After plowing through a pile of applications by an impressive group of young biologists, I am pleased to present the newest crew members for the western scrub-jay / oak project. Kachina Rowland is from Oregon and attended Humboldt State. Spencer Schubert is from Illinois and attended St. Olaf's College in Minnesota. The two stood out with great experience and background, and especially the desire to conduct their own small research project. Starting in late August, we will make an effort at figuring out another piece of the jay-oak interaction puzzle. Exciting stuff!

Almost, our ambassador woodpecker, is ready to hang out with new friends...

This post is way overdue!

Starting in February, I have been working at the Hastings Natural History Reserve in wonderful Carmel Valley, CA. My postdoc with Walt Koenig, a senior researcher at the Cornell Lab of Ornithology, focuses on acorn production in local oaks, and the consequences that the variation thereof has on seed predation and dispersal by western scrub-jays.

This fall, my crew and I will be color-banding and chasing jays to find out what they do with their acorns, and how that behavior is affected by different contexts of seed-availability and social interactions.