Long Term Data on White-throated Dippers

By Betsy Ballard

Dr. Thomas Riecke will be the presenter for the May Bitterroot Audubon Society meeting. Long-term monitoring datasets have revealed that passerines are becoming smaller-bodied and longer-winged globally. In this talk, he'll use long-term data on White-throated Dippers color-banded near Zurich, Switzerland by Dr. Johann Hegelbach (University of Zurich) to explore the impacts of body size and wing length on survival and reproduction. Smaller-bodied, longer-winged dippers survive and reproduce at greater rates during warmer years. He'll also use these data to explore the consequences of mating strategies (i.e., monogamy v. polygyny) and age on reproductive success. 

Dr. Thomas Riecke’s interest in birds began while growing up in Dallas, where the metropolitan area alone has over 300 species of birds. Across Texas, species counts may number twice that many. 

After completing his Master’s degree, Dr. Riecke left the subtropical climes of eastern Texas to start PhD research on the Yukon-Kuskokwim River Delta in Western Alaska, where he worked with a population of Brant that had been observed for decades by his advisor at the University of Nevada, Reno, Dr. James Sedinger. Dr. Sedinger started collecting data on this Brant breeding colony in 1984; he and his colleagues have continued observations through the present. The project just celebrated its 40^th field season. Unfortunately, over that course of time, the researchers have watched the Brant population decline, largely due to changing habitat conditions.

At UM, Dr. Riecke will continue to collaborate on work with the Brant population in the Yukon delta, and is now also applying techniques used in his work in Texas, Alaska and the Swiss Alps, to systems here in Montana, where he and his students have started a research project on Lesser Scaup in the Centennial Valley. More generally, Dr. Riecke will serve as an invaluable resource for Montana’s wildlife ecology community. 

Please join Dr. Riecke and members and friends of Bitterroot Audubon to learn more about white-throated dippers adaptations and the impacts of body size and wing length on survival and reproduction.  This Bitterroot Audubon program will take place at our meeting, which will be held at 7PM on Monday, May 20th in the Education Building adjacent to the Slack Barn at Teller Wildlife Refuge at 1180 Chaffin Lane in Corvallis.