Kai (Senior)

We released several groups, or “coveys”, of quail on protected land, provided them with supplemental food and water, and monitored them via trail cameras for several months. In the summer of 2015, I worked with a Head Research Ecologist from the NY Parks Department to study plant, amphibian, dragonfly, and bird populations in urban parks around the city. We especially focused on declining urban breeding bird species. For this reason, we were able to help CUNY University band and monitor Seaside and Saltmarsh sparrows and Clapper Rails in marshes around the city. Later that summer, I conducted independent research at the E.N. Huyck Preserve. I researched how alarm calls, food, or a stuffed predatory bird could attract birds to mist nets for banding. I made a poster and wrote a scientific paper in the preserve’s annual journal. In the summer of 2016, I worked at the Swaner Preserve in Utah. There, I helped create Sandhill Crane banding protocol, worked on restoring damaged habitat, and studied stream health through invertebrate counts, stream embankment surveys, and willow growth. Later that summer I went to Cornell to learn about new technology in relation to bird research and have my first experience with working with captive raptors. This spring I’ll be conducting an independent project for my senior initiative on how imprinting can influence Bobwhite Quail reintroductions.