Tag: birds

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Midwest Fish and Wildlife Conference 2026

INHS PaCE Lab made a huge contribution to the 2026 Midwest Fish and Wildlife Conference with 10 oral presentations and 2 posters.

While two herp symposia were dominated by the PaCE Lab, “Snakes in Winter” and “Research to Inform Management: Conservation of Freshwater Turtles and Other Threatened Amphibians and Reptiles in the Midwest,” ornithologist Asya Rahlin, malacologist Sarah Douglass, and Environmental Ed Program lead Jen Mui showed that we study more than just herps in the PaCE Lab.

person presenting at conference. Slide has pictures of medical blood test devicesUBAP lead, ornithologist Anastasia Rahlin presented “Using bird blood metabolites to assess wren food limitation” in the “Emerging Technologies and the Future of Bird Conservation” symposium.

Physiological biomarkers offer an underutilized tool for understanding how birds cope with food limitation and environmental stress. Blood metabolites such as glucose, ketones, and triglycerides provide real-time indices of energetic condition that can be linked to food availability, body condition, and resilience to extreme weather events. Using rapid point-of-care devices in the field, we measured metabolite levels in Marsh and Sedge Wrens across multiple breeding seasons in Illinois wetlands. These data revealed patterns of short- and long-term food limitation, as well as blood metabolite shifts following re-nesting attempts linked to periods of heavy rainfall and drought. Integrating metabolite monitoring into field research offers new opportunities to assess habitat quality, anticipate population responses to climate extremes, and potentially link individual physiology to habitat quality and population resilience. To complement these physiological data, we are piloting using fecal metabarcoding to identify songbird insect prey and explore links between prey availability, diet composition, and food quality, with management implications for birds and pollinators. Future research will integrate field and molecular diet data with metabolite measurements to assess energetic value of insect prey, and determine whether shifts in prey availability across the Chicagoland region impact bird health and breeding activity during the breeding season. Together, these approaches demonstrate how blood metabolites, paired with emerging molecular tools, can discover links between environmental change, prey dynamics, and bird health.

person presenting at conference with slide showing bridge over a riverFreshwater Mollusk Ecology and Conservation  lead Sarah Douglass presented “A Decade of Detection: Monitoring Freshwater Mussels After Bridge Expansion” co-authored with M.J. Dreslik in the “Bridging the Divide: Wildlife Connectivity, Crossings, and the Future of Transportation Ecology in the Midwest” symposium.

Robust long-term monitoring programs are well established for certain faunal groups yet remain limited for freshwater mussels. Many freshwater mussel species are long-lived, inhabit dynamic lotic environments, and face numerous threats including water quality degradation, barriers to host fish dispersal (e.g., dams), invasive species, and habitat loss. Increasingly, mark-recapture methods are being employed to assess the effectiveness of mitigation strategies in response to anthropogenic disturbances, such as bridge construction. When such activities pose risks to mussel populations, individuals are often relocated from impact zones. Over the past decade, we have conducted long-term monitoring of a freshwater mussel population in the Kishwaukee River (northern Illinois, USA) following a bridge expansion project. Our study aimed to evaluate apparent survival, detection probability, and movement patterns of marked individuals post-construction. Our findings highlight the value of individual-based monitoring in informing conservation strategies and improving our understanding of mussel responses to anthropogenic disturbance.>/p>

EEP lead Jen Mui presented a poster “The Traveling Science Center – Bringing Science to the People for 20 Years” co-authored with Patricia Dickerson.

Since 2006, the Traveling Science Center has been delivering environmental education directly to schools and communities across Illinois. Recognizing the challenges schools face to bring students to museums and nature centers, the Illinois Natural History Survey decided to bring the field trip to the schools. Housed in a 40 foot trailer, the TSC features hands on materials, and engaging exhibits on natural history and environmental science. Our modular design allows us to easily incorporate emerging research topics and support the broader impact and citizen science goals of our researchers. Over the past 20 years we have engaged students from more than 200 communities in Illinois and we will share our methods and lessons learned.

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UBAP leader A Rahlin presents Chicagoland ornithological research

UBAP leader Anastasia Rahlin presented two talks recently.

In January Rahlin presented “Oak Masting in the Chicagoland Region” at the Cook County Forest Preserve District – Resource Management talk as part of CCFPD’s Environmental Education program.

