Modified: June 22, 2010
Peter Elstner, Field Biologist, Alaska Landbird Monitoring Project
Peter comes from a diverse background that includes time as a public health worker, an outdoor educator, a dog musher, a helicopter mechanic, a logsitician, and a biologist. He is working with Luke Eberhart-Phillips on the ALMS point counts in the National Petroleum Reserve, Alaska during June. He enjoys the remoteness and the relative silence and softness of the tundra, as well as its unique challenges.
Lila Tauzer: Graduate Research documenting recent habitat change on Creamer’s Refuge, Bander Migration Monitoring Station and and Field Biologist, Alaska Landbird Monitoring Project
Raised in northern California and then in British Columbia, Lila returned to the place of her childhood for university studies. She received a B.S. in Biology from Humboldt State University in 2003, and dove into the nomadic life of a field biologist following graduation.
Lila has always had a strong passion for the natural world, and her extensive work experience reflects her diverse interests in all things living. Although she has a soft spot for songbirds and chooses to work with them whenever possible, she has also assisted on research projects investigating frogs and salamanders in the High Sierra Nevada mountains; raptors in Kenya; rattlesnakes and plants in the Great Basin desert; Big Horn Sheep and wolves in the Canadian Rockies; and birds in the Amazon. Most recently, she spent 3 summers working for ABO performing backcountry bird surveys.
As a result of these cumulative field experiences, she began to think more seriously about landscape connectivity, ecosystem function, and avian population declines. In fall 2009, Lila started at the University of Alaska Fairbanks as an interdisciplinary MS student in Remote Sensing and Ecology under the advise of Drs. Abby Powell(IAB) and Anupma Prakash (Geology and Geophysics). Her project, set at Creamer’s Refuge uses mapping techniques as well as in-situ field data to document recent habitat change; she will also be collecting and analyzing bird data in order to more completely understand the impacts of this ecosystem shift.
This project is a collaboration with Alaska Bird Observatory and USFWS, and is currently funded by the Alaska Space Grant Program and the UA Foundation Angus Gavin Migratory Bird Research Fund. Dayna Dominguez will be her research assistant.
April Harding: Field Biologist, Rusty Blackbird project on Yukon Flats
April was born and raised in the NW Coast Range of Oregon. She first became interested in birds in high school when she took a field Ornithology class participating at a banding station. After graduating from Oregon State University with a B.S. in Zoology in 2002, she spent the following two field seasons in Ashland, Oregon working for the Klamath Bird Observatory and Redwood Science Laboratory out of Arcata, CA. April moved to Alaska in April of 2005. She spent two field seasons working with the Alaska Bird Observatory at Creamer’s Field Migration Monitoring Station. Season three and four she worked on the Rusty Blackbird project on Tanana Flats. In January 2009, she started graduate work at Humboldt State University in Arcata California. Her project is to explore mating systems and social behavior of Rusty Balckbirds on Yukon Flats National Wildlife Refuge. She likes to camp, hike, read, and paint.
Dayna Dominguez: Field Biologist, Rusty Blackbird project on the Tanana Flats; Bander, Migration Monitoring Station, and Field Tech for Lila Tauzer
Born and raised in southwest New Mexico. Dayna received her BS in Biology andis finishing up an MS in Wildlife Science, both from New Mexico State University. Her thesis work is looking at Burrowing Owl breeding distributions across the Great Plains between years, using stable hydrogen isotopes. In addition to her masters work Dayna has been fortunate to have worked a variety of biology jobs including, radio tracking Leptonycteris Bats and Kit Fox, target netting wintering Sage Sparrows, surveyeing mountain stream fish populations via electro-shocking, performing Chihuahuan Leopard Frog surveys throughout the Gila Wilderness, helping assess fire impact on the Sacramento Mountain salamander, and helping fit Ferruginous Hawks with satellite packs. In 2008 she worked at ABO as a bird bander at the Creamer’s Field Migration and Monitoring Station. This year she is the Field Biologist on ABO’s Rusty Blackbird project on Tanana Flats and will band birds again in the fall. Her other interests are spending time with her dog, hiking , skiing, rock climbing, paddling, riding horses, gardening, reading, playing the violin, and cooking.
Claire Giuliano: Intern-Trainee, Alaska Landbird Monitoring Project
Claire returns to ABO with enthusiasm and eagerness to explore new areas of the beautiful state of Alaska. Claire spent the spring of ’09 at the Oregon Zoo working with a newborn Asian Elephant, and decided the animal world was her place. After getting her B.S. in Life Science from the University of Portland that same spring, she devoted the ensuing year to seeing and learning about species and their habitats around the world. She took off from the Rusty Blackbird project on the Tanana Flats in Interior Alaska, and spent the winter working as an assistant collecting behavioral data on parasitic interactions between social groups of Vervet Monkeys in Mpumalanga, South Africa. During the spring, Claire made a dive into the reptile world, and worked as a field tech in the Mojave Desert doing distance sampling with Desert Tortoises. Claire is currently working as a point count assistant on Kodiak Island and Becharof National Wildlife Refuge while at ABO. Claire will spend the following year working as an assistant on a Phayre Leaf Monkey behavioral ecology project in Chaiyaphum, Thailand. Claire holds keen interests in marathons, foxes, and any food that incorporates raspberries.
