Great Hollow Publishes Research on Migratory Birds

Since 2012, Great Hollow’s Executive Director, Dr. Chad Seewagen, has been collaborating with researchers from the New Jersey Meadowlands Commission to study the use of reclaimed landfills as surrogate habitat by grassland and shrubland birds. Each spring and fall for 3 years, the research team captured migrating songbirds that had chosen the former Erie Landfill as a spot to rest and refuel before continuing their journey to their southern wintering grounds or northern breeding grounds. Data on the birds’ age, sex, body size, weight, and size of their energy stores were collected and the birds were then promptly released. With these data, the team could investigate how long the birds remained at the site, what energetic condition they were in, and whether or not they were able to refuel and gain weight during the stopover, among other things. Two articles on this research are forthcoming in the peer-reviewed science journals, Northeastern Naturalist and the Wilson Journal of Ornithology. The articles, which can be accessed here, represent Great Hollow’s second and third contribution to the peer-reviewed literature.