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Goldenrod
photo: Goldenrod Foundation
Residency

The Goldenrod Foundation provides residency opportunities at its field station on Plymouth Beach for scientists, photographers, filmmakers, environmental educators and others whose professional work supports the Foundation’s mission.

 
   
Edmund Prescottano
Edmund Prescottano
Artist in Residence 2012

Edmund Prescottano is a graduate of the Ohio State University where he received a Bachelor of Science in Agriculture in 1967 and a Doctor of Veterinary Medicine in 1971.  After graduation, he completed an internship and residency program at the Angell Memorial Animal Hospital in Boston.  Edmund then went on to a career in small animal veterinary medicine as owner of the Commonwealth Veterinary Hospital in Newton, Massachusetts from 1977 to 2007. 

After retirement, Edmund became an avid photographer with interests in wildlife, nature and landscape.  He has photographed in Alaska and western and southwestern United States, attending numerous workshops where he developed his skills.  Edmund has always had a keen interest in wildlife and bird behavior and has applied that to his photography.  Edmund is now spending the year documenting the flora, fauna and human use of Plymouth Long Beach as the 2012 Goldenrod Foundation Artist in Residence.

To see some of Edmunds images from Plymouth Beach, click here >

   
eduardo-del-solar
Robin Casioppo

Robin is a candidate for a Masters of Environmental Studies in the Conservation Biology program at Antioch University New England. While resident at the Goldenrod field station, she is observing Least Tern breeding on Plymouth Beach. Working under the supervision of Jonathan Atwood, PhD Robin plans to conduct research later this year at Least Tern wintering grounds.  She graduated from Plymouth State College with a BS in Environmental Biology in 2003.  Robin first became interested in birds at a young age, having spent most of her free time outside in nature.  She has mainly studied migrant songbirds in New Hampshire and Puerto Rico, and is now excited to expand her knowledge to include coastal avian species.  As her love of birds has grown, so has her passion for the conservation of the habitats in which they reside. 
 
eduardo-del-solar
Eduardo del Solar
Artist in Residence 2011

Eduardo del Solar, a nature and wildlife photographer is a 2011 Goldenrod Foundation Artist in Residence. Born and raised in Lima, Peru, del Solar lives in the Boston area where he has taught in the Boston Public School System for over 25 years.Using the Goldenrod field station as a base, Eduardo is documenting seasonal cycles of Plymouth Long beach, capturing images of wildlife, people and natural processes of the coastal environment. A typical day of photography may result in dozens of images taken in all kinds of weather, at different times of day and under variable lighting conditions, on the beach or from his kayak. In addition to his work on Plymouth Beach, Eduardo is engaged in a three-to-five-year Birds of the Americas project that has taken him to Peru, Costa Rica, Hawaii and the Galapagos Islands. He is photographing birds that are common from New England to Peru and species that migrate within the hemisphere. To see some of his images from Plymouth Beach, click on the link below.

Photographs taken by Eduardo on Plymouth Beach in 2011 can be seen here >
   
Ian Davies

Ian Davies is a Plymouth resident and respected birder on Long Beach. Other birders across the state follow his bird sightings and counts on Massbird and other blogs. During the 2010 breeding and migratory season on Plymouth Beach, Ian worked as a shorebird monitor and data collector for the Goldenrod Foundation, as well as a volunteer to re-sight color-banded Roseate Terns and flagged shorebirds.

A homeschooler for his entire life, Ian lives in nearby Manomet. He spent many of his formative years volunteering, and eventually working, at the Manomet Bird Observatory. Ian is working on a degree in Wildlife Ecology and Conservation at the University of Massachusetts/Amherst. He has traveled throughout much of the Western Hemisphere –including Nicaragua, Costa Rica, Panama, Ecuador, Peru, and Chile—to pursue bird-related interests.

Photographs taken by Ian on Plymouth Beach in 2010 can be seen here >

   
 

Roseate Tern Post-breeding Staging Project

The Goldenrod Foundation supports Mass Audubon’s Coastal Waterbird Program pioneering research to learn more about post-breeding movement patterns of federally endangered Roseate Terns across Cape Cod Bay, Nantucket Sound, and Buzzards Bay. The majority of the North American population of Roseate Terns and tens of thousands of Special Concern Common Terns concentrate on just a handful of beaches in southeastern Massachusetts from late July through September before migrating to South America. The CWP research is the first study to document thousands of adult Roseate Terns and their fledglings staging on Plymouth Long Beach. CWP Field Researchers operate from the Goldenrod field station during the research period collecting data that is vital to endangered species recovery.

   
pdf 2008 SUMMARY REPORT OF ROSEATE AND COMMON TERN STAGING ON PLYMOUTH BEACH, BECKY HARRIS, PhD.
 
