Hi all,
I apologize for the very late notice, but for those not already aware, the NE Region Migration Monitoring Network is holding its annual meeting next week (May18-19) in beautiful Acadia National Park, Maine.
The meeting features numerous projects utilizing Motus and there will be a morning session summarizing the state of the network and a number of recent advances. A draft program is below. Unfortunately there will not be remote access this year, but we hope to repeat an expanded version of the Motus session in a webinar for all users later this summer.
Registration details can be found here: http://rkozlo51-25.umesci.maine.edu/SBE/avian/migrationmonitoring.html
Cheers,
Stu
Motus Wildlife Tracking System
Bird Studies Canada | Études d’Oiseax Canada
PO Box 160, 115 Front Rd. Port Rowan, Ontario. N0E 1M0.
519-586-3531 X 162 | motus@birdscanada.org
NORTHEAST REGIONAL MIGRATION MONITORING NETWORK MEETING
Schoodic Institute – Acadia National Park
MAY 18-19, 2017
Important meeting information and program schedule is below!
NRMMN 2017 will host on Thursday, May 18th, a day of presentations on a variety of research topics, followed by an evening public presentation by award-winning author, Deborah Cramer (see details below). On Friday, May 19th, Phil Taylor and colleagues will hold an important informative workshop discussing “All Things Motus”, including recent updates and future horizons of the technology and data handling of the ever-expanding Motus Wildlife Tracking System. This year we also have a special guest speaker Thursday night! Award-winning author, Deborah Cramer, will present her own journey, related in her highly acclaimed book, The Narrow Edge: A Tiny Bird, An Ancient Crab, and An Epic Journey, in which she accompanied Red Knots along their extraordinary migration from one end of the earth to the other. There will be a reception and light refreshments, as well as an opportunity to meet Deborah and buy one of her wonderful books on nature and conservation!
Speakers – See the schedule below. Plan for a 30-min presentation, including time for a few questions. We will stay on track as there will be plenty of time throughout the meeting for additional discussion. Please bring your talk as a Powerpoint presentation on a USB thumb drive or similar portable device, to be loaded on the meeting computer (a Mac OSX with several versions of Powerpoint, Quicktime, and many other programs) at least 20-30 min before each session starts (be sure to include any audio or video files you may have in your talk as well!). If desired, you can upload your file(s) onto Dropbox and invite me to share the folder - I can upload it from there on to the meeting computer. A laser pointer, slide advancer, and audio system will be provided. Note: We are not offering remote participation this year.
Travel – The Schoodic Institute is located on Schoodic Point, in Acadia National Park in the town of Winter Harbor, Maine. If you are travelling from the north or the south, take US Route 1 to Gouldsboro and turn right on to Maine Route 186 at the (brown) Acadia National Park / Schoodic Section entrance sign. Follow Rt 186 to Winter Harbor and turn left at the waterfront. Continue to the main entrance of the Schoodic Peninsula section of Acadia National Park and turn right at the sign for the Park. The park road is a six-mile, one way loop that offers views of lobster boats, sea birds, and forest-draped islands. Keep to the right where the road splits. The Schoodic Institute is located at the southernmost tip of the Peninsula. Look for entrance signs to the campus on the right before you reach Schoodic Point. I’ve attached information about the Schoodic Institute, a local map and a ‘campus map’ of the Institute grounds. For more information about the Schoodic Institute, check out http://www.schoodicinstitute.org/.
Room check-in: For those staying at the Schoodic Institute and arriving Wednesday, please check in at the NPS/SI office (see campus map) by 5:00 p.m. (ask for Megan Moshier, Sales and Hospitality Manager). If you will be arriving after 5:00 p.m., please make arrangements with Megan Moshier (mmoshier@schoodicinstitute.org, 207-288-1337) or the Events Assistant, Michelle Pinkham (mpinkham@schoodicinstitute.org, 207-288-1356) about how to check-in after hours by Tuesday. On Thursday at 7:30 a.m., there will be a check-in table in the auditorium where talks will be held. Note: the dining room will NOT be open Wednesday and Friday evenings, so be sure to plan accordingly! There are many restaurants, shops, etc. in the Ellsworth area, which you will be passing through on your way to Schoodic in Acadia. Winter and Birch Harbors have several places to dine (including the popular Pickled Wrinkle Restaurant in Birch Harbor!).
Meeting registration – You can pick up a meeting schedule when you check in at the NPS/Schoodic office or at Moore Auditorium Thursday morning.
Meals - Meals will be available either in Schooner Commons or Moore Auditorium, to be confirmed at check-in. Breakfast will be available from 7:00-8:00 a.m., Lunch 12:00-1:00 p.m., and Dinner at 5:30-6:30 p.m. Snacks and beverages will be provided throughout the meeting.
Area birding – Our meeting overlaps with prime migration in the region! I have provided the Maine Birding Trail guide and other info for those who may have time to check out birds in the area. Information about birding in Maine can also be found at http://www.mainebirdingtrail.com/. Maine Rare Bird Alert (207) 781-2332
If you have any questions, I can be reached at rebecca.holberton@maine.edu, or 207-669-2842! See you soon! - Becky
Program Schedule:
Wednesday, May 17th - check-in for early arrivals
Thursday, May 18th
7:30 a.m. – check-in at Moore Auditorium
7:00-8:00 a.m. – BREAKFAST - Schooner Commons
8:15- 8:30 – Moore Auditorium – Rebecca Holberton, University of Maine - Welcome!
