This Bobolink Odyssey tells the stories of individual grassland birds and their young, aiming to inspire landowners and communities to work together to halt the factors causing population decline of these birds. Many Bobolinks and Savannah Sparrows return to breed near where they were born – generation to generation. This allows the Perlut Lab to uniquely tell the stories of bird families: where each was born, who its parents, siblings, and cousins were, where it migrated, where it returned, and its breeding success. We explore how the timing and intensity of haying affects these birds, how climate change interacts with birds and agriculture, and how we use diverse technologies to understand their movements to South America and back.
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Please join us at the Unity Community Center on November 16 at 5:30 PM for our first in-person Annual Meeting in four years! It will be wonderful to gather together again and celebrate the past year’s accomplishments, learn from our speakers about the importance of conservation in the Sebastiocook River Watershed and the amazing journey of the Bobolink, and look ahead to the future. Come and vote on our new slate of Board of Directors and a revision of the SRLT by-laws. You can view our proposed slate of Directors and review past and proposed by-laws at the links below.
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We will also hear from Buck O’Herin, chair of the Midcoast Conservancy Board of Directors and coordinator of the Hills to Sea Trail on the topic of “Why Conserve Land in the Sebasticook River Watershed?”
Noah Perlut is a Professor and Assistant Academic Director in the School of Marine and Environmental Programs at the University of New England. The Perlut Lab focuses on how wildlife adapt or fail to adapt to human-caused habitat change, studying grassland songbirds that nest in agricultural fields, gulls that nest on roof-tops, songbirds that nest in managed forests, and gray squirrels that live on college campuses.
2024 Slate of Board of Directors
Tom Aversa, Chair
Ellen Batchelder, Treasurer
Adrianna Bessenaire
Tyler C. Hadyniak
Doug Miller
Pete Nichols
Dana Ward, Vice-Chair
Doug Wescott, Secretary