Justin Houck: Intern-Trainee, Alaska Landbird Monitoring Project
Justin entered the world of wildlife biology with an internship at ABO last summer and has never looked back. In the last year he has taken leaps and bounds to expand his knowledge of many different species and also his passport stamps. He has been lucky enough to have a perpetual summer working with Vervet monkeys in Mpumalanga, South Africa and Desert tortoises in the Mojave Desert. Now a year later he is back in the unique and beautiful Alaska. This year Justin will be working on the ALMS project on the Innoko wildlife refuge and looks forward to sharpening his skills in ornithology and enjoying all that Alaska has to offer.
Luke Eberhart-Phillips: Intern-Trainee Alaska Landbird Monitoring Project
Luke is a graduate student studying shorebird ecology at Humboldt State, California. He considers himself a Kiwi, Californian, and Alaskan. While growing up he migrated around the Pacific Rim with his parents experiencing many of the lands where shorebirds winter, stage, and breed. In Luke’s opinion, Alaska is a special place in his life where he can always find adventure. Last summer Luke interned with ABO in Denali National Park where he helped conduct avian transects throughout Denali’s vast habitats. His favorite bird is the surfbird which he has seen both at his home in Northern California during the winter and in Denali’s alpine tundra last summer. This summer, Luke will survey the North Slope with the ALMS project. He is stoked to camp out in the arctic for a month doing what he loves best: hiking and birding! After his internship with ABO, Luke will be heading off to Germany for his wedding on the Baltic Sea.
Tim Walker: Field Biologist, Alaska Landbird Monitoring Project, and Distance Training Instructor
Tim received a B.S. degree in Wildlife Science from The Pennsylvania State University in 1984. He migrated to Alaska in 1987, establishing his territory in Fairbanks. Tim has worked on several songbird and shorebird studies in interior and northern Alaska. He enjoys surveying and nest searching and is interested in using GIS analysis in regard to bird/habitat relationships. He is married to Anne Sudkamp and they have hatched two offspring, Helen and Cole . At home Tim spends most of his time raising the kids, but also enjoys teaching Tai Chi Chuan and playing fingerstyle guitar when the opportunity arises.
Chad Mello: Intern-Trainee, Rusty Blackbird Project on the Tanana Flats
Chad and a swarm of bees in Khao Yai
Chad is a native Alaskan wildlife biologist who has assisted on the Black-footed Ferret Project in Phoenix, Arizona and the Pigtailed Macaque behavioral study in Khao Yai National Park, Thailand. During the years following completion of his bachelors in Biology at Pacific Lutheran University, he has also worked as a tour guide at the Phoenix Zoo and was a regular volunteer at Liberty Wildlife in Scottsdale, Arizona, where he helped care for and rehabilitate injured wild birds. His activities range from snowboarding to playing poker and craps to settling down with a Terry Pratchett book. His current plans include finding a suitable masters program, with the long-term goal of earning a PhD in wildlife biology and working in either Alaska’s wildlife management sector, or teaching at a university. He is currently planning out a series of children’s books that will give pre-schoolers a grasp of concepts including evolution, mutualism vs parasitism, and the differences between meiosis and mitosis.
Sally Anderson: Field Biologist, Rusty Blackbird Project on the Tanana Flats
Sally is a field research biologist and a lifelong resident of Fairbanks. She has a Master’s Degree in Botany from the University of Vermont and completed her graduate work in 2005 studying songbird use of riparian habitats in Gates of the Arctic National Park. She has worked all over Alaska as a field biologist, but as mother to 4 year old Leo and 2 year old Nolan, she is keeping a little closer to home these days. She is assisting with the Rusty Blackbird studies this summer by locating and monitoring nests in and around the Fairbanks area. In addition to working for the Bird Observatory, she is the Project Coordinator for the Chena Flats Greenbelt Project, a wetlands conservation initiative of the Interior Alaska Land Trust.
Tim Sharp: Intern-Trainee Migration Monitoring Station (EPSCoR Program)
Tim is a senior at the University of Alaska Fairbanks in the wildlife biology program. He was born in California but considers himself an Alaskan and is enjoying his first summer in the Interior. Last summer he worked as an intern at the Wildlife Science Center in Forest Lake, Minnesota, where he was a camp counselor and also helped feed and clean up after several different wild animals at the sanctuary, including wolves, bears, and several species of raptors. He is helping band birds at the banding station and afterward will be aiding Lila Tauzer on her point count surveys. After he graduates he plans on returning to school for his Masters, potentially at UAF. He is interested in rock climbing, guitar, music, and field work of any kind.
Cheyanna Swisher: Intern-Trainee Migration Monitoring Station (EPSCoR Program)
Born and raised in Alaska, Cheyanna is now beginning her bachlor’s degree in wildlife biology. She always had a love for animals, having numerous personal relationships with animals, she always knew she wanted to work with them. Unsure of where to start she decided to try and work with birds starting out as an ABO intern, luckily she found an opening with Sue Guers and after with Lila Tauzer. In the mean time, Cheyanna is taking care of her beloved and precious pets, participating in her church activites and dancing at Mo Holland’s Dance Studio.
