Happy Day 2 of #BlackBirdersWeek! #postabird I'm so happy to see others posting multiple birds because I can't pick just one! I'm going to start with my work in Baltimore. Baltimore’s birds are the reason I ended up back to grad school to get my PhD. 
(@DrCRegaBrodsky and @nilonch also played a role😉) I helped with Christine's research on bird use of vacant lots. We located nests, caught & banded robins, vegetation surveys, and 5 minute bird surveys. Here I'm using a mirror on a stick to look inside a nest.
Despite living here I saw bird species I didn’t expectto see! I think there were ~ 60 species documented in vacant lots.
I have also been working on @BESlter 's long-term bird monitoring since 2013. There are 132 points that have been surveyed almost every year starting from 2005-2018. This past year I’ve been working on data analysis of alllll this data. We've documented ~ 100 bird species.
We want to determine how have the bird communities at these 100+ points changed over the past 13 years. Can changes in certain natural and human variables over this time explain these community changes? Can these variables also explain why certain bird species are abundant?
Variables I'm currently investigating are changes in canopy cover, the amount of residential and ‘green’ areas, income, and racial & social composition of neighborhoods around the points. For urban ecology research you have to look at both natural and human factors.
As an amateur photographer with meh gear, birds continue to frustrate me. But below are bird pics I *have* managed to get. This barred owl is probably the best bird photo I've taken. IN Baltimore. #BlackBirdersWeek #PostABird
Maryland: This black vulture is my 2nd fave. It found a dead rat right outside my house. Downy woodpecker on my back porch looking for carpenter bee larva? Reservoirs and parks are great places to find urban birds like these waterfowl and SCREECH OWL.
When I lived in Columbia Missouri my apartment was next to a big nature preserve and I loved it. Fell asleep often to Barred owl calls. Hundreds of vultures roosted there. And red-tail hawks and yellow bellied sapsuckers! And nighthawks migrated through.
I won't pretend to know Western birds well. But I recognized the scrub jays and brown pelicans at Asilomar State Beach outside Monterrey California. I think the other two birds are willet and a black turnstone?
I haven't updated my photography page in a long time, but I'm going to get around to it one day! redbubble.com/people/elasita
