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December 20
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Our Behavioral Ecology
paper on compensatory care
came out in the print edition today.
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December 9
|
We received word that
our lab has been awarded an ODU Undergraduate Research
Apprenticeship Grant, starting in the summer of 2012. This
program provides undergraduates with a stipend and research
support as part of an intensive 2 year research experience
at the interface between math and biology. Interested
undergraduates should contact Dr. Walters.
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December 8
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Eric got to see his
first Virginia Red-cockaded Woodpecker today. Bryan Watts
invited us out to the Piney Grove Preserve to see the only
remaining RCW population in Virginia. The population is
currently at 8 social groups - a striking contrast from the
600+ groups Eric worked with on the Apalachicola National
Forest during his dissertation work.
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November 30
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The website has had
>3,500 hits in the past couple of days in response to my
ad advertising for graduate students. Applications are due
Feb 1st so any interested candidates need to get a hold of
me soon. I am looking for top tier applicants that want to
join a dynamic and successful lab.
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November 23
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Our paper on age-related
effects and the skills and pay-to-stay hypotheses is
listed as one of the most
read papers in the journal Animal Behavior since being
published in September.
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November 20
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Grace Ha, a Fulbright
Scholar and recent graduate of Cornell University, will be
joining us as one of our spring field assistants on the
acorn woodpecker project. Welcome to the team Grace.
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November 12
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Our within-brood
dominance paper was published in the December issue of
Behavioral Ecology & Sociobiology.
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November 11
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Mike Bennett, a recent
graduate of James Madison University, has joined the lab.
Mike is using multi-state models to explore demographic
properties of our long-term acorn woodpecker data.
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October 28
|
The lab renovations are
finally finished. We can begin moving some of our equipment
into the lab. We also have a bunch of equipment that is on
order. We hope to have the lab fully functioning in about a
month.
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October 26
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Tracy Burkhard will be
joining us in March as one of our spring field assistants on
the acorn woodpecker project. Tracy is an alum of UC
Berkeley and currently works with Rick
Ostfeld. Welcome Tracy.
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October 25
|
Mark Stromberg, the
resident director of Hastings, pulled out of Hastings for
the last time this morning. He and his wife Barb are moving
back to Sonoita, AZ after being at Hastings for the past 23
1/2 years. The new director is expected to start in January.
Happy retirement Mark & Barb.
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October 24
|
Our Behavioral Ecology
paper on compensatory care was
published online.
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October 24
|
A film crew from Wild
Horizons in the UK have arrived at Hastings. They will be
here for 2 weeks filming sequences of the woodpeckers for an
upcoming broadcast on the Discovery Channel, tentatively
titled "Wild Planet: North America".
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October 19
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The much-awaited 2011
California Acorn Report is published.
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October 19
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We are now accepting
applications for Spring 2012 field assistant positions at
our California field site. Visit our employment
page for more information.
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October 17
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Another fall nest! This
time Charles found one over at Plaque Annex. Luckily, Joey
was around to go up and band them. Joey also thought he saw
some suspicious activity up by Bradley. Walt reports that
this is the best year ever for Coast Live Oak (Quercus
agrifolia) acorns, based on 32 years of data. So, this
fall nesting activity might be a prelude to a big spring
nesting season.
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October 15
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Joey Haydock is down
visiting Hastings today. He got to meet briefly with the 4
candidates that are interviewing for the new Resident
Director position at Hastings.
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October 13
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The lab renovations
have begun. The contractors have started in the lab with the
remodeling. They are supposed to be done in 15 days. We will
be happy to be up and running at full capacity again.
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October 10
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A leucistic acorn
woodpecker was spotted on Poison Oak Hill today. Our most
famous leucistic bird was Miss Bianca (bird 140), a white
woodpecker discovered by Michael MacRoberts in 1968 on the
Arnold, and who the group Bianca is named after. A second
bird (bird 276) was also leucistic and banded as a nestling
in 1976 at Lower Arnold 2. This bird was found dead 2 weeks
later. Those are the last two leucistic birds seen at
Hastings. A little known fact is that Walt's dissertation
was dedicated to Miss Bianca.
