Who am I?
Hello. My name is Lyn Brown, and I'm a Ph.D. student at Trent University, based in Peterborough ON, Canada, researching causes for the population decline of American Oystercatchers at Chincoteague, VA.
How I ended up working on this project
I interned at Chincoteague National Wildlife Refuge in 2018, and fell in love with the area and working with the birds. And who wouldn't? My days were filled with walking miles of undeveloped pristine beaches watching goofy American Oystercatchers angrily peep at one another while establishing territories; flexing my ultimate where's Waldo skills when searching for cryptic Piping Plover nests; admiring Brown Pelicans swooping at neck breaking speeds to dive for fish; and occasionally waiting on a road block of Chincoteague ponies to clear, by finally deciding that the grass is greener on the other side rather than at the edge of the road. (If you haven't had the pleasure of watching pelicans dive, check out this video https://www.treehugger.com/how-brown-pelicans-survive-their-death-defying-dives-into-ocean-4862694).
Suffice it to say that this started my path down coastal conservation, and I have tried to return to Chincoteague ever since I left my internship.
Pony jam Angry peeping. Photo: T. MacLaurin.
From there, I worked on a variety of projects examining long-term population trends in shorebirds at North Carolina, loons in Wisconsin, migrating songbirds in Michigan, and scrub jays and manatees in Florida.
Chincoteague has always felt like home to me. I grew up in the Blue Ridge Mountains of southwestern Virginia, and always appreciate a “y’all” to feel welcome. Once I decided on returning to graduate school, I started playing with the idea of doing research at Chincoteague. The site is a complex beautiful ecosystem with a myriad of biodiversity, and it was about finding the right topic that fit with the refuge, and the right supervisor to oversee the project.
The Blue Ridge Mountains
While communicating with my prospective supervisor, Erica Nol, we discovered that we had both worked on Assawoman Island, a remote Virginia barrier island, and had a deep interest in American Oystercatchers. Erica conducted seminal research on American Oystercatcher ecology while completing her Ph.D. in the Chincoteague area. From there, it grew to developing the current research project.
What you can expect from this blog
I will be sharing updates on the research project and from the field. I plan on re-visiting the 2022 field season, and posting every couple of weeks. If you are interested in finding out more about these birds and their status at Chincoteague, subscribe to the mailing list to be notified of new posts.
That's all for now. See you in a couple of weeks.
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