Noah Perlut's research on bobolinks featured in 2nd Burlington Free Press story

Noah Perlut, Ph.D., assistant professor of environmental studies, was the focus of two feature stories in the June 25 and May 26, 2010 issues of the Burlington Free Press (Vermont). In the May 26th story, the Free Press reporter and photographer accompanied Perlut and Vermont ornithologist Rosalind Renfrew on a research field trip on the morning of May 25th when they recovered a 3-year-old male bobolink carrying a tiny recording device packed with information new to science. The June 26th story reports some of the findings from the research of two bobolinks, following a computer analysis of the data.

With the contents of the recording devices of the bobolinks downloaded and analyzed, the scientists for the first time are tracing the precise route the yellow-headed songbirds flew between Vermont and South America. For example, one of the birds, as he flew back toward his Shelburne breeding ground in May, covered the 1,100 miles between Venezuela and the Bahamas in a single day.

Perlut said what struck him about the new information “is how vagabond the birds seem to be once they get to the central part of South America. They don’t seem to be interested in one specific area. Is that a species thing, something in their genes?” Or are they forced to move because a particular habitat becomes depleted of food? he asked.

The Shelburne bird spent three months on its stop-and-start fall migration. It flew via the Florida Keys, Puerto Rico and Venezuela to Bolivia, where it spent a month before continuing to Argentina. It wintered in the rice fields and marshes along the Parana River in northeastern Argentina before leaving for Vermont in early April.

Perlut has been studying bobolinks in Chittenden County, Vermont for nine years. Ultimately, data from the birds, and others banded in Nebraska and Oregon, might prove crucial for identifying the most-important habitats in the flyway and wintering grounds, allowing nations and conservation groups to set priorities for habitat protection.

The stories are accompanied by several photos of the researchers. Perlut's research on bobolinks was also featured in the November-December 2009 issue of the national Audubon Magazine.

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