New Mexico Ornithological Society
2007 Grant Awards

2007 RYAN BEAULIEU RESEARCH GRANT AWARDS

The NMOS Research Grants Committee is pleased to announce the two recipients of the 2007 Ryan Beaulieu Research Grants. Each will receive $1000 to support their research on New Mexico birds.

1. John P. DeLong, Eagle Environmental, Inc., Albuquerque, NM Using DNA to document prey selection in migrating hawks - We know that mortality rates of some birds reach their highest levels during migration. The ability to find food and avoid predators while migrating is crucial to long-term survival. This project addresses the need for more information about predator-prey relationships between migrating raptors and songbirds in high-elevation habitats such as the Sandia and Manzano mountains. Research on migrant hawks and songbirds has been ongoing in this area since 1985 and 2000 respectively. Since 2003 these researchers have been collecting prey feathers from the talons of migrating Sharp-shinned Hawks, Cooper’s Hawks, and Merlins at Capilla Peak in the Manzano Mountains. They have also collected “reference” feathers from potential prey species during the songbird banding operations; “reference” feather DNA can be used to identify prey feathers. This NMOS grant will fund analysis of the prey feather samples. These results will help answer the following questions: (1) What prey speciesdo Sharp-shinned and Cooper’s hawks and Merlins select when migrating through the mountains of central New Mexico? (2) Is prey selection proportional to prey species abundance, or is there greater selection of certain species? (3) Do different-sized hawks select different prey? and (4) Do young hawks select different prey than adults?

2. David J. Griffin, Griffin Biological Services, Las Cruces, NM Continued bird surveys in the higher elevations of the Big Burro Mountains, Grant County, New Mexico - David presented a paper at the 2007 Annual Meeting presenting results from his previous surveys during fall migration in the Big Burro Mountains, and demonstrating the need for additional baseline information about bird communities using this little-studied area during winter, spring migration, and summer (breeding season). This project will focus on filling in some of the blanks in our knowledge. The proposal suggests that point transect surveys be conducted at previously surveyed points during some or all of the migration, winter, and summer breeding seasons, depending on funding. These surveys will answer questions about the composition of the winter bird community in the Big Burros as well as the habitats they use, whether some species migrate south or remain in the winter, whether the breeding bird community shows a Rocky Mountain or Sierra Madre affinity, and chronologies of migration and breeding. This NMOS grant will fund travel costs for this project.

We congratulate these two recipients and thank the other applicants for their proposals.

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New Mexico Ornithological Society 2007 Grant Awards

New Mexico Ornithological Society
2007 Grant Awards