Rahlin and collaborators have been collecting oak masting data in the Chicagoland region over a seven-year period from 2017-2023. The talk focused on data regarding northern red, white, and bur oaks and discussed the history of oak masting research, outlined potential hypotheses that explain the likelihood of mast seeding events, and explored preliminary model results linking weather factors such as temperature and precipitation to acorn masts.
This study examines the impact of oak masting on Red-headed Woodpecker populations, an acorn caching species. Preliminary analyses linking acorn masts to Red-headed Woodpecker presence/absence and whether masting influences Red-headed Woodpecker overwintering in northern Illinois sites were also discussed.
In February, Rahlin presented  “Investigating Extreme Weather Impacts on Sedge and Marsh Wren food limitation and nesting success” at the McHenry County Forest Preserve District Research Roundup talk series.
Rahlin has been examining how habitat quality and extreme weather events impact marsh and wet meadow species in northern Illinois. Her talk focused on continued efforts to monitor marsh and sedge wren body condition through wren morphometrics and blood metabolites in order to understand how the two species respond to droughts and storms. Rahlin also discussed nesting outcomes for both wren species, as well as avenues for future research.
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INHS PaCE Lab members present at The Wildlife Society meeting

Two members of the INHS PaCE Lab presented at The Wildlife Society annual conference November 5-9 in Louisville, KY.

scientific poster about point of care device to monitor birdsUBAP program leader and ornithologist Anastasia Rahlin presented a poster “Using Point of Care devices to assess Marsh and Sedge Wren food limitation”

Abstract:
Food limitation affects wildlife health and survival, may stem from differences in body condition or habitat quality between sites, and may be exacerbated by extreme weather events. Blood metabolites have previously been used as a food limitation index in birds. To assess changes in blood metabolites in marsh and sedge wrens, we used Point of Care devices to measure blood glucose, ketones, and triglyceride levels as short and long-term food limitation indices. We collected blood samples from wrens in May-August 2022 and 2023 in two Illinois DNR state parks and one dedicated conservation area in the Chicagoland Wilderness region over the duration of the breeding season. Our data indicate short-term food limitation may increase as the breeding season progresses for both Marsh and Sedge Wrens. Ongoing modeling will test whether body condition (age, fat and muscle scores), habitat quality (wetland extent and composition), or extreme weather (drought or flooding) best predicts glucose, ketone, and triglyceride levels over the course of the breeding season. Our findings will provide insights into physiological responses of sedge and marsh wrens to food limitations, and highlight the utility of using POC devices to rapidly measure blood metabolites in the field with minimal impacts to study species. An additional goal of this research is to use blood metabolite data to identify high-quality sites for migratory birds; our data will be used to evaluate the effectiveness of conservation areas at providing high-quality habitat. This work will inform wetland and wet meadow management strategies for migratory birds.

scientific poster about pond breeding amphibian egg massesARC program leader Ethan Kessler presented a poster “Reproductive output of forested ephemeral wetland-dependent amphibians across a modified landscape”

 

Abstract:
Forested ephemeral wetlands (FEW) support diverse communities of habitat specialist species across the eastern United States, including wetland-breeding amphibians (WBA). Due to their reliance upon FEW for breeding habitat, the location of FEW on the landscape influences population dynamics and distribution of WBA. Generally, FEW are difficult to detect due to their small size and position under the canopy, however, recent technological advances provide the ability to remotely detect FEW with great accuracy. Improved FEW detection methods enable a better understanding of how FEW characteristics and distribution influence WBA presence and abundance. We counted egg masses of two widespread WBA species, Spotted Salamanders and Wood Frogs, at 231 FEW on public lands in southern Illinois using a double observer methodology from 2020–2023. We then used local and landscape characteristics to predict egg mass abundance for each species. We found egg mass counts were highly correlated between observers for each species, but the presence and abundance of egg masses were not highly correlated between the two species. For Spotted Salamanders, we found a positive effect of wetland size on egg mass abundance but found no effect of canopy cover within a 200 m buffer. Conversely, for Wood Frogs we found no effect of wetland size, but egg mass abundance was positively associated with canopy cover within 200 m of FEW. Results from this study will provide a foundation for the estimation of WBA across broad geographic scales using discrete maps of FEW.

 

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Even small urban wetlands can support wetland birds

The landscape surrounding wetlands does not determine use by most wetland birds according to a new study by UBAP Ornithologist Anastasia Rahlin and collaborators Sarah P. Saunders (National Audubon) and Stephanie Beilke (Audubon Great Lakes).

The three researchers have been studying marsh birds in the Chicagoland area for the past 3 years, and their results indicate that even small scale wetland conservation in developed areas can be beneficial to many wetland birds.

Rahlin says, “to me, it’s a hopeful message that yes, restoration does work and is important even in small urban wetlands.”

Read the paper in Ecosphere
U of I News Release
Learn more about this research

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Five year, $6 million contract awarded to UBAP team

The Urban Biotic Assessment Program was awarded $6,226,400 to continue providing technical assistance to the Illinois Tollway Environmental team.

This is the third intergovernmental agreement between the INHS and the Illinois Tollway and will allow the continuation of this mutually beneficial partnership that began in 2005.

The partnership has grown from monitoring Blanding’s Turtles in the Des Plaines River Valley to a multi-disciplinary program. While the key function is to provide the ecological knowledge necessary to comply with state and federal regulations, both organizations share a goal of studying the natural resources of the region to protect them into the future.

