The mission of the Avian Science Center is to promote ecological awareness and informed decision making through the collection, synthesis, and dissemination of science-based information on western birds.
Autumn in Montana ....
The weather is turning cooler and all of our field crews have wrapped up their seasons and we have been busy checking data and starting our preliminary research analysis. We will have our web reports available online very soon.
We would like to congratulate Kristina Smucker for being named our new Assistant Director!
The Raptor Research Foundation Conference held from Sept. 24 - 28th, 2008 was a huge success! The Avian Science Center helped to co-host this conference, all while enjoying the diverse group of people from around the world presenting their research on raptors. Kristina Smucker presented preliminary results from our Flammulated Owl research along with the Citizen Monitoring program at the conference. To find out more about RRF and future conferences: http://raptorresearchfoundation.org.
New Papers!
In Landscape Ecology
Rob Fletcher and Dick Hutto have a new paper in Landscape Ecology 2008: Partitioning the mulit-scale effects of human activity on the occurrence of riparian forest birds. Click HERE to download the PDF version.
In The Condor
Bruce Robertson and Dick Hutto discuss disturbance and songbirds in their 2007 Condor paper: Is selectively harvested forest and ecological trap for the Olive-sided Flycatcher? Click HERE to download the PDF version.
In Conservation Biology :
The July 2006 issue of Conservation Biology is now available. The special section in this issue is entitled The Ecological Effects of Salvage Logging after Natural Disturbance.
ASC Director Dick Hutto's article from this issue, Toward Meaningful Snag-Management Guidelines for Postfire Salvage Logging in North American Conifer Forests, is available - to download, click on the journal cover, right.
In The Auk:
Rob Fletcher and Dick Hutto have just published their paper entitled Estimating detection probabilites of river birds using double surveys in the July 2006 issue of the Auk. To download the pdf version of this article, click HERE.
For more papers, head to our PUBLICATIONS page.
New Video!
New Video!
Click on the picture to the left to see "Portraits in Black", the Avian Science Center's portrayal of life in western Montana burned forests. All photos were taken in severely burned forests. The take-home message is simple: (1) severely burned mixed-conifer forests are biologically unique systems, and (2) if you cut most of the trees after fire through postfire “salvage” logging operations, the biological restoration that the fire promoted is destroyed.
Potential Post-Doc Opportunity
If you are are looking for a Post-Doctoral opportunity and are interested in working with a geographically extensive 10 + year data set of bird point count data, there is potential to collaborate in the submission of grants/fellowships (e.g., NSF Bioinformatics, TNC's Smith Fellowship). Our data lend themselves well to issues of species distribution and habitat relationships and we welcome inquiries to work together. Contact Dr. R. L. Hutto to learn more.
Thank You for Supporting the Avian Science Center!
An enormous THANK YOU to our newly formed FRIENDS of the ASC.
Care to join this fledgling group? Call 243-2035 or email today!
Winter Bird-related Events in Western Montana
Visit Five Valleys Audubon's calendar to learn more about their monthly field trips and other community events!
Graphics, Design, and Layout by Dani Taylor. Copyright© Spectral Fusion 2004. All Rights Reserved.