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October 7
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Katie and Charles found
the first fall nest of the year today at Horsetail. This is
the first fall nest since 2009, when we had two. Before
that, the last time we had a fall nest was in 2004. You can
read more about fall
nests here.
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October 7
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As a companion to my Primer
on Getting Into Graduate School site, I have just
launched the Top
5 Mistakes Undergraduates Make When Preparing For and
Applying for Field Positions site. I hope it helps
someone, especially those interested in working on my field
projects.
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October 3
|
Charles found some
birds that appear to have formed a new group near Plaque. As
is the ritual at Hastings, any time a new group is
discovered, the discoverer gets to name the group. Charles
decided on "Jaime", in honor of our resident
steward - one of the finest people you will ever meet.
Besides being our steward, Jaime is the Battalion Chief of
our local fire department and a reserve police officer. If
you call 9-1-1 at Hastings, Jaime will be there to save your
life, as he has done countless times over the past 35 years.
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September 9
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I sent out a message on
Ecolog advertising the PhD positions I have open for next
year. The response was overwhelming. We have had over 1,300
hits to the website in the past few days. My inbox is
overflowing. Apparently there are a lot of students out
there interested in joining my lab. I will continue to
consider applicants over the next couple of months. Please
click on the joining
us tab for more information.
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September 7
|
Today is the official
start of the California Acorn Survey. Walt & Jean will
spend a week surveying more than 1,000 trees at 19 sites
throughout California. This will be the 32nd straight year
of the survey. Good luck guys!
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August 29
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We are back at campus.
Other than some flooding, a tornado, and power outages, everything is
fine.
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August 25
|
Boy, living in Virginia
is rough. We've been smoked out for several weeks by the
Great Dismal Swamp fire, we had a fairly good earthquake
earlier this week, and now Hurricane Irene is heading
straight for us. Our offices and labs will be evacuated
Friday afternoon. We are hoping to return on Monday if all
goes well. And I thought climbing to the top of dead rotting
oak trees was dangerous. Sheesh.
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August 22
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Our helper
effects paper is featured in
the New York Times.
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August 22
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Anna has arrived in
Virginia. Welcome to Norfolk!
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August 20
|
Anna left Hastings
today to make her trek eastwards to start graduate school at
ODU. Katie is now in charge of the ACWOs and will be joined
by Charles in a few weeks.
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August 16
|
Our age-related
provisioning paper in Animal Behaviour came out in print
today. The article is featured by
the executive editor in the September issue of Animal
Behaviour.
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August 16
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The 2011 Acorn Survey
is under way. Walt & Jean started counting at Cedar
Creek in Minnesota this morning. They will move to
California in mid-September to finish out the 32nd annual
count. Bring on the acorns.
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August 8
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Anna & Katie
arrived at Hastings today. Anna will spend the next 10 days
training Katie and then hand over the reins to Katie &
Charles for the winter.
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August 4
|
The office and lab
renovations are still in progress so it will be a few weeks
before the Walters Lab is up and running.
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August 3
|
Our compensatory care
paper was accepted by Behavioral Ecology.
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August 1
|
Eric officially made
the transition from Cornell to ODU today. Go Big Blue.
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July 22
|
Eric and family pulled
out of Hastings today to make the trek eastwards to
Virginia. It's been an amazing 5 years living on the
reserve. Despite a few shed tears, they are looking forward
to returning next spring.
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July 21
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Anna's plans have
changed. It's a long story but Anna has decided to join Eric
at ODU. She will be heading back to Hastings for a week to
train Katie and then will be on her way to Norfolk to start
graduate work. Congratulations Anna.
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July 16
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Our dominance
paper was published online by Behavioral Ecology &
Sociobiology.
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July 15
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Today was Bridget's
last day. She'll be heading back to Ontario where she plans
to catch up on all things Canadian, eh. Thanks for a great
field season Bridget. We'll miss you.
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July 12
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Our helper
effects paper was published in the print edition of the American Naturalist.
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July 11
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Anna leaves to begin
her graduate studies at SFSU, under the direction of Andy
Zink. Congratulations Anna!
