Hey AMOY lovers,
So I've been busy over the winter analyzing the data from the past two years, and I made my big scientific discovery! I documented the first record of diet specialization in American Oystercatchers. We have some individuals who breed at the Hook of Assateague Island who eat mole crabs > 90% of the time. Mole crabs are the tiny marine invertebrates on oceanside shorelines. Whenever you see shorebirds like Sanderlings, Willets, and oystercatchers who run back and forth as the tide moves in and out and are feeding, they are usually eating mole crabs.
Having oystercatchers who specialize on mole crabs changes their habitat space use. Mole crab specialists tend to stay very close to their nests because they can get all of their food within 100 to 150 meters of their nest. By staying close to their nests, specialist breeding pairs can be more vigilant over their broods to deter and defend against predators, so they have higher fledging success. You can read all about this by checking out my nifty story map at https://arcg.is/1q5bHf1.
I'm on the writing kick now and am in the process of publishing this work. Currently writing four manuscripts. --I admit it's kind of nutsy, but there are so many cool avenues that diet specialization can take me! e.g. diet might change feeding bill morphology.
Stay tuned.