{"id":39,"date":"2019-04-25T07:35:01","date_gmt":"2019-04-25T11:35:01","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/sites.une.edu\/perlutlab\/?page_id=39"},"modified":"2026-02-11T14:47:20","modified_gmt":"2026-02-11T19:47:20","slug":"students","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/sites.une.edu\/perlutlab\/students\/","title":{"rendered":"Students"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n\t
\n\t\t\"Claire\n\t\t

Claire Huff<\/h3>\t\t

MS Biological Science<\/h5>\n\t\t
<\/i><\/a><\/div>\t\t

Starting in summer of 2025, Claire explores the breeding and migratory ecology of Savannah Sparrows and Bobolinks at the Hudson Valley Farm Hub in Hurley, NY, using geolocators to try to unravel some of the mysteries of why they winter where they do. She came to UNE from her home state of Texas, where she earned a BS in Wildlife & Fisheries Science from Texas A&M University.<\/p>\n<\/div>\t<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

\n\t
\n\t\t\"Emma\n\t\t

Emma Lake<\/h3>\t\t

BS Environmental Science (2026)<\/h5>\n\t\t
<\/i><\/a><\/div>\t\t

Emma joined the lab in the 2025 summer, working in Vermont, studying Bobolinks and Savannah Sparrows.\u00a0 She received a highly competitive SURE fellowship from the College of Arts & Sciences to explore if Bobolinks as changing their wintering location (moving north) with increasing climate change.\u00a0 She is using our archival geolocator database from 2009 to 2025.\u00a0 Stay tuned!<\/p>\n<\/div>\t<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

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\n\t\t\"\"\n\t\t

Rachel Deren<\/h3>\t\t

4+1, BS\/MS Environmental Science (2027)<\/h5>\n\t\t
<\/i><\/a><\/div>\t\t

Rachel came to UNE loving reptiles and amphibians and she is going to graduate from UNE loving reptiles and amphibians even more (if that is possible).\u00a0 Rachel is a 4+1 student, using Big Night<\/a> data to understand the distribution and habitat selection of four-toed salamanders in Maine.<\/p>\n<\/div>\t<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n

Lab Alumni<\/p>\n\n\n

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\n\t\t\"\"\n\t\t

Katie McGee<\/h3>\t\t

MS Biological Sciences (2025)<\/h5>\n\t\t
<\/i><\/a><\/div>\t\t

Katie joined the lab and UNE in the 2022 summer, diving into grassland songbird research.\u00a0 Her thesis will focus on climate change, using tracking technologies, spatial analysis and molecular tools to ask interesting questions about the past, present and future of migratory songbirds.\u00a0 For the 2023 field season, Katie received a grant from the Nuttall Ornithological Club<\/a> to advance her molecular work with Bobolinks, assessing relatedness.\u00a0 She is a James Madison University alumni (woop woop!).\u00a0 Katie graduated in May 2025.<\/p>\n<\/div>\t<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

\n\t
\n\t\t\"Alexa\n\t\t

Alexa Beyrouty<\/h3>\t\t

BS Environmental Science (2025)<\/h5>\n\t\t
<\/i><\/a><\/div>\t\t

Alexa, originally from the St. Louis region, joined the lab in the 2024 summer, diving into field-based grassland songbird research in Vermont.\u00a0 She spent the summer chasing Bobolinks and Savannah Sparrows, nest searching and banding.\u00a0 Back on campus, Alexa explored population growth of these species, trying to understand if bird-friendly grassland management practices have slowed (or ended!) the rate of population decline on our study fields as compared to the state or distribution-wide rate.\u00a0 Alexa now works as an environmental scientist for Roeslein & Associates in St. Louis, MO.<\/p>\n<\/div>\t<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n\n\n

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\n\t\t\"\"\n\t\t

Zishi (Violet) Wu<\/h3>\t\t

MS Biological Sciences (2025)<\/h5>\n\t\t
<\/i><\/a><\/div>\t\t

Violet joined the lab in 2023 summer, studying the breeding and migration ecology of an isolated and newly established population of Bobolinks nesting on the Hudson Valley Farm Hub<\/a> in Hurley, NY.\u00a0 So excited to have her on the team!\u00a0 She earned her bachelors degree from the University of California Davis in the spring 2023 term.\u00a0 Violet was featured in this absolutely <\/a>wonderful piece as part of a Portraits of Women in Ecology story for the Hudson Valley Farm Hub.\u00a0 Violet graduated in May 2025.<\/p>\n<\/div>\t<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

\n\t
\n\t\t\"Peyton\n\t\t

Peyton Stevens<\/h3>\t\t

BS Animal Behavior and Environmental Science (2025)<\/h5>\n\t\t
<\/i><\/a><\/div>\t\t

Peyton, a Texas native, joined the grassland songbird research project in the 2022 summer.\u00a0 She quickly became a nesting finding extraordinaire.\u00a0 For the 2023 field season, Peyton received a grant from the Nuttall Ornithological Club<\/a> and a SURE (Summer Undergraduate Research Experience<\/a>) Fellowship to track the survival and movement of juvenile Bobolinks with the Motus netwerk<\/a>. Big things to come from Peyton!<\/p>\n<\/div>\t<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

