University of Connecticut graduate student Jason Hill is using the land trust’s Jared Eliot property along the West River to study Saltmarsh Sharptailed Sparrows, a species of special concern in Connecticut. After locating the birds’ nests, Hill attaches tiny transmitters to the female sparrow and one of her young so he can track the birds after the young, who cannot yet fly, fledge from the nest.
Saltmarsh Sharp-tailed Sparrow (photo by Jason Hill)
“Because Saltmarsh Sharp-tailed Sparrows spend much of their time on the ground in dense vegetation, these transmitters allow me to locate and follow the daily movements of individuals, to record their use of very specific habitat features, and calculate the probability of survival for both adult females and the fledglings,” Hill said. “It is a dangerous time for the young birds as they learn to forage for themselves, avoid predation and drowning and fatten up for their first migration.”
Hill also bands all the birds he locates to add to our knowledge of the sparrows. He notes that New England has lost 80 percent of its historic salt marshes, which provide important habitat for numerous birds, fish and invertebrates. The Saltmarsh Sharptailed Sparrows are only found in salt marshes and more than half of their entire population is estimated to nest in New England.