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Becky Harris, PhD

Becky Harris is the lead scientist for the Roseate Tern Staging Project. As Director of Mass Audubon’s Coastal Waterbird Program, she oversees protection of beach nesting birds at over 100 sites throughout southeastern Massachusetts. Prior to CWP, Becky coordinated the Seabird Ecological Assessment Network (SEANET) at Tufts Center for Conservation Medicine. She also worked for the National Audubon Society Seabird Restoration Project (Project Puffin) on islands off the coast of Maine, including one season as Island Supervisor on Matinicus Rock, where her love of seabirds was fostered. Becky received her PhD in Biology at Tufts. She serves on the international Waterbird Society Council and is on the board of the New England Society for Conservation Biology. She also holds an adjunct faculty position at Tufts Cummings School of Veterinary Medicine.
 
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M. Taylor Long

Taylor was in residence at the Goldenrod field station in late summer 2008 resighting color-banded Roseate Terns for the CWP Staging Project.Born and raised in Arizona, Taylor graduated from Middlebury College in 2007 with a BA in Environmental Studies focusing on Conservation Biology. He became passionate about avian conservation during a semester in Ecuador, conducting research on the mating behavior of the Andean Cock-of-the-Rock. After graduation, Taylor worked as a Biological Technician for the Rocky Mountain Bird Observatory, collecting data on the Northern Goshawk in Arizona and migrating shorebirds in Nebraska. In 2008, he worked for Mass Audubon as a Piping Plover monitor and later in the season as a field researcher on the Roseate Term Staging Project on Plymouth Beach. Taylor is returning to school to obtain a MA degree in Communications Design.
 
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Susan Lyons

Susan worked as a field assistant with Mass Audubon’s CWP during the summer of 2008 re-sighting color-banded Roseate Terns at Plymouth Beach and other staging sites in Massachusetts. She also studied the foraging behavior of Least Terns. Susan received Bachelors’ of Science degrees in Biological Sciences and Journalism from Ohio University in 2007. As an undergraduate, she was introduced to ecology and evolutionary biology while researching animal behavior in swordtail fish. Prior to her position at CWP, Susan worked as a Molecular Geneticist’s Research Assistant in a lab at the University of Cincinnati College of Medicine. Her areas of interest focus on animal behavior, conservation and the evolution of sexually selected traits.
Jim Fenton
Jim Fenton
Artist in Residence 2007-2008-2009

Jim Fenton, wildlife and landscape photographer is a Goldenrod Foundation Artist in Residence.  Using the Goldenrod field station as a base, Jim has created a portfolio of images of the birds of Plymouth Beach that captures the annual cycle of seasonal residents, nesting species, and long distance stopover migrants. 

Trained as a wildlife biologist, Fenton’s photography reflects a keen and patient eye, informed by knowledge of his subjects, and field observation.  The results produce intimate images of bird behavior – breeding, foraging, raising young, protecting territory, and resting for non-stop migratory flights of 3000 miles or more.

FlightPath, an exhibition of Jim’s work on Plymouth Beach opened in 2008 at Plimoth Plantation and continued through 2009.  The Goldenrod Foundation collaborated with Plimoth Plantation, Mass Audubon and Manomet Center for Conservation Sciences to create public programs during the exhibition.  

TAKING FLIGHT: PLANTATION PHOTO EXHIBIT CHRONicleS BEACH BIRDS,
WICKED LOCAL, MAY 2008

 
Rachel Nichols
Rachel Lee
Digital Photography Intern 2007

Rachel Lee is a nature and wildlife photographer who produced a photo essay on Plymouth Beach Management.  She has a BS in Wildlife Management from the University of New Hampshire, and is a graduate of the Center for Digital Imaging Arts at Boston University.

Previously, Rachel worked as a wildlife technician at MassWildlife and as a biological intern for the Eastern Massachusetts National Wildlife Refuge Complex.  She works for a local wildlife photographer while continuing her own work.

http://www.rachelleephoto.com
 
Sawn Cary

Don Crokett
Shawn Carey
Don Crockett

Migration Productions
2007
-2008

Migration Productions create high quality multimedia presentations about birds and birders. Their documentary, Looking Skyward:  A Passion for Hawk Watching won Best Film Cape Cod Section at the Woods Hole Film Festival in 2006.  Migration Productions is currently working on a new film about coastal shorebirds.  Based at the Goldenrod field station, Don Crockett and Shawn Carey shot video footage and 35 mm images on Plymouth Beach for their upcoming production.
 
www.migrationproductions.com

Shawn is a founder of Migration Productions, and provides the 35mm photography used in its productions. He is the President of the Eastern Massachusetts Hawkwatch and serves on the boards of the Brookline Bird Club and Massachusetts Audubon's Visual Arts Center.

