Noah Perlut's bobolink research is focus of VT Digger feature

Noah Perlut, Ph.D., UNE assistant professor of environmental studies, and his 12-year research study of bobolinks in Vermont were the focus of a story by writer Candace Page in the June 16, 2013 VT Digger.

Page accompanied Perlut on a day in a Vermont hayfield, capturing, tagging, recording data, and releasing the yellow-capped songbirds. Assisting in  Perlut's research that day was Jenna Cava, a UNE biological sciences graduate student working with Perlut and Associate Professor of Biology Steven Travis, Ph.D.

Page writes: "A bobolink in the hand is a wonder; one is immediately struck by its beating heart that’s scarcely protected by translucent skin and feathery down. Each bird weighs about an ounce, yet these durable little creatures are able to fly 6,000 miles to Argentina in the fall, then return unerringly to this field or one nearby the following spring."

Twelve years of research on a single species in a single area is extremely unusual, University of Vermont biologist Allan Strong told the writer, who explains that it allows Perlut to ask, and perhaps answer, tough questions about bobolink behavior and genetics, because he has captured several generations of birds.

“The first word to describe Noah is tenacious,” Strong said. “He knows what every single bird in that field is doing. He knows some of these current residents’ parents, grandparents and even great-grandparents. … That is rare, extremely rare.” Read the entire VT Digger story.

Read another story based on Perlut's research in which researchers from the University of Connecticut are trying to determine whether people are willing to pledge money to reimburse farmers for allowing the bobolinks the time needed for successful nesting. Read an earlier story on Perlut by Page that she wrote for the Burlington Free Press in 2012. Perlut's bobolink research has been featured in Audubon Magazine.