Feb. 10, 12:30 p.m.: “High Tide for Salt Marsh Birds” on Zoom

Sam Apgar, UConn Ph.D. candidate. Scroll down for a short video preview of her presentation.

Here’s what one viewer told us after the first Young, Gifted, and Wild About Birds of 2022: “I’m so glad that you decided to continue this series. Love to see these young scientists present their work and show us how we can use their data and conclusions to help make the world a better place …“

February 4, 2022 — For the next Young, Gifted, and Wild About Birds, we drill down from big-picture climate change issues to one habitat and four birds in Connecticut that are being affected by climate change today.

Sam Apgar, who is working on the final stages of her Ph.D. dissertation at the University of Connecticut, will be the presenter. Her talk is called “High Tide for Salt Marsh Birds.” Scroll down for a short video preview of her presentation.

This special lunchtime presentation is set for 12:30 p.m. on Thursday, February 10, via Zoom.

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Rising sea levels are changing tidal marshes in Connecticut and beyond. But changes affect nesting birds in different ways. The populations of Saltmarsh Sparrow and Clapper Rail, for example, are declining. In fact, some scientists predict that Saltmarsh Sparrow is likely to go extinct by 2060.

And yet two other species, Seaside Sparrow and Willet, seem to be holding on.

Sam Apgar is studying the success of tidal marsh birds in Connecticut. She will share her findings on how tidal flooding affects where those birds place and structure their nests and how each species responds.

Sam is working with her advisor, Dr. Chris Elphick of UConn’s Ecology and Evolutionary Biology Department. She lives in southern New Jersey and works for the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service as a Pathways Intern. Her article in the 2020 Connecticut State of the Birds report, “Pandemic,” is titled “Fieldwork Delayed As Marsh Birds Try To Cope With Rising Sea Levels.”

Click HERE to subscribe to the final 3 presentations of 2022!

Young, Gifted, and Wild About Birds is Connecticut Audubon’s Zoom series featuring younger generation scientists and others discussing their work.

The 2022 series started with Brooke Bateman, director of climate science for the National Audubon Society.

Following Sam Apgar on February 10 will be artist Jenny Kroik (March 3), grassland bird ecologists Shannon Curley, Ph.D., and Jose-Ramirez-Garofalo (March 24), and Ph.D. candidate Murry Burgess.

Young, Gifted, and Wild About Birds 2020-21 featured Deja Perkins of North Carolina State University and #BlackBirdersWeek, Eliza Grames, Ph.D, of UConn, Dennis Liu, Ph.D., of the Half-Earth project, Mariamar Ramirez-Gutierrez of UMass Amherst, Jordan Rutter and Gabriel Foley of Bird Names of Birds, and Desiree Narango, Ph.D., of UMass Amherst.