Hi,

I am a Ph.D. student researching causes for the population decline in American Oystercatchers in Virginia. I am using a combination of behavioral observations on foraging and chick provisioning with GPS tracking and environmental sampling to see how foraging habitat quality may play a role.

I set up a crowdfunding campaign https://gofund.me/eeb0bb64 to raise money for GPS trackers for oystercatchers in my study population. I wondered if you could share the link to the crowdfunding campaign with your contacts to help spread the word?

American Oystercatchers are a charismatic bird with a bright red bill and goofy gait. Since 2016 the important Virginia population has been steeply dropping. The GPS trackers will help us identify when and where individuals go to feed, and prioritize important foraging areas for oyster reef restoration. They can advance our knowledge about the foraging ecology for this species including providing more information on nocturnal foraging habits as well as foraging range, and relate this to breeding success. I have funding for travel, a research assistant, etc., but need additional money for the expensive GPS trackers. Our goal is to raise $10,000, so that we can deploy 10 GPS trackers this summer. 

More information about the research can be found at https://lbrow43.wixsite.com/oystercatcher.

Many thanks,

Lyn Brown