https://www.vtshorebirds.org/annual-report daily 0.75 2020-02-10 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5cadee739b8fe80a4d69ac13/1555007115923-S4IMPTS7C55CCKMWOX9A/Virginia+PIPL+2018_Annual+Report.jpg Annual Report https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5cadee739b8fe80a4d69ac13/1555007119899-JSSGKF7LDMBUNPYM3ZCO/Niobrara+2018+Summary+Report.jpg Annual Report https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5cadee739b8fe80a4d69ac13/1555007127315-J7CETK3XHVEH5R9ZI8DD/2018_Fire+Island+Annual+Report.jpg Annual Report https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5cadee739b8fe80a4d69ac13/1555007130362-4VP4C1S6BX9KQMNA5FV6/CAHA_CALO_PEA_YER_2018.jpg Annual Report https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5cadee739b8fe80a4d69ac13/1555007144348-6OFHRHC4UNXPMXZ75ZCN/NFWF+Cover.png Annual Report https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5cadee739b8fe80a4d69ac13/1554999077488-XHRGL6Q24W26G9UUGD8M/IMG_0865.jpg Annual Report - Entering a new decade. Royal tern chicks await banding on the Hampton Roads Bridge Tunnel https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5cadee739b8fe80a4d69ac13/1555005646828-5T7I6MDLXWW5VV45QMLU/IMG_0730.jpg Annual Report - Committed to diversity 68% of our biologists are women and we strive for an inclusive working and learning environment https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5cadee739b8fe80a4d69ac13/1555101152267-WJN7TU986OG3K8KR3JLQ/IMG_0636.jpg Annual Report - Mentoring colleagues 2 MSc. conferred in Wildlife Science https://www.vtshorebirds.org/home-mentor daily 1.0 2025-05-09 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5cadee739b8fe80a4d69ac13/1555704384524-WK5XPV73W4B5YAYJ56ZP/Disturbance.png Home One of our biologists surveys for shorebirds and potential sources of disturbance in Long Island, NY. Photo: A DeRose-Wilson. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5cadee739b8fe80a4d69ac13/1555690415843-BU3J0MDRC24N5XBMEXBU/Growth%2BCurves.jpg Home Image credit: Khan Academy - Examples of common population growth curves. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5cadee739b8fe80a4d69ac13/1555007767019-CB4K5FYI60EPI6AVNMQK/Figure2_new.png Home - Wintering Shorebirds Migratory connectivity of piping plovers Charadrius melodus across two flyways. We studied the application of Bergmann’s rule to piping plovers throughout their breeding and wintering ranges to understand how the pattern applies to a migratory species. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5cadee739b8fe80a4d69ac13/1555009226713-K2P0IUYLA9ELYY2JXQP1/Walker_ECS18-0130_Fig3.jpg Home Classification of suitable (red) and unsuitable (blue) plover habitat prior to (top) and after (bottom) hurricane Sandy struck Fire Island, NY https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5cadee739b8fe80a4d69ac13/1555707538810-UUKQ64DXNHSWWM4LC5GN/wmon.v192.1.cover.jpg Home One of two Wildlife Monographs produced by VTShorebirds in the last decade. Contact us for reprints of any of our publications. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5cadee739b8fe80a4d69ac13/1554916221826-CCC9XANJ10VOHKOZP69R/IMG_1250.jpg Home https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5cadee739b8fe80a4d69ac13/1554917920318-K00UPUGL20YM9G2QM1GO/IMG_8941.jpg Home https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5797de498419c2b3b97221ba/1473704730568-JL27B8FUBI0V72DSEMYC/solid-b23a36-2500x1667.jpg Home - Sponsor a Campaign Different ways to give → https://www.vtshorebirds.org/our-vision daily 0.75 2025-01-15 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5cadee739b8fe80a4d69ac13/1557164260667-XFBTOBX4FBPGYFYKS7RX/IMG_6536.jpg Our Vision Black skimmer chicks We mark young birds to monitor their survival prior to their first flight. These studies help us provide timely recommendations for our federal, state, and NGO partners charged with managing these species. https://www.vtshorebirds.org/fireisland daily 0.75 2024-02-21 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5cadee739b8fe80a4d69ac13/1557174853370-IR88R0LS6G4F686AQB7W/IMG_0791.jpeg Habitat limitation - Long Island Project https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5cadee739b8fe80a4d69ac13/1557174871962-Q01NHG6TQ6MVSN4F6HOM/IMG_0033.JPG Habitat limitation - Long Island Project https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5cadee739b8fe80a4d69ac13/1557174882412-SWX72E9BVOGGT6NYFQN9/IMG_1369.jpeg Habitat limitation - Long Island Project https://www.vtshorebirds.org/obx daily 0.75 2019-05-08 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5cadee739b8fe80a4d69ac13/1555702826059-SVESR08WNUTUCKCPYBMF/NC.png North Carolina Plovers https://www.vtshorebirds.org/learning daily 0.75 2019-07-10 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5cadee739b8fe80a4d69ac13/1558552536783-GP0FOPJJIXG2CI7LA85X/IMG_0594.jpg Hands-on learning Dan Catlin working with some of our biologists on Fire Island, showing them some of the finer details of measuring birds. