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CCB Graduate Student, Elizabeth Long
Peregrine falcons' affect on their prey species
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Graduate student, Elizabeth Long, holds an adult peregrine falcon in a marsh on Virginia's Barrier Islands. |
When you began your graduate work at The College of William & Mary, how did you decide to work with Dr. Bryan Watts at The Center for Conservation Biology (CCB)?
I started my graduate work in the fall of 2003. One of the reasons I started looking at William and Mary in the first place was because of the work Bryan and The Center for Conservation Biology had been doing on peregrine falcons. I’m an avid rock climber, and for a long time there have been conflicts with climbers and peregrines using the same cliffs. I was excited about working with a system that would be relevant to my non-academic life, and CCB has been involved in peregrine work for decades now, so it seemed like a good fit.
Where had you completed your undergraduate studies, and what was your concentration/major study?
I graduated from the University of Richmond with a Bachelor’s Degree in Biology. My course of study there was much more heavily oriented toward molecular biology than what I hoped to study (and did study) at William & Mary.
Describe the research you undertook to earn your Masters Degree.
Breeding peregrine falcons went extinct in the eastern United States during the middle of the 20th century, largely due to DDT poisoning. The birds were successfully re-introduced, but in Virginia and most of the mid-Atlantic their nesting grounds are no longer predominantly on cliffs, but on man-made towers and structures in the coastal plain.
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Elizabeth checks a peregrine nest as she hangs beneath the James River Bridge. |
Since the peregrine falcon’s diet is almost exclusively made up of other birds, this has set up a conservation conflict between peregrines and their prey species, many of which may be of conservation concern. I looked at this conflict and tried to assess the direct impacts of peregrines on their potential prey species. I did this by collecting prey remains from peregrine nests, and using cameras on nests to identify prey items. Then I used peregrine nestling growth estimates along with survey data on population size to extrapolate how much of each species they were eating.
One of the hardest parts of this project was getting the timing organized: there’s a very short window when nests can be accessed, without potentially harming the birds, and that has to be coordinated with landowner schedules, weather forecasts, tide changes (many of the nests are on barrier islands along the Delmarva Peninsula), and researcher schedules. If I forgot something as simple as a screwdriver, it could set back research at that nest for a week, or even cause me to miss it for the whole season. Even so, it was an amazing experience to see those birds in that environment. I feel very fortunate to have had the opportunity to work on this project.
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Elizabeth holds a peregrine chick hatched on the James River Bridge. |
What lead you to choose the research topic that you pursued for your Masters Degree, and how did it change or develop over time?
When I came to work with Bryan, I knew that I wanted to work with peregrine falcons. After talking to Bryan and other researchers at CCB, there were really two topics pertaining to peregrines that interested me most and seemed to be the most important. The first has to do with the presence of brominated flame retardants in the food chain that are having detrimental effects on many species (reminiscent of DDT poisoning).
I started-out planning to work on this question from the perspective of peregrine diet, and that is what prompted me to start collecting prey remains at nests. After spending some time out on the Eastern Shore with a lot of biologists who studied endangered shorebirds, my project ultimately morphed into the other question, which is ‘how much impact are these re-introduced peregrines having on these conservation-sensitive prey species?’
What was the biggest challenge that you encountered when working through your graduate research?
For me, the biggest challenge was keeping the logistics of my project organized: definitely not my strong suit. There were so many details involved in the day-by-day stuff, not to mention in the long-term realization of completing the research. In the long run, it was a great experience and helped me out tremendously when I started my Ph.D. work.
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Elizabeth Long prepares a caliper to take beak and talon measurements on a peregrine falcon chick and gently measures the chick's wing chord, Metompkin Island, Virgnia Barrier Islands |
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How did working with Dr. Watts and CCB affect your thesis work?
Simply put, this project would have been impossible without the help of Dr. Bryan Watts, Dr. Mitchell Byrd, and everyone at The Center for Conservation Biology (CCB). CCB has laid the groundwork for this and other peregrine-related studies through decades of work on peregrines in Virginia and the
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Elizabeth readies her research equipment beneath a peregrine tower in an Eastern Shore Barrier Island marsh. Metompkin Island, Virginia's Barrier Islands |
mid-Atlantic. CCB has the personnel and the resources necessary to make the study feasible, and all of the researchers at CCB, but especially Drs. Watts and Byrd have a tremendous amount of knowledge about the ecosystem.
In addition to helping me with my Masters work, I was also exposed to the other studies being conducted by CCB staff. Sometimes it just involved listening to someone recount their day of banding red-cockaded woodpeckers, while other times I got to go out in the field and help out with a project, even if just for a day. These were highly valuable experiences, and helped instill in me a respect for the dedication and work ethic of the researchers and staffers at CCB.
Do you have any advice to prospective biology graduate students?
I think the most important thing for any new graduate student is to make sure you are doing something that you love. No matter how exciting and well-planned your project seems, there will be setbacks. If you are not totally dedicated to what you are doing, those setbacks become harder to overcome. Whether those setbacks are in the form of project logistics or a skeptical faculty committee member, you have to be your own biggest advocate, and you won’t be if you don’t love what you do. It’s also important to remember how lucky we are to be able to do something we love so much. I was recently at an event comprised mostly of people who had what I think of as ‘real jobs’- bankers, lawyers, doctors, etc. - and they were so fascinated by what I spend my days doing. Sometimes I lose sight of that, since I’m surrounded by scientists all day, but it really is a gift to be able to spend my life doing something that gives me so much enjoyment- certainly not everyone can say that about their job.
Given hypothetical additional time & resources to do further research relating to your Masters Thesis, or a study that would continue your research in some way, describe what lines of inquiry you would decide to follow and what you would hope to find.
I think it would be really valuable to find out to what extent peregrines are having indirect effects on their prey. I only looked at the direct effect (i.e. the percentage of a population that were preyed upon by peregrines) but that is by no means the only detrimental consequence of sharing a habitat with peregrine falcons. These prey species must be losing foraging time and expending extra energy just trying to evade predators. This could also result in time spent away from the nest, leaving their young vulnerable, or making them more susceptible to other predators.
Where are you currently, what are you doing, and how did your Masters Degree in Biology help you in this position?
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Elizabeth carefully measures a peregrine chick's beak, while sitting atop one of the peregrine towers on the Eastern Shore of Virginia. |
I’m at the University of California Davis pursing a Ph.D. in Ecology. I spend a good chunk of my spring and summer chasing checkerspot butterflies around in the hills, mountains, and canyons of the west- not too bad of a way to spend one’s time! In the fall and winter I do lab work. I’m interested in the genetics of a mimicry system that’s present in several closely-related species of butterflies.
Having a Master’s Degree in Biology from William & Mary helped me immensely. The coursework at William & Mary is pretty rigorous, and thus it prepared me very well for classes at U.C. Davis. There were also a lot of faculty members at William & Mary who taught me a lot about what it means to be a grad student and how to get into and succeed in a PhD program. From talking to my peers at Davis and students at other institutions whom I’ve met at conferences, I think that William & Mary sets a pretty high standard for its Master of Science
(M. S.) students. The biggest benefit, though, would have to be what I learned during my M. S. work. I learned what is involved in carrying out a research project, how to manage the myriad of details involved, and to try to anticipate problems. It’s impossible to predict every problem that might be encountered, but at least I learned how important it is to have a back-up plan.
PDF of Elizabeth's thesis:
Links related to peregrine falcon research:
Successful 2009 peregrine falcon breeding season
May-Aug 2009 issue of Conservation Cornerstones >>
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