Authors of "Life Along the Delaware Bay" next guests on BirdCallsRadio

The authors of “Life Along the Delaware Bay: Cape May, Gateway to a Million
Shorebirds,” will be the next guests on BirdCallsRadio. Dr. Lawrence Niles, Dr. Joanna Burger, and Dr. Amanda Dey have worked extensively with the birds _ especially shorebirds _ of the Delaware Bay and have written a fascinating and exceedingly informative book about the area and its importance to birds.

This special BirdCallsRadio will air from 1 to 2 p.m. on Sunday, Aug. 5, at 1490 WGCH and WORLDWIDE Internet Streaming on  “Listen Live”

The authors take a long look at the relationship between Red Knots and Horseshoe Crabs and I’m sure that topic will come up. Each chapter of their book covers a different aspect of the Delaware Bay and we’ll discuss as many as possible.

Dr. Lawrence Niles began his career as a biologist in South Carolina working on Red Cockaded Woodpeckers, songbirds and wild hogs.  He spent five years with the Georgia Division Fish and Wildlife as the regional biologist in charge of the Okefenokee Swamp Region where he worked on deer, bears and alligators. The majority of Larry’s career, 25 years, however, was spent working for the New Jersey Division of Fish and Wildlife, first as a biologist then as chief of the Endangered and Nongame Species Program.   In 2006, he retired from the State and started his own company to pursue independent research and management projects on shorebird ecology and conservation and habitat conservation through planning and restoration.

Larry is a member of the National Shorebird Council, the Executive Board of the Western Hemisphere Shorebird Reserve Network and the Adaptive Resource Management Committee of the Atlantic States Marine Fish Commission.

Dr. Amanda Dey began her career at Hawk Mountain Sanctuary, PA, and Hubbard Brook Experimental Forest, NH, studying the breeding ecology of forest-interior songbirds. As a Principal Zoologist with the New Jersey Division of Fish and Wildlife’s Endangered and Nongame Species Program, Mandy has spent the last 18 years focused on research and management of the State’s neotropical migrant songbirds and migratory shorebirds on Delaware Bay.

On the Delaware Bay she has led one of the most intensive shorebird studies in the Western Hemisphere.  The project includes surveys, stewardship programs, citizen science training as well as one of the most technically-advanced research efforts including the use of sophisticated population modeling, GIS mapping and remote tracking devices (geolocators).

Amanda is a member of the Atlantic Flyway Council and the Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission’s Delaware Bay Ecosystem Technical Committee.

Dr. Joanna Burger is a Distinguished Professor of Biology at Rutgers University. In 2008, she received the Distinguished Achievement Award, the highest award for Society of Risk Analysis; and in 2009, she won the Brewster Medal, the highest award in the world for ornithology.

Joanna has written or edited more than 20 books in social behavior, chemicals in the environment, environmental and energy solutions, and bird behavior, and published more than 500 papers in peer-reviewed journals.

Joanna operates in several different fields, including ecology, animal behavior, ornithology, herpetology, conservation, ecotoxicology, environmental risk assessment, and human health risk evaluations.  She has taught ecology, evolution, behavior, and ecological risk assessment at Rutgers, and has mentored graduate students in these fields.

Joanna has had a 35 year study of population dynamics, conservation, and contaminant levels in terns in Barnegat Bay.  This is the longest running such study in the US.   Over the years, this work led to the listing of Least Terns, Black Skimmers and Pine Snakes as endangered in New Jersey, and Roseate Tern as federally endangered.

Be sure to tune in Sunday for what promises to be a very informative show. Thanks for supporting BirdCallsRadio.