Growing up in the heart of one of the largest cities in the US didn’t stop Emily from finding her love for nature and wildlife. Through volunteering for wetland restoration projects in urban settings, she discovered a passion for conservation-focused research that benefits people and wildlife. She got her bachelor’s degree in Wildlife Biology from Texas State University and developed a particularly strong interest in birds. She has worked on a variety of research projects focused on conservation and birds, including wetland restoration ecology and nest box monitoring for several species of cavity-nesting birds.

Which migrating and wintering birds of the Chihuahuan Desert grasslands utilize livestock tanks, and what characteristics of livestock tanks relate to bird diversity and abundance? Emily’s project seeks to answer that question by conducting bird surveys, placing acoustic recording units, and measuring environmental characteristics such as brush cover and soil invertebrate density. She will also be placing GPS trackers on one particular grassland bird species, the long-billed curlew, to discover how they might be using livestock tanks and to better understand how some individuals overwinter in the Chihuahuan Desert. Many grassland bird species are undergoing steep population declines. So, understanding their use of resources, particularly along their migration routes and in their wintering habitats, may help us to conserve these imperiled species.