Research projects in this new agreement include biotic surveys of each of the Tollway corridors, continuation of longterm monitoring of the Kishwaukee River mussel population, using eDNA to detect cryptic species, Rusty Patched Bumble Bee surveys, and identifying bat roost trees.

Download our report of activities from 2015-2020

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Wild Things Conference goes virtual

Asya recording dataThis year, the Wild Things Conference will be virtual and held over two weekends, with live events as well as pre-recorded talks. UBAP ornithologist Asya Rahlin and her collaborators Stephanie Beilke (Audubon Great Lakes), and Libby Keyes (Governors State University) will have a streaming session going during both weekends of the conference.

Their talk, “A New Bird Banding Station Lands in Chicago” will discuss their project establishing a bird banding station at Big Marsh in the Calumet Region.
Learn about the Chicago Ornithological Society’s bird banding station, which debuted at Big Marsh in 2020, and what they hope to find from using this new banding station to spur research and outreach in the Calumet region.

Wild Things 2021: Part 1 will take place February 19-21

Wild Things 2021: Part 2 will take place February 26-28

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UBAP Ornithologist Rahlin receives Kushlan Research Award

Black-crowned Night Heron
Black-crowned Night Heron

UBAP Ornithologist Anastasia Rahlin received the Kushlan Research Award  from the Waterbird Society to assist her research project entitled “Using environmental DNA sampling to determine heron and bittern occupancy in western and northern Michigan: a metagenomics approach.”

This work will improve knowledge of the ranges and population sizes of Black-crowned Night Herons, Yellow-crowned Night Herons, American Bitterns, and Least Bitterns and will inform conservation and management decisions for these rare and declining wetland birds.

 

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9 days, 3 conferences, 8 talks, 2 posters

It’s been a busy week of sharing science for members of the PACE lab.

The Chicago Wilderness Wildlife Committee Meeting was held at Lincoln Park Zoo on February 19th:

 

Tara Hohoff presented “The status of Illinois bats five years after confirmation of white-nose syndrome,” using data from her work with the Illinois Bat Conservation Program and the Urban Biotic Assessment Program monitoring for the Illinois Tollway.

 

Joshua Sherwood presented “Assessing the distribution and habitat of Iowa Darters (Etheostoma exile) in Illinois,” with co-authors Andrew Stites, Jeremy Tiemann, and Michael Dreslik. This work changed the way people look for the Iowa Darter.

 

Jason Robinson presented “Patterns of abundance and co-occurrence of bumblebees associated with the Rusty Patched bumblebee.” RPBB is a federally protected species found in northeastern Illinois that has experienced a decline in its range.

 

Jason Ross presented “Demographic influence of head-starting on a Blanding’s Turtle (Emydoidea blandingii) population in DuPage County, Illinois,” with co-author Michael Dreslik, discussing what amount of head-starting is needed to keep this population viable

 

The  2019 Wild Things Conference was held in Rosemont on February 23rd:

Tara Hohoff, representing the Illinois Bat Conservation Program, presented a poster “Year Three of the Illinois Bat Conservation Program.”

Anastasia Rahlin co-presented “Secretive Marsh Birds in the Big City.” with Audubon collaborator Stephanie Beilke on their ongoing work using playback to detect 17 focal wetland bird species in northeast Illinois and southeast Indiana. Soras were the most commonly detected species which was surprising/unexpected since Marsh Wrens and Swamp Sparrows are expected to be more common, and Little Blue Herons and Yellow-headed Blackbirds were the least detected which was pretty expected due to their declines. Future directions include creating species-specific occupancy models to better understand how our focal species respond to urbanization and presence of different wetland types at three different spatial scales.

Josh Sherwood presented “Current status of Bigeye Chub (Hybopsis amblops) in Illinois”.

Sarah Douglass presented “A preliminary analysis of mussel population dynamics in the Kishwaukee River.”

Jeremy Tiemann presented “Pulling the plug – Results of the fish and mussel salvage following the removal of the Danville Dam on the Vermilion River.”

Andy Stites presented a poster “Fecundity estimates of the Gravel Chub Erimystax x-punctatus“

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UBAP staff presents at Ecological Society of America

UBAP Ornithologist Anastasia Rahlin presented a poster at the Ecological Society of America conference held in Portland, Oregon from August 6th-11th. The poster reported on the environmental DNA research being conducted in collaboration with Mark Davis and Matthew Niemiller to collect presence-absence data on cryptic rails in Northern Illinois. The project is testing environmental DNA for bird detection and comparing it to traditional playback surveys.

Rahlin, A.A., M.A. Niemiller, and M.A. Davis. Using environmental DNA sampling methods to determine cryptic wetland bird occupancy in Illinois.

 

View poster