iEcoLab graduate student Timothy Swartz had his field work plans derailed by COVID-19, but he’s still had quite a busy summer! Timothy originally planned on getting back out in the field like last year in order to collect new data on birds in Philadelphia. Instead, he’s been using his time inside to plan for next year’s field season. He’s been working on some key steps to make sure things go as smoothly as possible. This includes gathering permits and institutional approvals for his second dissertation chapter. He plans to conduct some feeding experiments next summer, so stay tuned for those results! Additionally, Timothy has been devoted to finishing up his first dissertation chapter on community-scale functional diversity of urban green space birds. He presented his main findings of this chapter at the IALE-NA virtual meeting back in May.
In addition to his own dissertation work, Timothy has been working with Dr. Behm, Payton and several awesome undergraduate students on a new project. This is a collaborative urban ecology project that we hope to provide information on in the near future! Timothy says “Maria, Ben, and Gianna have been amazing! Their enthusiasm and hard work have built a really solid foundation for the project and I look forward to seeing where the fall semester takes it.”