Summer Research at Otter Ponds Demonstration Forest

A handful of staff and volunteers had the pleasure of showing bird researcher Cindy Staicer around Otter Ponds Demonstration Forest this past Saturday morning! Dr. Staicer is conducting research on at-risk land birds in working forests in Nova Scotia, and was looking for places to monitor key species. On this trip we were specifically looking for two at-risk species: Olive-sided Flycatcher and Canada Warbler.

Thanks to GPS data from a bird count in 2016 during which Olive-sided Flycatcher and Canada Warbler calls were heard, we were able to hear and see both species this visit and estimate the area where there nests are likely to be. We also identified more than 20 other bird species in those areas.

To collect more data, Dr. Staicer installed two ARUs (autonomous recordings units) to capture audio recordings at key times of day. The ARUs should collect and store data for about 2 months until they are retrieved.

Photo credit: Christie Verstraten