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\n\t\t\"\"\n\t\t

Holly Stone<\/h3>\t\t

BS Environmental Science (2024)<\/h5>\n\t\t
<\/i><\/a><\/div>\t\t

Holly came to UNE with a deep passion for birds and joined the grassland songbird project in 2022.\u00a0 Holly earned a SURE (Summer Undergraduate Research Experience<\/a>) Fellowship from the College of Arts & Sciences at UNE.\u00a0 She is leading a project on Bobolink migration, using nanotags (tiny tracking devices) linked to the Motus<\/a> network.\u00a0 We deployed tags on Shelburne Farms and 60 miles north in the Missisqoui National Wildlife Refuge<\/a>–and colleagues deployed tags in SE Pennsylvania and central Maine.<\/p>\n<\/div>\t<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

\n\t
\n\t\t\"Emma\n\t\t

Emma White<\/h3>\t\t

MS Biological Sciences<\/h5>\n\t\t
<\/i><\/a><\/div>\t\t

Emma White<\/a>‘s thesis–An investigation into extrapair paternity and juvenile survival in Bobolinks (Dolichonyx oryzivorus<\/em>)–explored what factors explain a Bobolink’s probability of surviving from year to year. Emma used everything we know about individual birds that return to breed where they were born, ranging from their parents genetics, to their reproductive history. Her work is the first to genotype Bobolinks. She also taught the Museum Specimen Prep class at UNE.\u00a0 Emma defended her Master’s thesis on Jan 22, 2020 and both of her thesis chapters were published<\/a>.<\/p>\n<\/div>\t<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

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\n\t\t\"\"\n\t\t

Xander Vitarelli<\/h3>\t\t

BS Environmental Science (2022)<\/h5>\n\t\t
<\/i><\/a><\/i><\/a><\/div>\t\t

Xander joined the Perlut Lab in the Spring 2020 term to lead a new wing of the grassland bird project.\u00a0 His work compares Bobolink movement ecology by a small isolated population at the Hudson Valley Farm Hub<\/a>, NY, with our long-term study population in Shelburne, VT.\u00a0 When not birding in his home woods of Central Park, NYC, Xander is a super talented photographer and cross country runner.\u00a0 Xander graduated in the Spring 2022 term and flew directly to Panama to put his ornithological career in high gear and spent the 2023 summer in Montana working with grassland birds.<\/p>\n<\/div>\t<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

\n\t
\n\t\t\"\"\n\t\t

Maeve McGowan<\/h3>\t\t

BS Environmental Science, dual minors in Climate Change Studies and Political Science<\/h5>\n\t\t
<\/i><\/a><\/div>\t\t

Maeve McGowan<\/a> uses data collected from 2002 to 2018 to explain how phenological shifts caused by climate change on the wintering grounds affected variation in nest initiation dates of Bobolinks and Savannah Sparrows breeding in agricultural fields of Vermont.\u00a0 See her fantastic poster from the 2019 Northeast Natural History Conference here<\/a> and the manuscript we published here<\/a>.<\/p>\n<\/div>\t<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

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\n\t\t\"\"\n\t\t

Olivia Scott<\/h3>\t\t

BS Environmental Science and Biology<\/h5>\n\t\t
<\/i><\/a><\/div>\t\t

Olivia joined the lab for the 2019 field season and is leading the dive into our Savannah Sparrow geolocator data, which details where the birds spent their non-breeding period.\u00a0 Her first project–published in Avian Ecology and Conservation<\/a>–explored how migration and wintering location affected breeding success.\u00a0 She transitioned to exploring how reproductive effort and success changes of a individuals lifetime.\u00a0 Olivia is also a seriously amazing potter!<\/p>\n<\/div>\t<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

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\n\t\t\"\"\n\t\t

Emma Burke<\/h3>\t\t

BS Environmental Studies<\/h5>\n\t\t
<\/i><\/a><\/div>\t\t

Emma first joined the lab for the 2019 field season and is interested in variation in male Bobolink morphology, especially in how the size of their yellow cap varies.\u00a0 She used these morphometrics to see how they influence annual survival (manuscript currently in review).\u00a0 Emma was also a member of the UNE gymnastics team.\u00a0 She graduated in Spring 2022 and headed directly to grad school.<\/p>\n<\/div>\t<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

\n\t
\n\t\t\"\"\n\t\t

Kylee DiMaggio<\/h3>\t\t

BS Environmental Science and Marine Science<\/h5>\n\t\t
<\/i><\/a><\/div>\t\t

Kylee DiMaggio<\/a> quantified within- and between-year divorce rates of two grassland songbird species, Bobolinks and Savannah Sparrows. This work, Mixed consequences of divorce on reproductive success of songbirds nesting in agricultural hayfields, published in the Wilson Journal of Ornithology<\/a>, determined if divorce rates differed after haying or predation-caused nest failure and, if so, whether divorce influenced reproductive success.\u00a0 See her award winning poster from the 2019 Northeast Natural History Conference here<\/a>. Kylee graduated in May 2019 with a double major in Environmental Science and Marine Science.\u00a0 She started her MS studies at the University of Florida in the Fall 2020 term.<\/p>\n<\/div>\t<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

\n\t
\n\t\t\"\"\n\t\t

Kady Winsor<\/h3>\t\t

BS Environmental Science, minor in Art<\/h5>\n\t\t
<\/i><\/a><\/div>\t\t

Kady Winsor<\/a> joined the Perlut lab after her first year, working on the Biological Control of Mosquito Project in 2016.\u00a0 After a travel class to Iceland, she joined the grassland bird crew in Vermont in 2018 and again in 2019.\u00a0 Kady graduated in Dec 2018.<\/p>\n<\/div>\t<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n

\n\t
\n\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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