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5cadee739b8fe80a4d69ac13/1562783686694-9RDHQF6QMPY6SQ4SYXUH/IMG_3261.JPG Hands-on learning We teamed up with the Virginia Department of Game and Inland Fisheries and the Georgia Department of Natural Resources to capture and band over 5000 Royal Tern Thalasseus maximus chicks at colonies in both states. A unique collaboration of state and academic biologists, students, and volunteers, providing necessary information for management and ample opportunity for learning. https://www.vtshorebirds.org/disturbance daily 0.75 2019-07-17 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5cadee739b8fe80a4d69ac13/1555013975870-G6QJ31AVRC4PFPP3C2EJ/Leary_1.jpg Atlantic Flyway Disturbance Project A flock of shorebirds is flushed from a roost by an airboat in coastal Florida. Photo: P. Leary https://www.vtshorebirds.org/publications daily 0.75 2023-10-17 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5cadee739b8fe80a4d69ac13/1554996716702-Y9CCKEUXDTJBU6LXD32G/plover+cover.jpg Publications https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5cadee739b8fe80a4d69ac13/1554996722282-DV2QO590S6UNRRYP0YQJ/wmon.v192.1.cover.jpg Publications https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5cadee739b8fe80a4d69ac13/1554996807274-WIEND8LHQKKG7CTYP50S/slide11.jpg Publications https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5cadee739b8fe80a4d69ac13/1555001529398-0R158UXEFA3OFRI6F9SJ/Kwon_et_al-2018-Journal_of_Applied_Ecology.jpg Publications https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5cadee739b8fe80a4d69ac13/1562769150279-OJNNVQ63EN7LMYSHFIIU/Gibson_et_al-2019-Ecography.png Publications https://www.vtshorebirds.org/our-team daily 0.75 2025-10-03 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5cadee739b8fe80a4d69ac13/1554991543735-Y1DAYH938YMJ9MQ5EPCC/Jim.JPG Our Team - Jim Fraser Jim joined the Department of Fish and Wildlife Conservation in 1981 as an assistant professor. He currently is a professor of Wildlife Conservation. He founded the Virginia Tech Shorebird Program in 1985 with a study of piping plovers on Assateague Island, Maryland and Virginia, and continues to be driven by an enthusiasm for conservation-oriented research. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5cadee739b8fe80a4d69ac13/1554992202462-FOMCHI7VJ3ROL8A7JBB2/IMG_0774.jpg Our Team - Sarah Karpanty Sarah joined the Department of Fish and Wildlife Conservation, and the world of shorebird conservation, in 2004 after earning her B.S. at Miami University and her Ph.D. At Stony Brook University. She is currently an Associate Professor in the department and mentors undergraduate and graduate students on a diversity of shorebird and tern projects on our U.S. coasts. Sarah is interested in projects that explore how human activities impact animal behavior, population dynamics, and community ecology. Most importantly, she seeks to use the knowledge gained from those studies to proactively develop and/or evaluate management actions to mitigate or minimize human impacts on wildlife. Sarah and her students have worked and continue to work on Red Knots, Wilson’s Plovers, Piping Plovers, Least Terns, Common Terns, Roseate Terns, Gull-Billed Terns, and Black Skimmers. When not working on the beach, Sarah explores similar questions with lemurs an their predators in Madagascar. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5cadee739b8fe80a4d69ac13/1642003509302-WT80JWO8M9D18IV3PWYF/IMG_2674.jpeg Our Team - Kelsi Hunt Kelsi received her undergraduate degree from the University of Minnesota where she worked as a research technician on the Great Lakes piping plover project. She joined VTShorebirds in 2010 as a part of the Deepwater Horizon oil spill response and earned her M.Sc. in 2016 studying the effects flooding on Missouri River piping plover prey, growth rates, and demography. Since graduating she’s taken on the role of research coordinator and has helped manage projects including banding and tracking seabirds in Virginia, capturing and banding migratory and wintering shorebirds in South Carolina and Georgia, and working with partners to collect data on shorebird abundance, distribution, and behavior in response to human disturbance along the North American Atlantic Flyway. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5cadee739b8fe80a4d69ac13/1642538156345-M5OVIRMICFFLJJ8GW58H/65349087820__3974B1A7-8DEF-48BF-A788-C3FE80343990.jpg Our Team - Chelsea Weithman Chelsea earned her B.Sc. in Wildlife and Fisheries Biology from Clemson University in 2011, discovering her passion for avian ecology and conservation. After working for VTShorebirds in 2013 and 2014 on the Missouri River project, she joined the lab and earned her M.Sc. in 2019 studying the population dynamics and migratory behavior of piping plovers on the North Carolina Outer Banks. She is currently a Research Program Manager, where she oversees projects that continue to examine breeding and migratory plovers in North Carolina and breeding colonial seabirds in Virginia. She has also assisted on projects studying overwintering plovers in the southeast U.S. and The Bahamas. Her interests include population dynamics, migratory behavior, and regional population connectivity https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5cadee739b8fe80a4d69ac13/1676067615207-H5503KEJCQND5REZ0VEX/IMG-0746+%282%29.jpg Our Team - Mikayla Call Mikayla received her B.S. in Environmental Biology in 2018 from The State University of New York College of Environmental Science and Forestry, where her undergraduate research focused on waterbirds breeding in north-central Mongolia. Following her passion for waterbird conservation, she joined the Virginia Tech Shorebird Program in January 2020 and is currently working on PhD research studying the effect of climate-driven ecosystem state change on American Oystercatchers in Virginia. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5cadee739b8fe80a4d69ac13/1668538951548-ADI7L2V3LZMEMZBFRAH0/IMG_34441.jpeg Our Team - Camille Alvino Camille graduated from Southern Illinois University Carbondale with a B.Sc in 2018. Since then she has worked various field positions including her first piping plover position in North Dakota with the USGS in 2019. There she discovered her passion for avian breeding and population ecology as well the importance of conserving threatened and endangered species. She has worked with VTShorebirds on the North Carolina piping plover project since 2021 and is currently working as a research technician, assisting with multiple year end reports as well as other non-field projects. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5cadee739b8fe80a4d69ac13/1668538905340-FXF6ZJI1RH9WA9MSYJA7/IMG_0674_1.jpg Our Team - Kristy Lapenta Kristy received her B.S. in Biology and B.A. in Photography from Guilford College in 2015. She worked as a seasonal technician for various agencies across the country over six years before joining the Virginia Tech Shorebird Program in 2021 as a research technician preparing manuscripts and working on a field study researching American Oystercatcher chick survival on the Eastern Shore of Virginia. She started her Masters in the lab in 2022 and is studying migratory shorebird foraging ecology on the Eastern Shore of Virginia. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5cadee739b8fe80a4d69ac13/1557500111119-63MBWOZ9RBDDZHBXRDYV/IMG_4269.jpeg Our Team - Don Fraser Don joined the Virginia Tech Shorebird Program in 2005 as a technician and boat operator. In 2010, he was promoted to Watercraft Operations Manager. He holds a B.S. in biology from Virginia Tech, and a U.S. Coast Guard license of master of steam and motor vessels of not more than 50 gross tons on inland waters, and mate of steam and motor vessels of not more than 50 gross tons on near coastal waters. https://www.vtshorebirds.org/bandreport daily 0.75 2020-08-18 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5cadee739b8fe80a4d69ac13/1555034287004-6PJUFGK8CV17CKDL9HPZ/banded_shore_bird_ex.png Report a banded bird Image 1 Bands are placed both above and below the tibiotarsal joint on plovers (terns are given bands below