8:30–10:00 – Moore Auditorium – Methods: Banding Data, eBird, Unmanned Aerial
Tracking
8:30-9:00 – **Evan Dalton, Manomet Bird Observatory – “**Manomet Bird Observatory: Using Long-term Data to Educate Next-generation Decision Makers”
9:00-9:30 – Jake Walker, Acadia University - “Using eBird Data to Model Population Change of Migratory Bird Species”
9:30-10:00 – Junior Tremblay, Environment and Climate Change Canada - “A Low-cost Technique for Radio-Tracking Wildlife Using a Small Standard Unmanned Aerial Vehicle”
10:00 - 10:15- BREAK
10:15–11:45 – Moore Auditorium - Habitat Use
10:15-10:45 – **Seth Benz, Schoodic Institute – “**Bird Ecology and Biodiversity at Schoodic Institute”
10:45-11:15 – Amy Baron, Univ. Maine – “Bird Use of the Maine Rocky Intertidal Zone”
11:15-11:45 - Richard Feldman, Seth Benz*, Hannah Webber, Abe Miller-Rushing, Schoodic Institute and NPS – “Phenology of Bird-fruit Interactions on the Schoodic Peninsula of Acadia National Park”
12:00-1:00 p.m. – LUNCH – Schooner Commons
1:30 – 3:00 – Moore Auditorium - Post-Breeding/Post-Fledging Movements
1:30-2:00 – Lucas Berrigan**, Acadia University** – “Post-breeding Dispersal of Swainson’s Thrushes”
2:00-2:30 – Bri Benvenuti, Univ. of New Hampshire – “Use of Nanotag
Transmitters to Track Migratory Movements of Saltmarsh Sparrows”
2:30-3:00 - Dominic Cormier, Acadia University - “Post-fledging Movements of Blackpoll and Yellow-rumped Warbler in the Gulf of Maine Region”
3:00-3:15 – BREAK
3:15 – 5:00 – Moore Auditorium - Migratory Behavior
3:15-3:30 – John Kearney, John F. Kearney & Associates - “Comparing Morning flight to Nocturnal Passage at a Nova Scotia Coastal Headland”
3:30-4:00 – **David Bell, Acadia Univ. & Bird Studies Canada – “**Reorientation of Vagrant Songbirds From Southwestern Nova Scotia”
4:00-4:30 –**Clara Cooper Mullin, Univ. of Rhode Island – “**Should I Stay or Should I Go?: Condition-dependent Behavior During Stopover”
4:30 – 5:00 - Rebecca Holberton, Sean Rune, Univ. Maine; Lindsay Tudor, MDIFW; Kate O’Brien, USFWS-RCNWR; Glen Mittelhauser, Maine Natural History Observatory – “Variation in Departure Behavior of Semipalmated Sandpipers at Stopover Sites in the Gulf of Maine: Do Stopover Site Characteristics Influence Different Migration Strategies?”
5:00 – Group photo – Moore Auditorium Foyer
5:30-6:30 p.m. – DINNER
**7:00 – 8:00 p.m. – Deborah Cramer – ‘The Making of The Narrow Edge’ – public talk, reception (**see details below)
7:00 – 8:00 p.m. – Deborah Cramer – ‘The Making of The Narrow Edge’
Award-winning author, Deborah Cramer, will present her own journey, related in her highly acclaimed book, The Narrow Edge: A Tiny Bird, An Ancient Crab, and An Epic Journey, in which she accompanied Red Knots along their extraordinary migration from one end of the earth to the other—from windswept beaches along the Strait of Magellan at the tip of South America, and up into the icy Arctic where the birds nest. Deborah will discuss the reasons she chose to travel with these birds and write about the extraordinary places she and the birds encountered along the way. Deborah, a visiting scholar at MIT’s Environmental Solutions Initiative, lives with her family at the edge of a salt marsh in Gloucester, Massachusetts. She’s the author of Great Waters, a natural history of the Atlantic (W.W. Norton), and Smithsonian Ocean: Our Water Our World, the companion to the Ocean Hall at the U.S. National Museum of Natural History. The Narrow Edge, her most recent book, received the 2016 Rachel Carson Book Award from the Society of Environmental Journalists and the 2016 Best Book Award from the National Academies of Science. www.deborahcramer.com
Friday, May 19th
7:00-8:00 a.m. – BREAKFAST – Schooner Commons
9:00 – 11:30 - Moore Auditorium: Workshop – All Things Motus – Background, Updates, Future Horizons
9:00 - 11:30 - Phil Taylor, Acadia Univ., NS – “Motus: Here and Now” -
Learn about the Motus Wildlife Tracking System (www.motus-wts.org): “The Motus Wildlife Tracking System (Motus) comprises the physical and database infrastructure to track the movements of organisms using coordinated automated radio telemetry. Motus links the efforts of many independent researchers interested in terrestrial animal movement, at multiple spatial and temporal scales. The purpose of Motus is to facilitate landscape-scale research and education on the ecology and conservation of migratory animals.” This is an excellent opportunity to learn more about using this ground-breaking approach to tracking animals on the move, technological updates, and views to the future. There will also be opportunities for insights into data handling and analyses, including the use of ‘r’ scripts.
12:00-1:00 LUNCH – Schooner Commons