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July 1
|
Our Animal Behaviour
paper on the skills and
pay-to-stay hypotheses was electronically published.
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June 30
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Our within-brood
dominance paper was accepted to Behavioral Ecology &
Sociobiology.
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June 27
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Our helper
effects paper was electronically published in the
American Naturalist.
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June 17
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Our gypsy
moth paper came out in print in the Condor.
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June 16
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Eric has accepted a
faculty position at Old Dominion University in Norfolk,
Virginia.
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June 07
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A day of transition.
Josh leaves today to prepare for his upcoming research in
the Dominican Republic on Hispaniola Woodpeckers. Desirree
Pizarro has arrived from New York. She will be working as an
REU on the woodpecker and oak projects. Goodbye Josh. Hello
Desirree.
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June 04
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It's pouring rain
today. So far we have received over an inch of rain,
smashing the all time precip record for this date (by 6
fold) - and we're not even half way through the day. It's
been a rough spring for woodpecker chicks. We've lost about
10 nests this spring so far and we expect this number to
rise.
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May 25
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Josh LaPergola arrived
today. He is a new PhD student in our lab and he plans to
study the Hispaniola Woodpecker in the Dominican Republic.
He's here at Hastings to learn all there is to know about
woodpecker techniques before he leaves for his first field
season in the DR. Welcome Josh.
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May 4
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Anna found a nest at
Horsetail today with 13 eggs. This ties the all-time record
that was set back in 2005 at Lower Haystack.
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April 26
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Our manuscript on the
skills and pay-to-stay hypotheses was accepted to the
journal Animal Behaviour.
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April 19
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Anna found the first
nest of the year today. It's been a cool and wet spring and
the birds definitely seem to be delayed. There have only
been 6 years out of the last 30 when the first nest was
found after April 19th.
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April 18
|
Charles Van Rees will
also be joining us this fall as one of our winter field
assistants. Charles currently works with Reed Bowman with
cooperatively breeding Florida Scrub Jays at the Archbold
Biological Station.
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April 13
|
Katie Zarn will be
joining us this fall as one of our winter field assistants.
She currently works in our genotyping lab at Gonzaga
University with Joey Haydock. We are looking forward to her
arrival.
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March 29
|
Our helper effects
paper was accepted to the American Naturalist.
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March 16 |
Walt returned from
Japan today after surviving the tsunami, the many
earthquakes, and radiation leaks. He's happy to be back in
Ithaca. Welcome home Walt. |
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March 09 |
Brian saw his first
mountain lion today. This is the first sighting of 2011. |
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March 08 |
Walt heads to Sapporo,
Japan to speak at the Ecological Society of Japan annual
meeting on spatial synchrony in California oaks. |
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February 09 |
Anna was recently
accepted into Andy
Zink's lab. Anna will be using her current work on
reproductive skew in the woodpeckers as the basis for her
graduate thesis. Congratulations Anna! |
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February 04 |
Walt and Brian
Barringer arrived to begin the oak phenology sampling.
Brian, the new postdoc on the oak LTREB, will be sampling at
Sedgwick, Hastings, and Jasper Ridge over the next 3 months,
following up on the work initiated by Kyle over the past 2
field seasons. Welcome Brian. |
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January 29 |
Our gypsy moth paper
was accepted to Condor. |
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January 24 |
Caroline left today
after working with Eric for a very intense 2 weeks of GIS
analyses for her undergraduate honor's thesis. We hope to
see her back later this summer once she returns from her
studies in Spain. Happy travels Caroline. |
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January 14 |
Walt has officially
become a member of the "big wig" club. With an
h-index of 36, he has joined a select group. To date, he has
published 129 papers that have been cited 3,862 times (a
mean of nearly 30 citations per paper). Congratulations
Walt! |
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January 11 |
Caroline Rusk arrived
today to finish up her work with
Eric on her ongoing ArcGIS-based vagrancy project. She is
happy to have escaped New York just in time before JFK
closed due to the snowstorm. Welcome to California and our
70-degree weather Caroline. |
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