Hi! I’m Sarah Cottrill from Williams College. I’m a rising junior, studying biology and neuroscience.
And I’m Simone Frank (everyone calls me Mo, or as Jesse calls me…”Moses”) also from Williams. I’m studying biology and anthropology here.
We are a part of the Savannah Sparrow project, working with Heather Williams (also from Williams College, Williamstown, MA- go Williams!) During our stay at Kent Island, we attempted to record all of the Sav sparrows from the Grid to add to a long-term data set. Mo and I also outlined pair territories in the Eagle’s Nest field for playback experiments. In the playback experiments, we are looking at the unique middle sections of sparrow songs and recording behavior responses.
Our hypothesis is that the middle sections of the songs act like first names for each bird, so we tested reactions to isolated sections from a neighbor, a bird that sounds like a neighbor, and a stranger. More results are yet to come!
Even though our stay on the island was short, it was definitely memorable. When we stepped off the Ernest Joy, it was hard to get our bearings at first. Here we were on a small island in the middle of the Bay of Fundy, surrounded by expansive ocean and constantly changing tides. We had to find our way through the grid (don’t step off the paths!), get used to the outhouse and survive the dive-bombing gulls.
We felt like we became true members of the Kent Island clan once we got pooped on (by both herring gulls and baby savs), embraced our smelliness, and could keep our footing while traversing the slippery rockweed. We were fortunate enough to have a few spare hours to check out other experiments too: grubbing (aka sticking your arm into a dark small hole and pulling out a cute petrel), cutting rockweed and watching Sara crush snails/crabs/anything else from the intertidal zone, and helping Aidan with his plots (dog whelks anyone?) Also, we did our “chores”- I can’t really call them chores because even dishwashing is fun if you’re belting out tunes and Wobbling around the kitchen. Before we knew it, our two-week stay was up. Although it only felt like two days, we left the island as lobster boaters, greasy pole victors (well only Sarah, but I had some pretty sweet wipe outs), HUGE puffin fans, mud boot lovers, bird experts (well, that’s kind of pushing it…), Bay of Fundy swimmers, and friends of a new group of absolutely amazing people.
A huge thank you to everyone at Kent Island for making our stay an amazing experience!
And I’m Simone Frank (everyone calls me Mo, or as Jesse calls me…”Moses”) also from Williams. I’m studying biology and anthropology here.
We are a part of the Savannah Sparrow project, working with Heather Williams (also from Williams College, Williamstown, MA- go Williams!) During our stay at Kent Island, we attempted to record all of the Sav sparrows from the Grid to add to a long-term data set. Mo and I also outlined pair territories in the Eagle’s Nest field for playback experiments. In the playback experiments, we are looking at the unique middle sections of sparrow songs and recording behavior responses.
Our hypothesis is that the middle sections of the songs act like first names for each bird, so we tested reactions to isolated sections from a neighbor, a bird that sounds like a neighbor, and a stranger. More results are yet to come!
Even though our stay on the island was short, it was definitely memorable. When we stepped off the Ernest Joy, it was hard to get our bearings at first. Here we were on a small island in the middle of the Bay of Fundy, surrounded by expansive ocean and constantly changing tides. We had to find our way through the grid (don’t step off the paths!), get used to the outhouse and survive the dive-bombing gulls.
We felt like we became true members of the Kent Island clan once we got pooped on (by both herring gulls and baby savs), embraced our smelliness, and could keep our footing while traversing the slippery rockweed. We were fortunate enough to have a few spare hours to check out other experiments too: grubbing (aka sticking your arm into a dark small hole and pulling out a cute petrel), cutting rockweed and watching Sara crush snails/crabs/anything else from the intertidal zone, and helping Aidan with his plots (dog whelks anyone?) Also, we did our “chores”- I can’t really call them chores because even dishwashing is fun if you’re belting out tunes and Wobbling around the kitchen. Before we knew it, our two-week stay was up. Although it only felt like two days, we left the island as lobster boaters, greasy pole victors (well only Sarah, but I had some pretty sweet wipe outs), HUGE puffin fans, mud boot lovers, bird experts (well, that’s kind of pushing it…), Bay of Fundy swimmers, and friends of a new group of absolutely amazing people.
A huge thank you to everyone at Kent Island for making our stay an amazing experience!
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