Listening to the ecology of birds

We're contracted through a company called NEON. They're doing the long term studies here. They actually do some other faunal things, like, they're checking out the ground beetles and plants here as well. Birds are just another component in the whole suite of species they're seeing, whether there's changes in climate or habitat in these areas. We do point counts. They give us grids, and we hike out to each of the points and then just listen for 6 minutes to the birds. We get some habitat data as well. We're just listening to what species are in the area. Up here there's Brown Creeper, which is normally found in higher up in Canada. Rose Breasted Grosbeak. There's a lot of Dark Eyed Junkos which is a subspecies that's endemic to the Appalachians that's very common here. A lot of Warbler species. We're listening for just any kind of the songs, or calls that they do. With all the vegetation out here, it's really hard to see them most of the time. So, I'd say probably 95% of what we're doing out here is just listening, not seeing the birds. If we do see them, of course, we get to note it down and birds and frogs are distinctive in wildlife that you actually can hear them and say they're there instead of having to catch them. As there's changes in climate and habitats, you get different birds moving in and out. And so if there's sensitive species, it's good to see, when they came in, when they are no longer in an area. It kind of bleeds into everything else because it shows what changes we're going to have to make in engineering and stuff if things do warm up and in, you know, crop rotation, that sort of thing. Not just for the wildlife, but just for the whole state and, you know, how we interact with things. I think it touches on all of that.