneye
15 Common Loon
16 Horned Grebe
17 Red-necked Grebe
18 Northern Gannet
19 Northern Harrier
20 Sanderling
21 Herring Gull
22 Great Black-backed Gull
23 Rock Pigeon
24 Belted Kingfisher
25 American Crow
26 American Robin
27 Northern Mockingbird
28 European Starling
29 Song Sparrow

New Hampshire: Rockingham Co., Hampton Tolls, Hampton
2/4/12
Ornithology Class

Number Species
30 Red-tailed Hawk

Ornithology BI 347 Sightings 1/24/12

New Hampshire: Hillsborough Co., Saint Anselm College, Goffstown, Rundlett Hill Rd., Bedford
1/24/12
Ornithology BI 347 Class

1. Mourning Dove
2. American Crow
3. Black-capped Chickadee
4. White-breasted Nuthatch
5. American Robin
6. European Starling
7. American Tree Sparrow
8. House Sparrow

Ornithology Class BI 347 Sightings - 1/21/12

Sightings from recent field trip to Plum Island, Massachusetts

Massachusetts: Essex Co., Plum Island (Parker River NWR)
1/21/12
Ornithology Class


1 Canada Goose
2 American Black Duck
3 Mallard
4 Common Eider
5 Black Scoter
6 Bufflehead
7 Common Goldeneye
8 Red-breasted Merganser
9 Common Loon
10 Sanderling
11 Herring Gull
12 Great Black-backed Gull
13 Rock Pigeon
14 Mourning Dove
15 Blue Jay
16 American Crow
17 Horned Lark
18 American Robin
19 European Starling
20 American Tree Sparrow
21 Northern Cardinal

The Published Results

It’s never over until it’s over. I finally published a paper on the results of this field work on song variation in the Mourning Warbler. A copy can be downloaded from this link on the web page for my CV. Scroll down to Publications: PITOCCHELLI, J. 2011. Macrogeographic variation in the song of the Mourning Warbler (Oporornis philadelphia). Canadian Jl. Zoology 89: 1027-1040 and click on the link.

During the spring semester 2012, I will be teaching Ornithology (BI 347). We will be taking field trips along the coasts of New Hampshire and Massachusetts throughout much of the winter and work our way inland later in the spring. I will post some of the result of these trips on this blog and or link them to a page with the full daylists for each trip.

During the summer 2012 I will be conducting similar work on the MacGillivray's Warbler in the western United States. I will be adding posts to this blog as I travel on this trip - more later this summer.

Paper Presentation at the 127th AOU Meeting, Philadelphia, PA

It’s been a while since I added to the blog. I have been feverishly analyzing the results from this and past summers’ data. I have also been preparing a powerpoint presentation, with the help of Dave Hjelm (OIT, Saint Anselm College) and Sherry Chakrin (ThreadFed.com).


I finally gave the paper presentation, Song variation in the Mourning Warbler, at the 127th stated meeting of the American Ornithologists’ Union at the University of Pennsylvania on 13 August, 2009.

The take-home message of my research was that I discovered 4 major regiolects in the breeding range of the Mourning Warbler. A regiolect is similar to a dialect but it occurs on a larger geographic scale (hundreds to thousands of kilometers - see map below). Each regiolect is characterized by 1-3 songs unique to that region (see song types in the previous posting, 14 July). There is also an interesting Hybrid zone in western Ontario where some birds sing hybrid songs. A hybrid song contains a mix of syllables from the western and eastern regiolcets.


Regiolect Map



A second important finding was that the birds were able to discriminate among the song types. They directed more aggression towards their home regiolect versus foreign regiolects (e.g., Western birds more aggressive toward Western songs versus Eastern, Nova Scotia or Newfoundland song types). I have a graph below with the data for several behavior variables I measured during the playback experiments. Many playback experiments on dialect discrimination in other species have produced similar results.


Bar Charts and Sonograms of Focal males used in the experiments



One of the highlights of the meeting was seeing Saint Anselm alum, Dave DesRochers, class of 2000. Dave is a former Biology major from our Department and winner of the Craig C. Hieber award in Biology. Dave is completing his research on conservation of the Hawaiian Moorhen. Dave was co-author on a paper delivered by his advisor and first author on a poster at the meeting’s poster session.

Dave DesRochers and Dr. Jay at the AOU Zoo night (Philadelphia Zoo)



This projected was funded by a Saint Anselm College 2009 summer research grant to Jay Pitocchelli.