Blog Intro

Hello! I am a PhD student in the Graduate Degree Program in Ecology at Colorado State University, about to embark on the first field season of my doctoral research. Over the next 6 months I will be traveling to Catalina Island, part of the Channel Islands off the southern coast of California, and to Fairbanks in central Alaska to study a small songbird called (you guessed it!) the orange-crowned warbler. The goal of my research is to examine the role of climate in shaping the demography and life history of these warblers, part of a larger project initiated in 2003 by my advisors, Drs. Cameron Ghalambor (CSU) and Scott Sillett (Smithsonian Migratory Bird Center). I will be working with fellow grad students Jongmin Yoon and Helen Sofaer, as well as a team of field assistants with a avid interest in bird ecology. The purpose of this blog is to chronicle our on-going field research as we follow the breeding activities of this widely distributed warbler, first in California and later in Alaska. I hope you will join us.