Don Crockett started capturing birds on video in 1995 and has shot over 500 hours of bird footage since then. He was the principal videographer of bird footage for Looking Skyward.  He also is the creator of the birding web site The Virtual Birder®.
 
  Coastal Waterbird Program Interns
www.massaudubon.org/cwp/field.php

The Goldenrod Foundation has provided housing at its field station for several seasonal interns working as shorebird monitors on Plymouth Beach for the Coastal Waterbird Program of the Massachusetts Audubon Society.  
Garrett Rock
Garrett Rock
CWP Shorebird Monitor 2005

Garrett was in residence at the Goldenrod field station in the summer of 2005 as a Shorebird Monitor for the Coastal Waterbird Program of the Massachusetts Audubon Society. 

Previously, Garrett worked as a Biologist in the Missouri Ozarks for the Missouri Department of Conservation, Head Bander for Tavernier Science Center in the Florida Keys, and as a Field Technician in the Green Mountains of Vermont for Vermont Fish & Wildlife Service. Garrett graduated in May 2002 with a BA in Biology from the University of Missouri. Currently, he works as an Analytical Chemist for a contract pharmaceutical lab.  Garrett plans to return to school to pursue a Doctorate in Pharmacy.
 
Christopher Dalton

Christopher Dalton
CWP Shorebird Monitor 2004

Chris Dalton was in residence at the Goldenrod field station during the summer of 2004 as a Shorebird Monitor. He helped Town beach personnel implement a management plan to reduce human impact on the fragile beach ecosystem while maintaining traditional uses of the beach.  He monitored the beach's threatened breeding shorebirds, overseeing the fledging of Piping Plover chicks and the southernmost Arctic Terns in North America. Chris also surveyed migratory shorebirds. The data he collected will help future researchers track the declining shorebirds that use the beach as a stopover on their southbound migration.

Earlier, Chris worked with the Massachusetts Audubon Society for four years and assisted the Town of Duxbury with its Piping Plover monitoring program.

Chris graduated Phi Beta Kappa from Yale University in 2007, winning the Edgar J. Boell Biology prize for his senior thesis on cormorant predation of an endangered fish. He is currently working as an associate consultant at Axia Limited, a Boston-based strategy consulting company. He remains in touch with the Goldenrod Foundation, assisting in fieldwork and helping with the foundation's ongoing initiatives, including development of the web site.

pdf 2004 REPORT on Plymouth beach

 
Christopher Dalton
Steve Liptay
CWP Shorebird Monitor 2003

Steve Liptay was in residence at the Goldenrod field station as a Shorebird Monitor in 2003.  In addition to his fieldwork with the Massachusetts Audubon Society, Steve also produced a compilation of documents and wrote a history of the relationship between people and breeding birds on Plymouth Beach for his senior thesis.

Since graduating from Prescott College, Steve has continued working with plovers on the Gulf coast with National Audubon’s Coastal Bird Conservation Program (CBCP).  During his three field seasons with the CBCP, he helped survey hundreds of square miles of beach-nesting bird habitat along the Gulf coasts of Mexico, Texas and Louisiana.

In 2007, Steve began his Masters of Science at the Center for Environmental Policy at Bard College in New York’s Hudson Valley.

pdf 2003 REPORT on Plymouth Beach
 
Christopher Dalton
Sharyn Hood
CWP Shorebird Monitor 2002

Sharyn Hood was in residence at the Goldenrod field station during the summer and fall of 2002.  She worked as a shorebird/seabird monitor for the Coastal Waterbird Program of the Massachusetts Audubon Society. Sharyn monitored breeding Piping Plovers, as well as Least, Common, and Arctic Terns, and collected data on nesting ecology, breeding behavior and hatching success.

Throughout the fall, Sharyn collected data for a study led by Brian Harrington at Manomet Center for Conservation Sciences on the effects of human disturbance on migrating and wintering shorebirds on Plymouth Beach.

Sharyn received a Master’s degree in Wildlife and Fisheries Science from Mississippi State University in May of 2006.  Her thesis involved research on the nesting ecology of Snowy and Wilson’s Plovers in south Texas. Currently, she works as a Wildlife Biologist with the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission.
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