I am interested in the ecology of marine birds, specifically how the non-breeding season influences the summer breeding season and survivorship.  I am interested in how individual variation may influence behavior as well as how behavior varies between males and females.  I will continue to pursue my interest in individual foraging strategies through my continuing involvement with a study GPS tagging Thick-billed Murres and Black-legged Kittiwakes on the Pribilof Islands.  This study is part of the larger Bering Sea Integrated Ecosystem Research Project (http://bsierp.nprb.org/).  Details of the fieldwork were described by Tom Hartin a PolarTrec teacher that joined the project during the summer of 2009 (http://www.polartrec.com/seabird-ecology-in-the-bering-sea). 

My masters thesis research will focus on the winter migrations of two piscivorous species, Black-legged Kittiwakes and Thick-billed Murres, nesting at three Bering Sea colonies (St. Paul, St. George, & Bogoslof Island).  Geolocation loggers deployed and retrieved during the summer breeding season will provide the foundation of this work.  I hope to (1) investigate the variability of winter migrations both intra and inter-annually (2) determine winter marine habitat use and (3) connect these variables to general attributes of diet such as winter tropic level using stable isotope analysis of feather samples. 

Prior to coming to UCSC I was involved in a number of projects investigating seabird foraging ecology.  This includes a comparative study of Little Auks (alle alle) summer breeding biology between a colony in Eastern Greenland and colonies located in Spitzbergen, Norway and three seasons working with NOAA’s Antarctic Ecosystem Research Division investigating the foraging ecology of chinstrap (Pygoscelis antarctica) and gentoo (P. papua) penguins.