Category Archives: SHARP Blog

Jeff Corwin’s Wildlife Nation visits the marsh to learn about SALS!

Our beloved Saltmarsh Sparrow are being featured on Jeff Corwin’s Wildlife Nation! Here’s the trailer to this week’s episode, which features U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service SALS steward and SHARP member! https://youtu.be/Hg5sVz3o12Q

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New study in PNAS shows how understanding the beliefs and attitudes of private property owners is key to long-term conservation of tidal marshes

Sea levels are rising and coastal marshes are getting wetter. In addition to affecting coastal communities, these changes have consequences for the many species that live in marshes, and recent evidence shows that several of these species are suffering rapid … Continue reading

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Infrared video from a Saltmarsh Sparrow nest during a flooding event shows nest flooding, female returning to incubate

This field season, UConn graduate student Samantha Apgar is using infrared cameras to record the nesting behavior of tidal marsh birds DURING the monthly high tide events that often cause nest failure.  Here’s a time lapse video from a Saltmarsh … Continue reading

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SHARP research clarifies the subspecies question for Saltmarsh and Nelson’s Sparrows

Postdoc Jen Walsh and SHARP collaborators (Adrienne Kovach, Chris Elphick, Gregory Shriver, and Brian Olsen) recently published a paper in Molecular Ecology investigating the genetic structure of the Saltmarsh-Nelson’s sparrow subspecies complex. This study used a reduced representation sequencing approach … Continue reading

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Molting and Migration

By: Alyssa Borowske @UConn In a recent publication in The Auk (found here), Alyssa Borowske, Chris Elphick, and Carina Gjerdrum looked at the effect that reproductive investment has on the timing of three events in the lives of male and … Continue reading

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Dispatch from the field: a day in Rhode Island

At SHARP, we like to bring volunteers into the field as often as possible to allow them to experience the marsh firsthand and teach them about the conservation of tidal marsh birds.  This summer, the UConn crew was joined by … Continue reading

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Tidal marsh birds are declining– SHARP population trends are published

A major goal of SHARP’s initial work plan was to produce population trends for the saltmarsh sparrow and other specialist species. Maureen “Mo” Correll, a recent graduate from the University of Maine’s PhD program in Ecology and Environmental Science, led … Continue reading

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“The Vandal”

By: Bri Benvenuti @ UNH  Introducing 2511-26781. Sporting University of Idaho black and yellow leg bands, this male Nelson’s Sparrow was nicknamed “The Vandal” during an observational study comparing the mating behavior between male Saltmarsh and Nelson’s Sparrows in New Hampshire. Banded … Continue reading

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UNH Launches New Demographic Plots in Maine, Saltmarsh-Nelson’s Sparrow Hybrid Zone

SHARP grad student Logan Cline is establishing the first new demographic sites that SHARP has begun since 2012.  Logan chose sites in the midst of the Saltmarsh-Nelson’s Sparrow hybrid zone in midcoast Maine, near Popham Beach and Brunswick. Broadly, Logan’s … Continue reading

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An update on our mystery bird (green/red metal/orange)

We’ve heard from one of her banders, Lauren Deaner.  This female Saltmarsh Sparrow was banded on Shell Key in Pinellas County, Florida on October 31, 2015.  Lauren bands Saltmarsh and Nelson’s Sparrows on their wintering grounds with Dr. Jon Greenlaw … Continue reading

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