the tibiotarsal joint only). There are eight possible band locations on a bird’s leg according to our banding schemes: The Upper Left Upper, Upper Left Lower (left leg, above the tibiotarsal joint), Lower Left Upper, Lower Left Lower (left leg, below the tibiotarsal joint), Upper Right Upper, Upper Right Lower (right leg, above the tibiotarsal joint), Lower Right Upper, and Lower Right Lower (right leg below the tibiotarsal joint) https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5cadee739b8fe80a4d69ac13/1555036130503-LLKV1ZFMU52RQW4SWCCP/HRBT+poster.png Report a banded bird Image 2 An example of our tern and skimmer banding scheme used in Virginia in 2018 https://www.vtshorebirds.org/social daily 0.75 2025-01-15 https://www.vtshorebirds.org/openings daily 0.75 2023-03-27 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5cadee739b8fe80a4d69ac13/1557174721329-N6S7R2SQWFMD1TMCUYDM/IMG_1803.jpg Openings https://www.vtshorebirds.org/royal-terns daily 0.75 2020-01-20 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5cadee739b8fe80a4d69ac13/1556901056719-EWE86GGMVEXGWKH2IP1V/MRF02287.jpg Royal Terns - Hemispheric Impact Photo: M. Fossum https://www.vtshorebirds.org/hrbt daily 0.75 2019-09-10 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5cadee739b8fe80a4d69ac13/1556898774575-Y84QAR42CT3RS2GLNV1P/IMG_0188.jpg Seabird Tracking https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5cadee739b8fe80a4d69ac13/1557161679050-YXSWD7OJ0OK5TIHZ1UHY/test_anim-2.gif Seabird Tracking Tracking common terns to aid in negotiations for a potential mitigation site for terns nesting on HRBT, we teamed up with Sara Maxwell (University of Washington) to place GPS tags on nesting common terns at the site. These tracks were used to propose potential sites for new island construction and to study common tern behavior. In 2019, we plan to continue these efforts, adding gull-billed terns and black skimmers to the species we will track. https://www.vtshorebirds.org/red-knots daily 0.75 2019-08-30 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5cadee739b8fe80a4d69ac13/1557253209971-2K4RHJ4A8K7PAGALVYDH/flying+knots%2C+barry+truitts+pic.JPG Red Knots A flock of red knots flushes on the eastern shore of Virginia. Photo: B. Truitt https://www.vtshorebirds.org/news daily 0.75 2019-08-30 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5cadee739b8fe80a4d69ac13/1565026064201-NXWNVNH7T3W45GXTSUDY/IMG_0282.jpg News https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5cadee739b8fe80a4d69ac13/1562631711479-KVX1RAU98KUGYOSHJ6MS/MRF02230.jpg News Black skimmers on the south island of the Hampton Roads Bridge Tunnel. Photo: M. Fossum. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5cadee739b8fe80a4d69ac13/1562792559161-53QC3E1D2R88LXX12EUC/LRM_EXPORT_109994129862637_20190205_095508331.jpeg News Lead author, Chelsea Weithman, trapping plovers on Ocracoke Island, NC. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5cadee739b8fe80a4d69ac13/1562791929152-2KMYQVQ7AT4WU30CJAQF/Red_Knot_in_Flight_%284035536962%29.jpg News Red Knots in flight. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5cadee739b8fe80a4d69ac13/1562633828558-C6IBP9VJBKJLD8UCURKC/66D5B3FC-82F6-444A-ADE8-8FB066AABC56.jpg News Lead author, Katie Walker (R) collecting a nest location at Democrat Point, Fire Island, NY https://www.vtshorebirds.org/arctic-shorebirds daily 0.75 2019-07-10 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5cadee739b8fe80a4d69ac13/1562692119715-8CPHW1BLBZHZXUPK3F3F/pectoral+1.png Arctic Shorebirds https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5cadee739b8fe80a4d69ac13/1562694699051-LVK17JDSP13KEJUWGAMJ/IMG_1106.jpg Arctic Shorebirds Lindsay Hermanns (VTSP) and Rick Lanctot (USFWS) attaching a gps transmitter an American Golden Plover as part of a collaborative project, studying the movement of Arctic shorebirds throughout the annual cycle. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5cadee739b8fe80a4d69ac13/1562693263559-MPW39N05RKV2YZMB3CXX/tundra-scape.png Arctic Shorebirds A view of the tundra from above. https://www.vtshorebirds.org/shared-beringia-heritage daily 0.75 2023-02-10 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5cadee739b8fe80a4d69ac13/1567521092918-SY1A4DQ9OWJSGDHQSH46/SBS.png Shared Beringia Heritage The spoon billed sandpiper is one of the world’s most iconic and endangered shorebirds. Photo: Iosif Kaurov